West Lebanon -- Horse people from around the Upper Valley took a number and waited their turn in the cold yesterday morning outside of West Lebanon Feed and Supply.

They had come with trailers and trucks to purchase a reserved share of what is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity in the region this winter: reasonably priced square bales of high-quality hay.

“We have mouths to feed,” said Mindy Taber of Plainfield, the first in line.

Her family's new Haflinger horse had surprised them all by giving birth. So she had hurried to sign-up for the West Lebanon store's “Hay Day” promotion. Owner Kurt Jacques was offering customers the opportunity to purchase hay from southern Quebec for what it was going to cost the store to bring it in by truck on Saturday morning, an amount that turned out to be $4.93 per bale.

The low price also attracted Bart Daley and Jill Canillas Daley, Taber's neighbors, whose three Percheron draft horses burn through as many as 1,500 bales a year. After June and July set rainfall records, the Daleys had predicted supplies would be tight this winter and stockpiled as much as their barn could hold.

“We knew through the summer that it was going to be a tough year,” said Canillas Daley. But at capacity, they can only store 400 bales, which would not be enough.

In general, square hay bales have been more difficult to find in recent years because many, if not most, livestock farmers in the region have switched to making round bales, which are larger and less labor intensive, said Steve Taylor, a Plainfield farmer and former New Hampshire Commissioner of Agriculture.

Round bales are generally left outside for storage and as a result are more likely to become moist and develop mold spores, which can cause respiratory disease in horses. Also, the size makes them unwieldy and often impossible for a household with just a few horses to handle. “Barns aren't set up for that,” Taylor said.

The rainy summer made it very difficult for the farmers who still do make square bales to cut and adequately dry their crop. Less hay bales were made in the Upper Valley and those that were made came from late-summer summer cutting, which has a lower nutritional content than earlier cut grass.

“It takes four days of perfect weather to dry hay so that you don't have to worry about dust in it,” said Paul Gallerani, who buys hay for Farm-Way Inc. in Bradford, Vt. “Do you remember four days straight of good weather?”

Farm-Way was able to purchase several thousand bales from local sources and still has them for sale: $5 for a coarser first cutting and $6 for the second cut, which is more desirable for sheep and goats used to make milk, Gallerani said. But that supply is dwindling fast, and he expects that the Bradford store will also soon have to begin to look to Canada as a source.

In towns without local producers, the price of hay has already gone up dramatically. For example, at Scammon & Sons Agway in Stratham, N.H., a feed bale is selling for $8.

There is still a good square-baled hay supply in Canada simply because the summer was not as wet in Quebec and Ontario and there are more acres devoted to producing hay, said Jacques. He ran a “Hay Day” a decade ago when supplies were looking low and expects that he will put together at least one more at-cost truck for customers this winter.

He sees the offer as something that is good for his business. “If people can't get hay for their horses, then they're going to get rid of them,” said Jacques, and that also means that he loses a customer for the other feeds and tack items that the store sells.

But also, for Jacques, it is just the right thing to do. “People are having a hard enough time making ends meet,” he said.