Soaring inflation may be disproportionately impacting farmers and those with livestock.
Glenn Grant, executive director and general manager of the B.C. Wildlife Park said the price the park pays for hay has more than doubled in the last few years.
“The cost of animal feed right now is is skyrocketing,” he said.
According to Grant, it costs the park approximately ten thousand dollars a month to feed its animals — a task that until recently cost $9,000.
Denis Lessard, manager of the House Barn feed store in Kamloops, said some summer feeds have seen price increases of 54 per cent in the last year. He said before last year, the average price increase was about five per cent per year.
“The price of fuel for the farmers in general has gone up so much that it's caused the price of everything to go up,” Lessard said.
He said the cost of the feed is directly impacted by the cost of fuel used to plant and harvest the crops, as well as to deliver it to the consumer.
“I don't think it'll go down. It's once fuel was sold at $2 a litre, I can't see it dropping back down to $1.25. I think that's going to stay there and that's going to be our new reality,” Lessard said.
According to Grant, it’s harder for the wildlife park to plan for the future when prices keep going up.
“It's hard to gauge and it's hard to understand where it's gonna level off. But inflation is catching everybody, us included,” Grant said.
Lessard said he believes with the added expense, many won’t be able to afford to stay in the business of livestock.
“You're gonna see more and more people getting out of animals, less chickens, less horses, just because they can't afford to feed them properly anymore,” Lessard told Castanet Kamloops.
He said he’s already noticed the increased costs affecting the store's sales.
“Our sales are gonna go down. We are ordering approximately 24 pallets every two weeks,” he said.
“Last time we ordered 16 pallets of feed, so it dropped off a fair bit.”
Lassard said the company has noticed the effect rapid inflation has had for local back yard farmers, and is doing what it can to keep them afloat.
He said Horse Barn has been selling many agricultural necessities at cost.
“Our chicken feeds, alfalfa cubes, cob — the base things that no matter what you need these products to feed your animals,” he explained.
“We're keeping them at cost just to try and help the farmer people the local growers going so they're not losing out on their fresh eggs, their fresh beef, their fresh chicken.”
