Dec. 17 2019 According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. and China reached a “phase one” trade deal last Friday with details yet to be released. The U.S. canceled new tariffs set to go into effect on...

Dec. 3 2019 Demand was very good for alfalfa and other hay for beef cattle in Central and Northern California the past month due to dry conditions. But that could be changing in the weeks ahead. The forecast is f

Nov. 19 2019 Exports of all hay from California ports in September totaled 201,313 metric tons (MT), up 4 percent from a year ago and the highest monthly total since June 2017. All hay exports from Washington port

Nov. 5 2019 Each year we update a graph on alfalfa versus almond acres in California, and the latest update tells one of the more remarkable stories in California agriculture. California led the nation in alfalfa

Oct. 22 2019 Stronger alfalfa hay exports to China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Japan in August more than offset a sharp decline in alfalfa exports from West Coast ports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), accor

Oct. 8 2019 When the trade war started between the U.S. and China in July 2018, alfalfa hay exports from the West Coast to China began a downward slide that reached a low in January 2019 of 25,461 metric tons (MT

Sept. 24 2019 Some dairies in the West were waiting for the last cutting of alfalfa hay in Idaho, Washington, Nevada, Utah, the northern California mountains, and Oregon, which they hoped would be higher quality. N

Sept. 10 2019 Federal Milk Marketing Order milk prices in Tulare, Calif., have gone from $14.21 per hundredweight (cwt.) in January to $16.94 per cwt. in July of this year, and yet quite a few dairies are still not

Aug. 27 2019 China announced on August 23 that they would impose tariffs on $75 billion worth of products from the U.S., and alfalfa hay is included in those products. Our contact in China, and verified by export

Aug. 13 2019 In 2017, alfalfa hay exports to China accounted for 44 percent of all alfalfa hay exports from the West Coast. In the first half of 2019, that number had dropped to 26 percent, according to the U.S. C

July 30 2019 In 2018, timothy hay export prices in Washington and Idaho were at record highs on first cutting with strong demand. In 2019, demand started strong on higher quality first-cutting timothy, but it didn

July 2 2019 If it wasn’t so dramatic, maybe I wouldn’t talk so much about it, but the latest USDA estimate of 560,000 alfalfa hay acres in California for 2019 was down 10 percent from 2018 and 49 percent...

June 18 2019 In the past two weeks, the first new crop sales on timothy hay in Washington and sudan hay in the Imperial Valley were reported. Both hay types from those areas are sold mainly into the export market

June 4 2019 From the late 1990s up until about five or six years ago, I predicted what I thought the alfalfa hay market would do in the West each year or at least at the start of the season. The reality is that with...

May 20 2019 Rain that hit late last week and forecasted rain in the coming week not only delayed early new crop alfalfa hay production in several areas of the West but also pushed early new crop Supreme alfalfa h

May 7 2019 First-cutting alfalfa hay production will begin in the coming week in Idaho and Washington with Utah, Oregon, and the northern California harvests three to four weeks away. The question being as

April 23 2019 The once leading area of alfalfa hay production in California from Kern to Merced Counties is changing. With the tremendous shift to trees, mainly almonds, alfalfa hay acres have been declining. Almon

April 9 2019 Last week’s reported sales of 47,650 tons of alfalfa hay in Idaho included 46,000 tons that were contracts made by export buyers for 2019 crop alfalfa hay. Prices paid were about $15 per ton higher

March 26 2019 In the Central Valley of California, there is new crop alfalfa hay that is ready to be cut, but growers are waiting because of rain that is forecast in the middle of this week. Growers say that some f

March 12 2019 There was enough dry weather in the Imperial Valley the past couple of weeks for growers to put up some nice quality first cutting alfalfa hay. Weather has been a challenge with a rain event about eve