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When winter arrived at the end of 2025, it was clear the UK’s hay shortage was not just another difficult agricultural year — it was a warning. What began as a dry spring escalated into a nationwide forage crisis that left farmers short of supply, horse owners facing unprecedented costs, and equestrian charities questioning how long the sector could remain sustainable under mounting environmental and economic pressure.
2026 – The year of the horse is proving to be tough in the UK for horse owners, the effects of last year’s hay shortage are still being felt across the country. Prices remain volatile, supplies fragile, and confidence shaken. More importantly, the events of 2025 have forced an uncomfortable question into the open: was this a one-off disaster, or a glimpse of the future?
A Crisis Years in the Making
The hay shortage that defined 2025 did not come out of nowhere. Years of increasingly unpredictable weather, combined with the steady loss of agricultural land, had already made forage production more vulnerable. What tipped the balance was the spring and early summer of 2025, when prolonged dry spells dramatically slowed grass growth across much of England and parts of Wales.
BBC News reported that farmers in several regions were producing as little as 50–60% of a normal hay crop, with some cutting fields earlier than planned just to salvage what they could. In areas hit hardest by drought, second cuts — often vital for winter reserves — failed almost entirely. One farmer told the BBC that hay stocks were “down on where they should be by this time of year”, a sentiment echoed across the country.
By late summer, the shortage had moved from farm gates to stable yards, riding schools and sanctuaries.
The Price Shock That Followed
As supply tightened, prices rose sharply. According to BBC reporting in 2025, hay prices climbed to £131 per tonne in some areas, with small bales selling for double their usual price — and in some cases more. For horse owners, this represented not a marginal increase but a fundamental shift in the cost of care.
A single horse can consume the equivalent of one small bale every two to three days during winter. For owners with multiple horses, riding schools or livery yards, the maths quickly became unmanageable. Many yards reported feed bills rising by thousands of pounds over the course of the season.
Charities and rescue centres were among the hardest hit. Several told national media they were being forced to choose between reducing intake, appealing urgently for donations, or cutting back elsewhere just to afford forage. The crisis exposed how finely balanced the economics of horse welfare had become.
Why Horses Are Especially Vulnerable
Unlike some livestock, horses are uniquely dependent on forage. Their digestive systems are designed for near-constant intake of fibrous material, making hay not a supplement but a necessity. When pasture quality declines — as it did rapidly during the dry months of 2025 — hay becomes the primary source of nutrition.
The British Horse Society (BHS) warned throughout the year that shortages posed serious risks to equine welfare. Insufficient forage can lead to weight loss, colic, gastric ulcers and behavioural issues, while sudden dietary changes can exacerbate digestive problems.
The BHS urged owners to plan early, calculate winter forage requirements well in advance and explore alternative fibre sources where possible. Yet for many, planning alone could not overcome the reality of limited supply and rising costs.
Climate Change: The Underlying Driver
While drought was the immediate trigger, the 2025 hay shortage cannot be separated from the broader context of climate change. Scientists have long warned that the UK will experience hotter, drier summers interspersed with intense rainfall, a pattern increasingly reflected in recent growing seasons.
Grass — the foundation of hay production — is particularly sensitive to these shifts. Extended dry periods stunt growth, while sudden heavy rain can ruin cutting windows and damage crops. For farmers, the margin for error has narrowed dramatically.
BBC analysis in 2025 highlighted that extreme weather events are no longer rare anomalies but recurring features of the agricultural calendar. Forage crops, once considered relatively reliable, are now subject to the same volatility as arable harvests.
The hay shortage was, in many ways, a climate story playing out in real time — one with immediate consequences for animals and people alike.
The Quiet Crisis of Land Loss
Alongside climate pressures sits another, less visible problem: the loss of land suitable for hay production. Over the past decade, significant areas of permanent pasture have been lost to housing developments, infrastructure projects, solar farms and changes in land use.
While these developments often serve broader societal needs, the cumulative effect has been a steady reduction in the acreage available for traditional forage crops. In some regions, farmers reported that land once dedicated to hay is now economically unviable, pushing production further from equestrian centres and increasing transport costs.
For horse owners, particularly those near urban areas, this has translated into greater reliance on long-distance supply chains — chains that proved fragile when production fell in 2025.
Adapting Under Pressure
As the crisis unfolded, adaptation became essential. Many owners turned to alternative forage options, including chopped fibre feeds, grass pellets and soaked sugar beet. The BHS advised that good-quality oat or barley straw could safely replace a portion of hay for some horses, provided changes were introduced gradually.
Reducing waste also became a priority. Studies suggest that up to 30% of hay can be lost through trampling and poor feeding practices. In response, yards increasingly adopted slow-feeding systems, hay racks and covered feeders to stretch limited supplies.
Yet these adaptations came with costs of their own — new equipment, specialist feeds and increased management time — reinforcing the sense that horse ownership is becoming ever more resource-intensive.
A Wake-Up Call for the Equestrian Sector
By the end of 2025, it was clear the hay shortage was not just a logistical problem but a structural one. It exposed vulnerabilities in how the UK produces, distributes and relies on forage — and how little buffer exists when systems are pushed to their limits.
For many in the equestrian world, the crisis has prompted difficult conversations about sustainability. Can traditional models of horse ownership survive repeated climate shocks? How can welfare be protected when essential resources become scarce? And what role should policy play in safeguarding agricultural land and supporting forage resilience?
Looking Ahead from 2026
As 2026 unfolds, the immediate panic of the 2025 hay shortage has eased, but its lessons remain sharp. Farmers are reassessing cropping strategies, some experimenting with more drought-resilient grasses or altered cutting schedules. Horse owners are budgeting more cautiously, buying earlier where possible and rethinking how forage fits into long-term care plans.
What the events of 2025 made clear is that hay — often taken for granted — sits at the intersection of climate, land use and animal welfare. Without meaningful action on all three fronts, shortages may become more frequent, more severe and more disruptive.
The great hay shortage of 2025 may ultimately be remembered not just as a difficult year, but as the moment the UK’s equestrian community was forced to confront a changing world — one where climate change and shrinking land availability are no longer abstract concerns, but daily realities in the stable yard.
