Plan Ahead for Hay This Winter

Its been a summer of extremes hot and dry in BC and Alberta and rain that wouldnt stop in Ontario and Quebec while Saskatchewan was also very dry says David Phillips senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. In Ontario some farmers had no hay crop at all. The ranchers and farmers have very been hard hit. Its been one of the worst summers. Last year it was so dry and this year so wet. Last year we could not get any rain. This year it was hard to get equipment on the fields and for crops to be harvested. It was a real challenge.

With the tough challenges facing farmers feed supplies or the lack thereof trickle down the supply chain placing corresponding challenges on horse owners wanting to secure a hay supply before the winter sets in. It hasnt been easy.
In Ontario and Quebec hay growers could barely get a crop says Phillips. It would rain all the time and they couldnt string together three or four days for drying. Some were lucky to get just one measly crop off. In southwest Ontario it was a bit better but north of Toronto and eastern Ontario it was bad.
Brandon Hall marketing and communications manager with the Ontario Equestrian Federation in Richmond Hill agrees saying that 2016 was very dry with fields sunburnt before second cut and grazing pastures unable to grow so that winter stock hay was being used much earlier.
Owners struggled to find hay in the spring before first cut this 2017 season he says. This year was extremely wet and cut later while waiting for dry weather. Some were probably rained on and needed assistance drying but pastures have held up if they were not flooded.
Hall says that the different regions in Ontario have been more productive