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Hay heists signal hard times on the farm
You know things are bad when thieves resort to filching fodder.

By

Melissa Breyer
Wed, Dec 05 2012 at 4:05 PM
hay thefts

Photo: Minerva Studio/Shutterstock

In farm states across the country, a new nuisance has settled in. Forget dust storms and locusts, the worst drought in decades has created hay thieves. With an economy continuing to struggle and the barren months of winter quickly approaching, the price for fresh hay to feed livestock is rising — and steeply.
 
Missouri Farm Bureau president Blake Hurst says thieves are targeting the bucolic bundles of straw that dot the fields prior to harvest. The bales are being stolen and then either sold, or used to feed the thieves’ own livestock.
 
“Of course, no one brands their hay, so if you hook onto it with your tractor or your pickup and make it out the gate, then it’s impossible to prove where the hay came from,” Hurst said.
 
This trend is becoming so pervasive that some law enforcement and farmers have taken to planting GPS trackers in hay mounds to make them easier to retrieve the purloined bales.
 
In Oklahoma, two Tillman County men faced felony charges of knowingly concealing and withholding stolen property after being popped for stealing hay from a local farmer. According to the Frederick Press-Leader, Sheriff Bobby Whittington recounted that the farmer suspected he was missing hay and placed a GPS device in one of the bales in the field. When the GPS started tracking movement, the sheriff was notified and the thieves were caught.
 
In his county, Whittington says, the price of a bale of grass hay has gone from $15 to $25 before the drought to between $65 and $70. A bale of alfalfa has risen from $45 to $60 before the drought to between $140 and $150. Add in the loss of other crops to drought and the increasing price of fuel, and perhaps it's time to start locking up your hay.
 
Even farmers as far west as California are falling victim to the hay hijinks. According to Custom Hay Operator Carl Martin, a number of farms in Butte County have had their straw stolen. He says the number of thefts has risen with the price of hay. Considering other crops lost to drought and steadily rising fuel prices, it may be time to start locking up the harvest.
 
 

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wolfheinl's picture
wolfheinl Dec 05 2012 at 11:20 PM
I have noticed for several years that most climate change reports and scientific papers use a less than realistic emission scenarios in their calculations. Since these emissions are long lived, this has led to a deepening concern about the climate situation and it’s impacts today, in my lifetime, now. This important talk by Dr. Anderson (link below) at this years Cabot Lecture clearly points the finger at scientists for not accurately reporting how bad the climate situation is. He also explains
.... More
why we cannot meet the 2 degree C (3.8 F) target set by the world’s government and its impacts on us today. His talk is timely in light of this week’s paper from the World Bank that found: "Even with the current mitigation pledges fully implemented, there is roughly a 20% likelihood of exceeding 4°C by 2100. If they are not met, warming of 4°C could occur as early as the 2060s." Globally, we are nowhere close to meeting our mitigation pledges and long lived CO2 emissions continue to accumulate in the atmosphere at an accelerating rate. It’s like civilization has collectively said: screw it. Dr. Anderson is very animated and I think you will find it enlightening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RInrvSjW90U
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