In eastern Idaho last week, one sale on Supreme alfalfa hay brought $200 fob the stack. While there weren’t any actual sales reported on Fair quality (feeder hay), there were bids of $70 per ton
A picture is worth a thousand words and what topic is more pertinent to haymaking than weather? Here are this week's weather maps from the National Weather Service. It's still dry in the West and st
With new crop hay being harvested throughout the region, auctioneer Wayne Kruse of Centennial Livestock Auctions in Fort Collins, Colo., reports demand for hay is not particularly high. He adds
Many hay producers are frustrated by the rainy weather, acknowledges Mark Sulc, extension forage agronomist at The Ohio State University. They know that forage quality is declining with each day that
Most reporters to USDA continue to note light volumes as new crop alfalfa and grass is being harvested. Below are some alfalfa and grass prices being paid (FOB) for selected states. Also check the USD
Premium quality alfalfa large square bales brought $152.50 to $177.50 per ton at the Tim Slack Auction & Realty hay sale in Lancaster, Wis., on June 26. According to their website, buyer numbers i
Hay report after hay report from many parts of the country (sans Southern California) bemoans the impact that massive amounts and/or frequency of rain has had on trying to harvest high-quality
Rainy weather from mid-May to mid-June and with forecasts of above 100° temperatures over the next 10 days, supplies of premium and supreme alfalfa hay are well below normal in the West
Often the most memorable parts of a family vacation are the ones that weren't a component of the original itinerary. A similar scenario occurred recently on a Hay & Forage Grower editorial trip
By Glenn Shewmaker Extension Forage Specialist University of Idaho May stocks of hay are up in Idaho, but the untold story is that much of it is junk hay. We had dry weather up until it was tim
Most reporters to USDA noted light volumes as new crop alfalfa was being harvested in much of the country. Often there were not tests on all quality levels. Some locations mentioned that demand was st
The April year-to-year price received for all hay types declined by $15 per ton across the 27 reporting states in USDA's Agricultural Prices report released May 28. This was not surprising
After dry conditions in the West during the first few months of 2015, things changed in May. Some areas received record rainfall, which helped bring needed moisture but brought in an unstable weather pattern
Frequent rains kept Streater, Ill., hay grower Ron Tombaugh from getting first-cut harvested as early as he would have liked. Tombaugh raises nearly 300 acres of alfalfa in north central Illinois
Average feeding rates of dry alfalfa hay declined in California during 2014 as the average cost of hay pushed over $300 per ton. This trend was documented in the California Cost of Production Annual 2014,
Mike Rankin here . . . and for the past nearly 27 years, I was the crops and soils agent with the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Fond du Lac County. Previous to attending graduate school at Iowa
Alfalfa hay buyers and sellers now have a way to know the relative feed value (RFV) of every bale. A new on-baler system calculates and records RFV as each bale is made, and can assign that value by attaching
When output doesn’t match between machines, hay harvest efficiency goes down the tubes. The author is an associate editor for Hoard’s Dairyman and an animal science graduate of Corn
