TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Hay is in short supply across the United States.
A spike in fertilizer prices, and an intense drought, led to only 64.84 million tons of hay harvested in 2022, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
That's down nine percent from 2021.
Lindsay Barrack sees the impact of those shortages, and resulting high prices.
"When you are talking about growing hay, you are talking about the price of seed and fertilizer going up, the cost of the fuel to run the machinery, the price of the fuel to deliver the hay and so forth and so on," she told ABC 27.
Barack manages Mahan Farm in Tallahassee, and trains horses. She's also a horse owner herself.
“Definitely have had to budget," Barrack says. "Definitely had to pay attention to where the nickels and dimes are going and being even more cautious of every little flake of hay."
She says she sees some of the people boarding horses at Mahan Farm are struggling. "we are doing our best to work with people when we can and how we can," says Barrack.
In Greenville, Florida, a not-for-profit rescue goup called Rainbows Edge Equine Transition Center is also helping horse owners.
"For a lot of people it’s not that they can’t buy one roll of hay… but they can no longer buy the two rolls of hay… so sometimes they just need a little assistance," says its director, Roxanne Spear. She tells ABC 27 a 900 pound roll of hay used to sell for $60 to $70. Now that same roll goes for $110-$120.
As prices increase, so does the effort to try to keep horses with their families. "We don’t want to take anyone’s horses. That’s not our goal. We will go ahead and get the supplies to them," Roxanne says. “We love the idea of supporting the community, and we want to continue doing that.”
But Rainbows Edge and other rescues rely almost entirely on local donors to do their work.
