Grass crops are a week or two ahead of alfalfa in the Lethbridge area of Alberta, says Barclay Lutz of Lutz Hay. "We will be looking at irrigating the first cut here in the next few weeks; however, a couple inches of well-timed rain would put that idea on hold," he states. "We are just crossing our fingers to get through the next two weeks with no frost." Markets in the area are medium to strong now. Prices are good for in-demand, high-quality hay, Lutz notes. Low-quality hay and round bales are still weak in price and fairly abundant for this time of year.

Lutz farms around 3,700 acres of alfalfa, timothy and orchardgrass, irrigating 2,500 of those acres. "I run six trucks over most of western Canada and the northwestern U.S., including Oregon and Idaho," he says. "I employ eight foreign workers and three full-time locals and with the help of our men, I purchase and sell about 20,000 tons of hay per year over what we produce. We sell to some of the largest marketing/export companies in the world and also to some of the smallest-volume customers you can imagine." Lutz does custom haying as well.

Contact Lutz at 403-330-5914.

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