Anyone planning to downsize or eliminate their hobby flocks/herds due to drought and feed costs?

[Denninmi]

Unfortunately, I am. I've got chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, quail, chuckar partriges. Close to 100 beaks to feed.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that prices have gone up on feed a LOT over the past few years. I was paying around $9 to $9.50 for a 50 lb bag of basic layer pellets, and about the same for cracked corn, maybe just slightly less for scratch, four or five years ago.

Then came the "global food crisis", the "global economic crisis", the Texas/Oklahoma drought of 2011, and now the megadrought across much of North America.

Seems like every time I go to the feed store or the pet store (when the feed store isn't convenient, their hours are limited) the price has gone up.

I expect feed prices to go up a LOT in the months upcoming.

Straw and hay, also, are rising rapidly. I thought it was bad a few years back to pay $4 to $4.50 for a bale of straw, not its $6.50.

So, alas, this is one hobby I'm pretty much going to get out of. I'll keep a few hens for eggs, and I'm going to keep my geese because they're tame and smart, and can mainly subsist on weeds and grass all summer and be happy about it.