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We routinely get inquiries from barn-shopping horse owners. In this economy, more are looking for less expensive options such
as field board, which we don't offer, or they want to exchange barn work for board, which we won't do (that would warrant
a separate article).
Full board here now costs $600 a month, which is the going rate in an urban area for a facility such as ours with indoor
and outdoor riding arenas, night lights, hot water wash stalls, 24/7 care, a locker room and bathroom. Less experienced horse
owners often gasp at the price and ask "how can hay and feed cost so much?!!"
Consider that just a few years ago, a 50 lb. bale of good quality hay was about $1.80, but today it's around $5 a bale
and sometimes more if the growing season has been bad. A local farmer recently predicted that less hay will be grown this
year and more fields will go to soy and corn, which will be more profitable -- and further push up the price of hay.
The cost of sawdust has gone through the roof. And, due to county "nutrient management" rules (which I fondly refer
to as the "poop regs," we have to pay to dispose manure and used sawdust, when in years past it was spread for free
on fields (most of which are now lost to development anyway).
The price of a 50 lb. bag of sweet feed used to cost about $5, but today it's around $10. Premium feed is $17 or $18
a bag.
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Last I checked with Barn King, the cost of one oak fence board was about $7; if you've ever kept horses, you know that
they are destructive, and replacing fence boards is a constant chore.
There's the cost of equipment -- tractors, trucks, trailers, pitch forks, chain saws, muck buckets, feed tubs, water buckets,
water troughs -- equipment repair, fuel to run tractors and trucks, and insurance for the farm and farm vehicles. There's
fertilizer and seed for the pastures and that runs into the thousands.
Let's not forget the rising cost of gasoline and diesel to run the tractors and trucks, the mortgage and sky-high county
taxes.
Horse farms need to keep basic medical supplies on hand, such as gauze, bandages, wraps, Banamine, antibiotics, ACE, needles,
syringes, etc., and they add up too.
Some months the electric bill is more than the hay, especially in winter when lights in barn and indoor ring are used
often and in summer when we run stall fans.
The biggest expenditure, of course, is labor, though our farms hands take superlative care of the horses and we consider
them worth their weight in gold.
It all adds up to this: There's a lot more involved in running a horse farm than the cost of hay and feed.
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