No one has any quality horse hay!
The price of diesel is now $4.29/gal, and anyone who has any decent hay, has jacked the price to $170 or more. This year, the price per ton is going to be above that.
My friend Mindy was told that "Harold" would have a semi-load brought in and we couple pay as we off-loaded it. Mindy went and looked and the load was wet, black, and moldy - not even fit for cattle.
I'm in quite a pickle here and I'm going to be making calls like crazy to find a supply of decent hay.
I have spent the last few days trying to figure out what to do about Lucy and Mya. Lucy is a snarfer - she eats quickly! Mya likes to eat more leisurely. Since they moved to the arena, Lucy has been running Mya off her hay and as a result, Mya has dropped some weight and is in need of intervention.
The solution I came up with is to switch them with Kaci and Jazzy, even though Jazzy HATES living in the arena and is loud and obnoxious about it. (It doesn't bother ME, but my neighbor complains. Oh well, maybe she'll shut her bedroom window?)
Show Ticket is coming along and filling out. I have been feeding her double the amount of hay, plus 5 pounds of Strategy Healthy Edge with Rice bran daily, and she has full-time access to pasture (what little there is this time of year). Now, it seems to me that if her weight loss was just due to the stress of the auction and being moved, she would have rebound quickly, right? A week to settle in and stabilize, then three weeks to regain stress lost weight... right? WRONG! The mare was neglected. There is no convincing me otherwise!
Foxy, the BS Paint mare, is rubbing the hair off herself... seriously! Initially, I thought it was lice. BUT - correct me if I'm wrong - since she came here to live last October, I would have noticed a problem before now AND Chili (who lived with her all winter) would also have lice. Am I right? Another thing - once the hair is off, she quits rubbing and in places it's starting to grow back.
I talked to Foxy's Mom and she suggested bathing her with iodine and baby shampoo. It hasn't been warm enough to do that, PLUS a lot of the bald places are on her face and neck. Another tidbit - the hair she is shedding out is very fine - more like cat hair, nothing like normal horse hair. I'm baffled.
Here's one picture - what do you think?
3 comments:
Hi, Been a while since I read your blog.
This always seems to be the tough time to get decent hay. It's hard to beleave that with so many pivots between Richland and Moses
Lake that you would have problems finding decent hay. My hay stack is dwindling fast also. if we could get warmer weather I might have some pasture to ease the pressure on my hay stack. This year I am promising myself not to sell so much of my hay. A lot of the big hay producers around here have their hay hauled to dairy farms in Minn and Wisc. The only hope is for the ranchers to have early pasture for the cows and free up what they are willing to sell. Hope you find some.
Was in Pasco for my uncles funeral in Nov. I cannot believe how much that area has changed.
good luck on your hay search.
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If you were in South Dakota, I know a couple places you could get really nice hay, but trucking it that far would be big $$$. I learned a lesson this year, I will have all my hay bought BEFORE winter, since my main hay person ran out, and it took me forever to find good hay that my picky bunch would eat. Thankfully I did, and the price isnt too bad. sqaures are around 4 bucks and getting rounds for 95 a ton.
Looks like the mare either has lice or a fungal infection. Teaclenz would take care of either one.
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