[Vision2020] Ga$oline Price$

[April Fingerlos]

I don't feed straight oats because they need a ration balancer that offsets any price gain, but I know Strategy has gone up $0.50/bag every 3 weeks for the last several months. This is a big topic of discussion in horse circles right now. The price of corn is skyrocketting, hay prices haven't recovered from the last several years of droughts and hurricanes, and a sizeable chunk of the hay crops as of yet unaffected are being swapped out for soybeans or corn. Sticking with grass only won't cut it around here--we're too selenium deficient, and the nutrient quality of local hay is awful for the amount of work a horse replacing a car would be required to do. Good hay will still have to be brought in from the Basin, and that hay is in demand throughout the United States. Many Basin hay brokers exported their portions last year.

Wood for fencing has also exploded in price, and unless you have a private supplier, obtaining shavings or pelletted bedding is going to hit your pocketbook, too--a 50 to 75% increase is hitting the PNW right now. Those of you that burn pellets for heat know how scarce that commodity was this winter, and the difference between heat pellets and animal bedding is slight--hard wood for stoves, soft woods for bedding, with most folks just talking what they can get. Some local barns have stopped taking boarders--they can't find a shavings supplier, let alone pass on enough of their costs to boarders to stay afloat and actually keep boarders. Metal for shoes and wire fencing has gone up due to scarcity of resources as well.

No, Dobbin isn't going to be any cheaper to maintain, but the good news is that he'll be easy to obtain--rampant hobby breeding and the market collapse of the huge production ranch breeder over the last decade in all breeds has left a glut on the market, and now the three remaining slaughter plants in the US are now closed, creating a new low to the market. That new low is being seen under a new banner: "free horse". At the bottom of the market, they can't even be given away now.

I'm showing at the Canadian Appaloosa National Championships later this summer on my gelding in Brandon, and I've budgeted my diesel figure at $3.50/gallon. I've been tempted to readjust to $4.00. It won't prevent me from going if it reaches that high, or even if it hits $4.50. I've chosen to support Canada over the US Nationals due to proximity--I won't be hauling to Oklahoma City (or, next year, Jackson, Mississippi) at even $3.00/gallon. 

Sorry for the long post, Tom, but finally, a topic on V2020 I can contribute to with a degree of expected knowledge! :-)

April

April Fingerlos
Moscow, ID 

>>> Tom Hansen<thansen at moscow.com> 5/3/2007 7:18 AM >>>

Those of you who live in our rural surroundings may want to get ol' Mr. Ed
and Flicka out of the barn.  What's the going rate for hay and/oats per
bushel?