Three years ago, Boulder County rancher Bill Berg was yielding about 1,000 bales of hay from his fields.
It was plenty for him to feed his 12-head herd of cattle and plenty for him to sell for $4 to $4.50 a bale.
Last year, Berg was lucky to pull 450 bales from his land — 9 acres of which had turned into a “dust bowl.”
Berg shelled out anywhere from $10.50 to $14 a bale to buy more. That was if he could find the hay.
The nationwide drought and the fires in Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma over the past few years are hampering the nation’s hay industry, putting increased pressure financially on area ranchers, businesses and nonprofit groups that rely on finding high-quality feed for their horses and steers.
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