Tips for Purchasing Hay This Fall

Sep 13, 2021

With the growing season and the lack of moisture, livestock producers are trying to line up feeds supplies.

Due to low production this year, many will have to look at purchasing hay from regions further away this year.

Victoria Foster, an agri-environmental specialist with the ministry of agriculture talks about what to look for when purchasing hay.

"Two really important things to think about are feed quality and the costs," she said. "Another really important factor to be mindful of is the purity of the hay, and by that, I mean ensuring that we are not bringing weeds onto our operations from another region. Drought conditions reduce the vigour of pasture vegetation and as a result, we have more bare ground and less competitive forage stand."

She added that due to the drought conditions hay may be sourced from areas such as sloughs and ditches which might not have a normal weed control program.

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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.