Draw for Reins
This draw has been drawn. It is all over. Entering will be just a waste of your time. But do check for a new draw on Northernhorse.com. We usually have one going.
Now you get a chance to win a set of reins. Not just any old reins but really pretty reins with horse hair tassels and leather straps. Nice soft rope for your hands. A little extra give for the horses mouth. They are approx. 90 inches long which made them a little short for my mare which is how they got to be “draw” reins (little pun there). About 225 cm for those who are not so old as some of us.
How to enter? Just click on the comment button below, give us your name and email address (emails not published) and tell us how the hay and pasture situation is in your area. I’m not sure of the draw date but probably the end of the month or thereabouts.
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Hi there, I am from the Meadow Lake, SK area and the pasture sure started coming after we go some rain late june, and the hay crop is not that bad, but isn’t great by far. Most people started their first cut a week to a week and a half ago, and the second cut, if there is one, will definately be rough. Hay will be high in the area but not terribly bad depending who one buys from.
The crop land has improved since the rains started ,there will be some hay ,we had hail on 3 thousand acres and hay was in there.
Thanks Bob
Our hay crop is not very good at all this year.Everything was late and when it did rain it rained at the wrong time.Our bales are very light in weight.We cut our hay from the ditches and our RM sprayed them for weeds killing the grass so there was alot of areas we could not cut.Now the crop has started to dry out.
The hay is good, no rain on it at all when it was cut. It has been hot and dry in central BC for the past 3 weeks. The pasture is starting to get very dry.
I live in Grande Prairie, AB but my dad farms about 120 km NW of here. Land that gave 2 bales to the acre last year might give one this year in some areas. We know it’s going to be in demand this year.
mediocre. were looking poor earlier this year, but we’ve had rain over the last while. as long as we get some warm weather it should’nt be too bad
I live in east central alberta and we haven’t had much rain all year, so the crops are pretty poor. We will have enough to make a couple hundred square bales and a few round bales, but I think that it will come down to us buying some bales
Location west of Dawson Creek, BC
Well hay crop varies depending on area. Early rain showeres were spotty so some areas have decent hay other areas are less than 50% of what they had last year.
Entire area did have a good rain a few weeks back so the pasture grass situation is fine again. some were starting to get worried until rains hit.
although it started out to be a bad year for the hay crops, the first cut is down and bailed. it got put up with little rain and should make some good horse hay. second cut is probably not going to happen for most ppl so hay will be a little short this year.
Hello,
The rain will still help the pastures come back.
We live in 150 Mile House, BC (near the city of Williams Lake)
As for our hay situation, we started off the year with floods, our creek flooded out 3 pastures and part of our foaling pen, it covered our bridge, and made it just about impossible to cross to feed some of our horses. Once July hit we’ve had alot of heat and drought, our creek completely dried up, which was a water source for many of our pastures for the horses, so now we are hauling water to 30 horses in pastures. Everything is dry and crunchy with no regrowth coming back. Our hay fields were pretty sad this year, some of our best wasn’t even worth cutting, there was just nothing left. We’re lucky we have a lower land field that had moisture, but still we got about 60% of what last year produced on that. That’s left us with no choice but to buy hay, and prices aren’t cheap with the shortage around here.
It’s strange how in one year we’ve seen both our extremes, major flooding and complete dryness. We are now hearing of rain coming our way tomorrow, unfortunately too late for the hay crop, but atleast we got ours up nice and dry this year
The pastures are already eaten down, we are hoping that all this rain we are getting will jump start them again. The hay is costing over 2X what we paid for it last year….
I live near Fox Valley sask in Southwestern Sask. The hay in our area is not to bad of course not as much as last year but we do have some bales. We have some pasture land up in the eatonia,sask area and until the middle of june when we had a little moisture we were scared we had to bring our cows home. June 4 it looked like fall not one blade green grass. I am glad the good Lord gave us the much needed moisture.
