COST OF LIVING
The impact of rising costs is affecting every part of the horse industry, including basic management. Becky Murray looks at where horse owners are being hit the hardest and where savings can be made
MANAGEMENT WINTER SPECIAL
THE rise in the cost of living has been a significant theme throughout 2022, with soaring energy, fuel and food prices affecting families and businesses. Shortages of raw materials, increased haulage costs and farmers facing record-high prices for fertiliser mean just about all areas of the horse industry are affected. As people continue to navigate the challenging times ahead as winter approaches, there’s no doubt horse owners are feeling the extra strain in their pockets, too.
Now the short nights are here, some horses are in their winter routine of being stabled. For many, this means factoring in the cost of bedding and forage, which they perhaps didn’t have over the summer months. Some of the biggest price hikes have been in bedding because of the shortage and increased cost of timber.
Bedmax managing director Tim Smalley explains there is a shortage in traditional shavings that usually come from woodworking and furniture factors.
“A lot of shavings used to come from Europe, but they’ve gone up in price. They’re in short supply as the timber is being made into pellets to burn because of the energy crisis,” he says. “And in the UK, there’s not as much building going on, so there have been fewer shavings coming from here, too.
“At Bedmax, we buy in the timber to make bespoke shavings for horses, so although we’re not facing a shortage, we can only make so much at our three factories. Our prices have gone up by around 8% and this is due to the increased costs of manufacturing and haulage; we keep the prices as low as we can, but there is quite a lot of energy involved in making shavings. We have also launched straw-pellet bedding, which is a cheaper alternative to shavings, but good quality and absorbent. This is becoming a popular economic option.”
Wood pellets have continued to grow in popularity over the years, but Fiona Hill of Sorbeo says it has now become a premium bedding, as a supply shortage has ramped up costs.
“It‘s quite a complicated market because when you’re calling it a ‘wood-pellet market’, it is a biomass-fuel market – and horse owners have tapped into using this for bedding. Where some brands were around £280 for a pallet, some have gone up to about £680. The UK can’t import from Russia or Belarus at the moment, so there is a shortfall of 3.3m tonnes of wood pellets ac
