Bloodstock: The Hidden Cost of the Heatwave for Studs - Will small farms in the UK have smaller foals next year? In August at home, just off the Curragh in Co.Kildare we have an abundance of lush green grass. Carefully managed year round by my fiance James and our head man, Leo. It’s a beautiful sight, green grass, mares and foals grazing contentedly. The grass is growing quicker than Leo and the topper can keep up with. Across the Pond The UK though has had a totally different issue. The grass has stopped growing and the fields are like the Sahara Desert. Some UK stud farms have been forced to wean early, bring foals in and supplement with hay. Hay! Can you imagine having to feed hay to foals in August? This seems unthinkable to me as I look out the window at a field of mares and foals sleeping in the early morning sun. At what cost? The extra cost of having to feed forage during the summer months will have a huge impact on stud farms. Foals will already be eating hard feed so that cost isn’t an extra but forage at this time of year probably wouldn’t have been budgeted for. The extra supplementation needed to stock kept inside during the summer months will be an added burden that I doubt many envisaged. The cost of helping these paddocks recover is unimaginable. Some farms won’t have the equipment needed to do this in house so it will need to be contracted as well. Could we adapt? If we were in the same situation as some UK stud farms we would be in bother. We would need to hire more staff and we would be eating into the hay and straw which has been purchased for the winter. Which in turn increases the figure which needs to be achieved for stock this sales season. It’s a vicious circle. For a stud farm, good quality grazing isn’t just ‘nice’, it’s imperative. I do wonder if we will see smaller foals come from some farms next year who have struggled with getting grass into their pregnant mares this summer.
