Tennessee Growers Dodge Spring, Summer Showers

This year’s price for bermudagrass hay is pretty similar to what it was last year – in the $200-220/ton range for small squares, says Larry Jones, Oakland, TN. Other than that, the haying seasons couldn’t be more different.

“We’ve had an extremely wet year. A lot of the hay around here is over-mature,” Jones says. “There’s plenty of hay if we can get it up. But we’ve only had one week all year that we could run three days in a row with a baler.”

In the southwestern area of the state, 17” of rain fell over 22 days in June. In July, it rained 18 days and in August, 15 days, he reports. September already has recorded seven to eight days of rain.

The summer’s been cool, too. Jones hasn’t put up any hay in some parts of his fields, while other fields are nearing third cutting.

“This is one of the strangest years ever,” he says. “The whole summer has been consistently wet. We’ve had bad months before, but we’ve never had a bad year like this.”

Jones has 450-500 acres of bermudagrass and fescue-clover-orchardgrass hay this year. He believes there will be enough hay available to area producers as winter approaches.

“But if we have a real hard winter, we’re going to be very short as far as quality and quantity of small bales. There are plenty of round bales, though.”