The pastures are not too bad since we had a good rain last week the revitalized them somewhat. Unfortunately, the rain ruined lots of hay that had been cut so we anticipate hay prices to be about 2.5 times what they were last year.
We live in east central sask and hay is not as good as other years but recent rains have really helped crops and pastures.
Pasture is hanging in although was very slow to develop. Hay is poor.
We live close to Calgary AB and the hay is not great. A field we baled 120 rounds on last year gave us 20 bales this year. We sold a few thousand square bales last year and we are not even starting the square baler this year. The rain finally came and we will have some regrowth for pasture.
Baled round hay (1400 lbs.) per 3 acres out here @ Wostok, AB. one hour east, north east of Edmonton. Very dry, nothing for hay much. Our cows will be sold off, so horses (46 head) can graze the pastures for winter. We do have oats to suppliment with minerals. This is our 2nd drought in under 10 years. Seems to be getting dryer ever year. The grass hoppers are increasing and moving into ever larger areas. They eat all the grasses first, then the alfalfa in the hay fields. Hay very hard to find and if some farmers have some they want to hold onto it till April of 2010 to get as much as they can get then.
I am in southern Quebec. With all the rain we have gotten, we have not been able to get one cut done. Some did end of June, but most of us haven’t and we have not had two straight days without rain. Hoping for a few dry ones!
High River Alberta area. The hay crop seems to be about at best 25-30% of last year here in this area. Talk of $10 o $11 dollars a square being set. Have had a nice rain last week and there is a bit of hope for a second cut? More hope for a winter that is milder than the last as it seemed to of used alot of peoples feed reserves.
We are about an hour northeast of Regina, SK. The summer started dry at first. But now, we’ve gotten some rains and it looks pretty good. We had lots of saskatoons this year. When riding to check cattle, even our horses like to take a few saskatoons to munch on. Beautiful summer here! Lots of good riding weather!
The hay situation at my house is dire … I have no pasture and am waiting for hay to be delivered … oh – LOL – you want to know what it’s like in this area! Just kidding … to my knowledge the hay was great here this year. The weather was nice and rainy at the onset of summer so the crops grew nice. Those with watering systems had even more since they were able to water during the hot spell that followed. The nice dry weather allowed everyone to get their hay off without threat of mold! I’m looking forward to my hay arriving this year and can just imagine the lovely smell of good green hay in the hay shed come winter!
Sorry – forgot to say that I’m in Vanderhoof BC.
I am in Wymark, Sk. ( south of Swift Current, Sk ) I buy square bales and I’m glad I have a good source of hay. There is less hay around here than last year, but we are doing OK.
Our hay is young stuff but definately not up to snuff. It has been tooooo dry here as we have only had about 3″ of rain since April. The pastures are suffering as well. We have just a few head of cattle and we are forced to sell them as we won’t have enough feed for the cows and horses, and the feed that is available is priced way too high!!!
Im from th strathmore area, Hay is said to get prety darn expensive. we used to run around 120 head of cattle on our land but no longer do…thank god. would be on expensive winter this year. We no longer hay our land as we have rented to the guy who bougght all our cattle. our only challange now is finding hay for my three horses. with crops of all sorts being stunted from the lack of rain when needed lots of farmers find them selves having to silage what they can and some are much more unlucky due to the recent two storms that went through our area. many crops were flattend to the ground. so much that it probly wouldnt be worth running cattle on it for a month or so. We were lucky to have been able to speak for around 200 small square bails and have managed to wrangle up some rounds to hopefully last through the winter months. our horse pasture is prety lacking in a way so feeding hay will probly start much earlier then usual
Hi,
We live in Kamloops, B.C. and have about 8 acres of our own hay. We just got our 2nd crop off and it was great. We irrigate all summer long so our pastures are nice a green also. Have 6 horses her so I can rotate pastures very nicely. Love your website, am always looking on it either for horses that are for sale or tack. Thanks for giving me a chance to enter in the draw.
Wendy
Nice reins.
