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...

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 lowe...

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...

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 so many factors, both domestic and export, including weather, it has become harder to estimate what prices will do.For example, look at the early alfalfa hay market in Idaho. A few months ago, some people were predicting new crop, first-cutting Supreme alfalfa hay in...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...