Sunny skies boost hay harvest

Hay growers optimistic about season’s outcome

Craig Reed
Freelance Writer

June 30, 2006

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Two months ago, Klamath Basin, Ore., alfalfa grower Jerry Enman was a bit worried. The weather was cold, wet and dreary and there wasn’t much, if any, growth in his forage fields.

But as is the case so often in Oregon, the weather changed. It warmed up and the alfalfa sprouted up.

“It turned into a good growing season,” Enman said in mid-June, just a few days after finishing the job of putting his first cutting of alfalfa in the barn. “The yield was above average compared to the last five or six years, but some rain storms delayed the start of the first cutting by a week. I actually got started on May 28.”

There were a few scattered showers during the cutting-baling-hauling process, but Enman said there “was no serious rain damage,” to his 120-pound, two-string bales.

To the north, Scott Pierson of Silver Lake, Ore., said hay growers began cutting in the Fort Rock, Christmas Valley and Silver Lake areas around June 15. Again, rain showers delayed the start.

“We’re behind the rest of Oregon because we have a cooler climate,” said Pierson, a hay grower and the first-year president of the Oregon Hay and Forage Association and the second-year president of the Lake County Hay and Forage Association. “We went from winter and snow to all of a sudden it being warm. The fields I’m working in, they’re looking better than ever. It’s coming on strong.”

Both Enman and Pierson said they haven’t gotten hay tests back yet, but they’re confident of a quality product.

In addition to being optimistic about the growing season, the central Oregon hay growers are optimistic about the market for their product for a couple reasons. The 2005 hay crop has been used and continual spring rains to the north in Washington and to the south in central California has resulted in a decreased hay inventory.

Dave DeMulder, the sales manager for High Mountain Hay Growers, said good quality first cutting of grass and grass-alfalfa is getting $140 to $150 a ton. For alfalfa, the early price tag has been $135 a ton for supreme tested hay and $125-$130 for premium hay.

The High Mountain Hay Growers is an association of about 20 growers from Butte Valley, Big Valley and Fall River Valley of northern California and the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon. The association has averaged annual sales totaling 60,000 tons in recent years.

“It should be a profitable summer,” DeMulder said. “There’s been interest shown in our hay from dairies because Washington’s first cutting hay got rained on continuously and some early alfalfa in California got drowned because of standing water and because their first and second cuttings got a fair amount of rain. And as soon as the heat comes on, the production will go flat in California.”

Any fields that had extensive delays in being cut because of wet weather in May and into June won’t be as high in nutrients. That has been the case for many in western Oregon and western Washington, and will result in more customers for those growers whose fields were missed by showers.

Enman said he would be happy with getting $135 a ton for his alfalfa.

“We’re not sure on the price yet, but it looks like somewhere near last year which was $135 for dairy quality,” said Enman who has 400 acres of alfalfa. “Last year was the highest average hay price I had ever gotten. If it stays at that and doesn’t slide back, I’ll be really happy.”

Pierson said the number of animals he is supplying hay for has increased in recent years because hobby farms are becoming more popular.

“There’s one in every nook and cranny and they want to have livestock,” he said, adding that central Oregon hay has developed a good reputation with dairies and feed stores. “This region naturally makes good hay and in general, the growers in Lake and Klamath counties for sure know how to grow good quality alfalfa and forage.”