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I dunno, it certainly makes one think, fuel economy is a big factor with equipment today, I agree with John, prices go up, people keep finding ways to pay, personally if it went to $10/gallon, what can you do about it, change your ways yes, but you won't ever change that price, though you really have to wonder what would have a more serious impact to the country as a whole, somehow in this pea brain of mine, I think theres some people that really don't like us in the mideast and they are enjoying seeing the stakes raised here, that and all the foreign manufacturing, just does not look good, we need a solid game plan by some people willing to do the necessary work, that leads to a political discussion just not worth having here.
We have 2 places, one is an active horse operation, but is scaled way back now, I've seen years with 25 boarders and the rest ours, maybe 40 or so, no way that's happening now. The wealthy stable owners will not be affected by fuel prices, they'll still have their new trucks and trailers, and hit all the shows, but like Jose said, the rest of us may change our plans. My stepmother is a trainer for a wealthy stable, so our horses ride along as part of the package, if that were not the case, who knows. Hay is abundant, good quality and in the $3-$4/bale range, feed is still high, that's not likely to change. They had a good year for hay last year, if it rained often like previous years, not good, hay would be harder to find, more expensive and poor quality, you should have seen what we were feeding in '06, almost like straw. Everyone is trying to dump last years hay right now, though with the price of things, hay will definitely increase this year I believe and rightfully so for anyone that does this hard work, we are very fortunate with hay production in this area, lot of horse places so there is a strong market. We have 2 tractors at that place, the little compact is easy on the fuel, so you just pay it, mostly mowing and loader work, we have not done our own hay since the early 80's, even so, these kind of places can be a real pain to run sometimes, some people are just such arrogant jerks, last time I worked up there I fired most of the help and got rid of a few boarders and riders, I've always liked the ag farming much better for some reason, grew up around a bunch of family dairy operations, all but one are gone.
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