Feed Companies and price increases ?

[TCA_Arabians]

The $18.99 bale price I mentioned was for alfalfa. Beautiful, small stems, flakes perfectly alfalfa. 3-way is usually cheaper here. I can’t get any right now. Hoping it will come in soon. We feed a mix of both when available.

Our horses have only been boarded when in training. (Them and me.) I’ve only been at one barn where you brought your feed in. Most would charge extra for anything over a basic diet. That was fine with me. I love my feed store. She knows exactly what I like and what will go back if I don’t.

A lot of the U.S. alfalfa crop is exported. I assumed that our domestic prices would go down with the tariffs. I haven’t seen that happen.

[candyappy]

@Palm Beach

I just don’t get why barns won’t feed hay and pass the charge along to the owners. I have not boarded in decades, but I do recall one year there was a hay surcharge, and it was common knowledge that hay prices were way up that year. I’d rather pay extra for hay, because it saves me money by not having to feed extra concentrate, or supplements, or ulcer medication, etc.

In the long run, the cheapest way to keep a horse it to allow it as much roughage as it can eat, while not becoming obese.

It would be interesting to do a poll and see how much hay daily boarding barns are supplying to people who pay full boarding costs.

[Palm_Beach]

@candyappy

It would be interesting to do a poll and see how much hay daily boarding barns are supplying to people who pay full boarding costs.

You can always post a poll on Off Course.

[grayarabs]

With shortage our barn’s hay supplier has limit of X amount of bales per month. I asked if could buy barn hay. Answer: no. For now anyway. I also just learned that my bags/cans of hay taking up too much room. I guess I’ll be starting over re: what to feed. I’m old and cold - tired of rain - and grumpy. And as of this week my horse is lame. Lately I’ve used two trash cans to hold 50 pounds of Safe Starch Forage. Two to hold 50 pounds of Compressed Timothy. One can for grass pellet and beet pulp. Stored in heretofore unused section back of barn. I knew too many cans of feed - and too much work for me. (sick with Lyme Disease). I knew I was going to have to decide which to continue with / which to stop. Tired of rinsing/soaking beet pulp. Plan C: Timothy Balance Cubes. Cost: for 50 pounds: Anywhere from $29 - $34 per bag - knowing will continue to go up. Stressed. I need more forage for my horse. Low alfalfa. Little to no dust. Low starch, sugar and iron. Something else - can’t remember. Oh - he will eat it. Add: that I can get it - regularly.

[rose_097]

most of the companies have increased their prices of feed, always buy from some wholesale market place because their rates are little bit cheaper than them.

[cutter99]

Reported

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@gossipetv.webmaster@gmail.com

I’ve got some tricks for you. First, during the bath itself. Use a curry comb and horse bagged vacuum (if you have one) to get out as much dirt as possible before you shampoo. Use a mild shampoo designed for horses. This will allow you to get super clean, but won’t strip the skin and hair totally of those essential oils that create that “bloom” and shine. Less is more. If you choose to condition your whole horse, his mane, and/or his tail, be sure to rinse every last drop out. Here are some tips on washing tails. This is going to take some time, be patient and start with only a small amount of shampoo. You may choose to protect his hooves from all that water by using a hoof oil before you bathe, I like the pasty kind of hoof oil.

This has absolutely nothing to do with feed/hay prices, which is what this thread is all about. Perhaps you responded to the wrong post?

But likely this is spam, based on the link embedded in the text for a vacuum. But I have to salute the writer for the spam at least being coherent, as spam typically isn’t.

[cutter99]

@grayarabs

With shortage our barn’s hay supplier has limit of X amount of bales per month. I asked if could buy barn hay. Answer: no. For now anyway. I also just learned that my bags/cans of hay taking up too much room. I guess I’ll be starting over re: what to feed. I’m old and cold - tired of rain - and grumpy. And as of this week my horse is lame. Lately I’ve used two trash cans to hold 50 pounds of Safe Starch Forage. Two to hold 50 pounds of Compressed Timothy. One can for grass pellet and beet pulp. Stored in heretofore unused section back of barn. I knew too many cans of feed - and too much work for me. (sick with Lyme Disease). I knew I was going to have to decide which to continue with / which to stop. Tired of rinsing/soaking beet pulp. Plan C: Timothy Balance Cubes. Cost: for 50 pounds: Anywhere from $29 - $34 per bag - knowing will continue to go up. Stressed. I need more forage for my horse. Low alfalfa. Little to no dust. Low starch, sugar and iron. Something else - can’t remember. Oh - he will eat it. Add: that I can get it - regularly.

What about a complete feed like Triple Crown Senior?

[Amy3996]

@JessicaTT

I have reported about the fake things that they are selling in by saying they are sending you best flushing toilets but after you get the product you get normal toilet.

Toilet spammer? Can’t say I’ve seen that on the COTH forums before. :lol:

Reported.

[Palm_Beach]

@Amy3996

Toilet spammer? Can’t say I’ve seen that on the COTH forums before. :lol:

Reported.

I think that poster meant that post to go in the racing forum in one of the threads about Pimlico!

[Simkie]

@grayarabs

Lately I’ve used two trash cans to hold 50 pounds of Safe Starch Forage. Two to hold 50 pounds of Compressed Timothy. One can for grass pellet and beet pulp.

If you’re using two cans to store 50#s, you can definitely consolidate that. Perhaps reducing the number of cans will placate the barn manager.

These 30 gallon rectangular Rubbermaid cans hold 100#s of most grains and 150#s of hay or alfalfa pellets. They fit nicely against each other and take up very little “extra” room. Look around for the best price, I just grabbed the first link with the right can, and these can be had for less.

5-6 cans really is quite a lot for one horse in a boarding environment. I’ve always been allocated ONE can per horse when boarding when I had to supply my own grain. There might be room for your stuff now, but the barn manager is probably looking at your stack of stuff, multiplying that by the number of boarders, and realizing it could really get out of hand very quickly.

[mmeqcenter]

5-6 cans is a LOT in a boarding barn for one horse. I provide one 31-gallon metal bin per horse at my farm, and they fit about 2.5 bags at a time. Anything else must be provided in a rigid container whose size fits on the supplement shelf.

Two flakes of hay per day is nothing, but it sounds like they have a limited supply so you gotta do what you gotta do. When I boarded in Ohio it was like pulling teeth to get a BO to feed more than four flakes per day.

As others said, people get in a tizzy over feed price increases because every little bit matters. If you imagine a boarding barn with 30 horses, feeding 150-180 bags of grain per month, that “minor” $0.50-1 increase means $90-180/month higher feed costs. Now, the cost of all goods increase a small bit each year, it’s called inflation. Ideally, wages would increase at a comparable rate but, we know that just doesn’t happen. So when a BO has to increase their board rate by 10% to keep up with hard cost increases, but the average horse owner only got a 2% pay raise that year, well, not many people are happy about that.