Hay Continues To Move West

Nov 25, 2021

Hay is continuing to be shipped to the Prairies through the Canadian Federation of Agriculture's Hay West Initiative.

"It's been going quite well from the perspective that supply and demand are both certainly very strong," said CFA President Mary Robinson. "We have producers in western Canada, who have been very pleased with the hay they've received. We've had a couple of hiccups as I think anyone would expect for something of this magnitude and we've got lots of hay in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces to move west. The challenge right now is securing funding to offset the transportation costs, because obviously the transportation costs are extremely high."

CFA is operating on a break-even basis under this initiative, with hay being purchased from Eastern and Central Canadian farmers and resold at cost to recipients.

"The big thing is making sure that we've got the money to get hay in the hands of the producers who need it. We're prioritizing people who have water for their animals and have breeding stock. Trying to respond to that as effectively as we can," added Robinson.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.