2015 Hay Crop

Hay for sale signs… They are everywhere in hay country. “We came Sunday morning and baled most of this field.” Stephen Thane has done custom hay harvest in the Treasure Valley for 22 years. “There is so much hay being planted or being grown over the years… We just do a small percent of it but we were the first big baler in the Valley 22 years ago. Since then there are about 14 new balers, big balers” . Which is one of the factors driving prices for consumers. This year’s supply is plentiful for both dairy quality hay and feeder hay. Hay farmer Tracy Walton grows both. “Feeder hay is a different story. There is a lot of feeder hay and last year’s barley and wheat. Mostly the barley that got rained on in Eastern Idaho. They are still shipping that into the feedlots and so they can replace some of the hay with that.So you have a lot against feeder hay.” And then there is the rain factor. Dairy quality, the expensive stuff, can quickly become feeder hay, the less expensive stuff, if, once it’s cut, it gets rained on. That has happened a lot this year on all cuttings. “Flip it. Get that moisture off. So hay harvest is pretty much all about timing this year, right? “ Pretty much. First of all the first cutting, we had some that we cut early and then we had three weeks of rain, so then you didn’t cut during the rain so it got old. So all of a sudden we are almost a month’s difference between some fields and others. So it seems like we were cutting hay all year long this year. Farmer Paul Moffat takes it all like a true farmer. Rain or shine, deal with it. “It just depends on the year and whether you are going to be lucky enough to miss the rain. Every time you cut hay, it's a gamble.” There is plenty of hay available right now and time will tell if this winter’s demand will drive up prices down the road.