The hay here in Taber has gone up a little so far, up $5.00 for a 1000 lb bale to $80.00. I do expect it will go up more before winter as the cut hay is being rained on as I write this. Pasture is good and green here though. I just dont have enough either.
HI…im in the Olds Alberta area…pastures arent so bad yet but only one cut of hay and not even a good one at that…hoping i wont have to sell of any of my equine loves to make it through the winter….good luck to all……
Here in the Interlake region of Manitoba, last year we were completely flooded out – 50+ inches of rain over the summer. Ditches were full, pastures were underwater – I’ve never been so wet, even when I lived on the BC coast. Farmers were forced to sell off whole herds of cattle, and there are still ads in the papers reminding folks to get their insurance claims in as some places were so devastated that they have additional claims for this year because of it.
This year has been, thankfully, pretty nice. Lovely weather through July and most places have had their first cut baled by the 3rd week or so. August has been hot and humid, this week it is raining daily. Because of the disasterous flooding last year our field never got cut at all. We crop share & we’re not sure it’ll get cut this year either since the guy (understandably) wants to get all his fields done first.
We feel lucky to be able to buy small squares of decent (not excellent) horse hay (haul them from about an hour away) @ $4- per. We also feed pelleted feed, some sweetfeed or oats depending on the individual horse, block minerals, and alfalfa cubes in the stalls @ night, even during the summer months to ensure everyone stays at a good weight.
There is a lot of cow hay around, but the horses don’t do so well on that so we won’t touch it. Some people do though, and they pay $3.50 per, not sure how that’s cheaper when the horses can hardly hold weight on it!
Nothing in our area at Castor. 1/4 bale per acre
Like alot of other areas, hay crop is not so good this year.
i live in the bonneville and cold lake area
the pasture in the area was really bad for awhile and then the rain finally came. since the rain has started to come the fields have started to grow much better for grazing and we will only get a first cut on the hay fields this year.
the price of quality bales is high and further south i hear it is worse i hope that all of us are well off with our horses this winter it may be tough on us all
In Northern BC past Prince George, there was lots of growth this spring. Then came our summer heat like never before. I have to admit I love the heat, but unfortunatly the rains come heavy once in a while but not nearly often enough. Fields came to head way to early this year and there is a hay crop better than years before but to everyones dismay, there may not be a second crop this summer. Nothing seems to be growing very fast at all. Cant complain too much though… at least our first cut wasnt too bad!
We live near Bashaw, Ab and it was slow for the pasture to come and late to cut first-cut. The gentleman we usually get our bales from(the last 5 yrs), got only 16 bales, when he would usually get 70-80!!!! Hopefully he gets a good second cut, but not likely being able to count on that! Hopefully there is enough hay in this country to go around, that won’t break the bank!:)
I live way up in the Yukon.. Whitehorse.. The hay seems to be okay this year We had the hottest summer ever!.. which was great but not soo good for the growing season. The pastures were decent, lots of lush green grass when it rained.
Only got 560 bales this year, ranging from 40-60 lbs bales! but still a good crop.. for the crazy weather we had!
Out here in the RM of Ritchot, MB things are pretty darn wet, the hay was just starting to come along (already 3 weeks late due to flooding) and then almost a week of rain, you can smell the mold everywhere. Just praying for a gentle wind and lots of sunshine at this point.
I live in Lac St Jean Québec and the hay is great. First cut was awesome and the second cut should be ready pretty soon. There is no lack of rain here, the problem is we need it to stop long enough to get the get the work done!
Rain recently pastures ok but hay is at a crazy price
Well its been a really odd year. We live right between Lacombe and Ponoka by Morningside. We started our summer off very very dry, and then over the past month, we have had sooo much rain. Not to mention our poor horses feet don’t know what to do. My husband is a farrier, and he’s seen more abcesses this year than ever. But thats beside the point!
