With the increased cost of hay, fuel, fertilizer, etc, I’m starting to get very anxious about how much my board may increase later this year.
Anyone have an educated guess on how much the typical BO will need to increase rates to survive? FYI, I’m in North Carolina (drought is not a pressing concern here).
Ours went up $25 a head this year already, but I’m guessing it will go up again to keep the BO’s head afloat.
Yeah, ours already went up $100 last summer. I’m dreading another $100++ increase.
I’ve heard that hay may significantly jump in price particularly if fuel stays this high. I’d presume that trucked in hay would see a bigger increase than locally sourced hay. If that’s true, I’m not sure how a raise in board pricing could be avoided.
I have my horses at home so I’m pretty familiar with my costs. Say if I was charging myself board and I’d raised my rates last summer to maintain my profit margin, I’d already be considering another increase due to increased costs of feed, bedding and grain since just then. The RB I use has gone up $5 since Christmas! Doesn’t sound like much, but when everything you have to buy has gone it adds up fast over the month! Since I just purchased another load of hay, in my theoretical world where I’m charging myself board, I’d be considering a smaller increase now $25 -$50 and another increase once I start buying hay this summer amount tbd by hay price.
If you (g) supply a lot of your horse’s stuff I’d guess increases might be smaller, but if you (g) are in a more comprehensive boarding package I’d say if you only see a $100 increase this year you’re doing good. There’s gonna be a ton of variables of course. I haven’t even considered the labor market in my numbers.
I’m feeling very grateful I was able to make the improvements I have in the past year that will allow me to store more hay and increase my grass production. Hopefully those will help offset some of the rising costs.
the biggest saving device we ever got was a scale to weigh hay… we first got it to control the weight of the horses as flakes of hay varied greatly from bale to bale. Feeding by weight has reduced the hay use by at least 20%
To Date, which was last week, I have seen No cost increase of any product we use over the last year. The hay we use is still at $380/ton (other grasses have increased but for some reason what we use has not increased yet)
The one thing I do more of is verification of product pricing…you know Look at sales receipt finding errors often where the clerk entered an incorrect product code that just happens to be $1 more per bag.
Heck even my dog food has gone up significantly! Goes to show how many variables at play seeing as you’ve had no increases and everything of mine has increased!
My two barns went up 15% and 20% at the end of the year.
My barn went up $25 this year and the barn I’m moving to at the end of the month went up $60 since the last time I boarded there. I’m happy to pay it though because the care is excellent, they put adequate bedding in the stalls, and daily all day turnout.
Man you’re not kidding! I have started shopping around for the lowest dog food price lately (and cat food, since somehow I got pinned with feeding 9 barn cats). I’ve never shopped around before, but the last time I ordered I had some serious sticker shock!
I buy our dog food at Costco and it hasn’t gone up that much lately.
I am a BO and I don’t really know. I am holding steady for now, but that might all change if my hay goes up significantly. I am filling my loft with last year’s 2nd/3rd cutting in April so at least I will have as much hay at the “old price” as possible. It’s still equally nutritious except for Vit K or something, and all the horses here will have fresh grass as well so that doesn’t matter.
Do you have a link to the scale you use? Ive been thinking about doing this to see the variability. Not sure the barn will every time, but I think it would be helpful for me to know. Less is more in our little Fjord World.
Board at my barn went up 8% in January. They have several hay fields on site that thankfully supply everyone there, so that is huge right now especially. I hope we don’t get another bump, but I am preparing for it.
just hung a 50 pound fish scale that can be set to zero to offset what is used to hold the hay… hay net or basket
A very long time ago I had a platform scale but it could not be zeroed to offset whatever was used to contain the hay
But weighing the hay has become less of pain after seeing the results of less over feeding as our guys Will Eat whatever you give them.
My BO usually raises board in January or February, if she’s going to raise it. But it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see a mid-year raise this year.
I went up by $50. I only board a few and I have really good boarders that quite often pitch in and help on chores by their own choice.
I may have to increase again but hoping I do not have to do so. Northeast Georgia.
It’s going to depend on the cost factors of each barn. The big things are hay, and land costs, so if the trainer is leasing a barn that can go up.
My big hay order last fall was up 10 percent over the previous year from the same dealer and up about 20 per cent from three years ago. I expect the next load this spring to be more as he hauls in hay from different climate zones. Our hay prices have been affected by drought, wild fires, gas prices, and Covid over the past 3 years well before this current spike in gas.
That said, other dealers are charging substantially more. If my excellent dealer isnt able to do our next load, I would expect to pay at least 20 per cent more from other dealers.
For a boarding barn they’d need to figure out what percentage of the board cost reflected the hay cost. For me hay is about 25 per cent of my total costs. However grain and bedding is also creeping up.
Board already went up 10% this year for me – although it was long overdue as there hadn’t been a price hike in nearly 3 years.
The BM is doing her best to hold steady for rest of year, but I don’t see it happening so am bracing myself for another mid-year raise. I’d rather that then her going out of business! Mid-range barns are already a dying breed around here
The shortage of boarding spots is becoming a real problem where I am. I now know of 3 medium to large places that have shut down since the first of the year. As I said in another thread, at least a couple of horses from one of those barns were sent to retirement places in Virginia; they may have already been retired but I am not sure. The barn where I board my mare is private, not visible from the road, and has little social media presence, but a couple of horse owners have showed up out of the blue looking for a spot.
And it’s why I am keeping her there, even though it’s expensive and fancy for a retiree. If I moved her and it didn’t work out – she is a high maintenance retiree so things could easily not work out – finding another place would be difficult.
I agree…rising fuel costs are going to affect the cost of mowing/maintaining pastures and anything delivered. If one uses propane for anything, that’s going to affect costs.
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