By Fae Holin
Rains at the wrong time and lower-testing hay have limited hay-marketing options in Idaho, South Dakota and Nebraska, according to hay growers and other forage experts who attended World Dairy Expo last week.
Hay quality was also down in Wyoming, according to one of its growers.
Many anticipate higher prices for rare supplies of dairy-quality hay as well as an abundance of low- to medium-quality hay.
The weather has not been kind to hay growers in general this year. Those in Idaho have lost $87 million in alfalfa due to rain damage – and that’s a conservative estimate, reported Glenn Shewmaker, University of Idaho Extension forage specialist.
“We assumed the average value of alfalfa hay marketed in Idaho during the August-September period at $183 per ton, and the adjusted value of fair-grade, rain-damaged hay at $140 and utility-grade, heavy rain-damaged hay at $75 per ton,” Shewmaker pointed out.
South-central Idaho growers have likely suffered a $52 million loss in hay value because of unexpected rains. Many there are dealing with rain damage on 20-75% of their second-cutting hay, 40-75% of third cutting and so far 30% of fourth-cutting acreage, he said.
A $33 million loss in value to eastern Idaho growers was also reported. Some growers there dealt with 25-50% losses on first cutting and 45-95% losses on second cutting.
“We were low in supply going in (to the harvest season), and we did have a good first cutting. But supreme-quality hay is very rare and good is not even abundant. Poor is overly abundant. We had a combination of drought early in the year and then, in August, it was a flood situation.
“Some producers turned the hay a couple of times between rain storms and all they had left were moldy stems. So they just chopped it and blew it on the ground,” Shewmaker said.
Growers also contended with standing-water damage to fields and stacked hay bales. Many stacks were left uncovered and damaged from the top as well. “On a four-high stack of 4 x 4 x 8’ bales, the top layer represents 25% of the tonnage, and it received from 3” to 6” of rain during August,” he said.
Fungal diseases also caused problems, he added.
Southwestern and northern Idaho had little rain damage.
Nebraska growers were also hampered by the weather, said Barb Kinnan, executive director of the Nebraska Alfalfa Marketing Association, during an interview at her World Dairy Expo booth. Rain, humidity and the lack of heat joined forces to produce lower-quality, lower-priced hay.
“If you could get it up with color and you didn’t get any rain on it, some of that early stuff still didn’t test,” she said, referring to lower fiber digestibility numbers also reported by Upper Midwestern forage experts. See our stories, “Upper Midwestern Hay Is Low In Fiber Digestibility” and “Test Forages For NDF Digestiblity, Nutritionist Says.”
For quality hay, prices are stable – in the $200-250/ton range plus freight costs. But finding that top-end feed and the trucks to haul it have been challenges, Kinnan said.
“There is a lot of feed out there, it just isn’t good quality. It’s going to take a tough winter to use some of this stuff up.
“But if they keep anticipating record snowfalls, there’s going to be a lot of this hay sitting around that they aren’t necessarily going to get to to get it shipped out,” she warned. Kinnan advised livestock producers to consider buying supply ahead of snowfalls.
South Dakota rains helped produce hay with lower relative feed values (RFVs) and a wider range of prices than he likes to see, said Gary Freeburg while visiting Hay & Forage Grower’s booth at the Expo. He and his wife Amy yearly help staff the National Hay Association (NHA) booth at the event.
As fourth cutting finishes this month, the Freeburgs and their two sons will have harvested a total of about 8,000 acres of hay this year at Freeburg Hay Co., located at Gayville.
“A lot of our hay is in that 120-150 RFV range, and it’s anywhere from $85/ton up to $280/ton. Wheat straw prices are really nice – $120-130/ton f.o.b.,” he said. The year brought good growing conditions but not the drying weather to get hay off at the consistently high quality he likes to see.
“But I still have several barns full of hay. It’s dry, the proteins are really good on it, but the RFVs are down. I still have some hay with RFVs in the 170-180 range – I bought that hay out of Wyoming.”
He’s also hoping his own fourth cutting will produce higher-test hay.
Most customers at the NHA booth, Freeburg added, are looking for higher-end hay. “They all want that 160- to 200-RFV hay. They also want some really, really nice grasses for dry cows – nice mixed grasses.”
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