We rent a small peice of land for our 4 horses every year, but this year we had to fence hald of it off, so we could save some of the grass for latter on in the year. So right now our horses have been living in a basicly dirt pen, because they’ve chewed everything down. I remember previous years where we didn’t have to feed hay, but we’ve had to all summer long this year. We are more fortunate than so though, we were able to pre-purchase our years hay from our land lord who runs a pure bred black angus herd. Last year for our big rounds we paid 55.00, and fortunatly, he was kind enough to NOT put the price up. But because we don’t normally feed hay in the summer, we have been fencing off as much of the farm yard as we can to rotate our horses on.
Sorry I’m so long winded, but thats it
-Crystal
Hi, the reins are lovely, i always use a single “rope” type rein for my horses.
The weather here in Finnegan is turning out not too bad, it was really dry till about mid july so there was virtually no hay, but now it wont quit raining and so we are in good shape pasture wise. And luckily we have enough pasture tokeep horses all winter (except the broodmares who need more)
We have a good hay supplier who can give us enough this year to get us through and hopefully next spring will be wetter and warmer
Not to sure we just moved to a new area but from what we hear its not so good,was avery dry summer and late spring here a friend is buying hay for his 2 horses from a niebour and it costing him 65.oo a bail, pretty high and hes picking it up himself.
Hi! Hay is ok in our area! Gotta agree, the prices are crazy, but i suppose so is everything else!
All in all we should be doing a second cut in the next week or so if weatehr is forgiving. We live in Central Ontario. All the rain has put us back about 3 weeks. We just got the grain off last week. Square bales are up 75 cents to a dollar more. So around $2.75. I fell for everyone paying $5 and up. But times are harsh, for all of us the farmers and the buyers. I wish everyone one the best.
We made a really light first cut, but it was nice and dry , no rain, and we may get a bit of second cut, hopefully it gets put up dry and green too. Our alfalfa hay is better than our grass hay for sure, we live near Millet Ab. I hope we don’t see another 100 Horse Rescue this year!
We live in the Old Wives Lake area of SK. Hay crop was great this year! A little difficult finding enough dry days in a row to dry it, but finally done. Our pasture is fuller than last year and the grass is lasting a lot longer due to all the moisture. Too many grasshoppers though! Will take crickets anyday.
We live just north east of Rimbey in the Crestomere area. It has been terribly dry. I had to purchase hay out by Rocky this year. Normally we have enough hay to feed our cattle and my horses but not this year. Hay crops out by Rocky seem to be a little better than what we had this year. Pasture has seemed to green up since the rain came in late July/early Aug. Horses are happy right now in pasture!!
Down here in south central SK just 15 miles (as the crow flies) from the USA border, the hay was average (which is usually not much more than a bale an acre in the newer grass fields) as the spring was really dry. The pastures weren’t looking promising until early July when we got about a week straight of rain, and the pastures greened up and have stayed a nice shade of green all summer (a first in who knows how many years)!
Hay prices high this year, but not bad. Has been worse other years. If you look around, there is some from last year. Look before buying though as some claim to have alfalfa, and mostly grass. I ususally buy first cut anyway.
Hi,
We live in Central Alberta and, like most of the province, it has been dry in our area making it difficult for anything to grow. The hay fields were weak to say the least. In some, as soon as they were cut, you could hardly see were the rows were because the hay was so sparse. In one field, we counted a total of five bales! Only five bales! Although it makes for a good laugh, I’m sure I won’t be laughing when it comes time to buy hay for my precious horses.
Our neighbors cut their hay the other day…if thats what you want to call it. We drove passed the field and all we could smell was stink weed. Apparently the weeds do okay no matter what the moisture situation is!
We have been fortunate with pasture though. You see, we live on a quarter of land and only have four horses. While we rent the fields out, there is still lots of pasture for them to munch on.
Oh well, thats the way the cookie crumbles I suppose. All I can say is I’m glad I’m not a farmer!
P.S. one good thing about this weather: no dang mosquitos!!!
I live east of Camrose on a quarter section and we have lots of grass which include some dry low areas. 45 cows and 4 ponies are grazing it. We only have 1 dug out left which is almost gone and everything is dry. We will probably doze snow for our horses thru the winter so we can buy less bales.