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Farmers basking in high hay prices |
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Wednesday, 23 July 2008 |
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By Emily Hone BLACKFOOT — Farmers who grow hay are finding themselves sitting on fields of green gold this summer as the price per ton clilmbs higher and higher.
As hay farmers head into their second cutting of the season, Judi Hale, who operates a custom hay harvesting business with her husband, Don, said they’re receiving calls from all over the country from people looking to buy hay.
Hay that a few years ago was selling for $80 to $90 a ton is commanding as much as $220 per ton, this summer Hale said.
Although the Hales won’t be asking quite that much, Judi said, there are dairies in the Twin Falls area that are contracting hay out of the field for that price. “And they’re paying a bonus for quality,” she added.
“We’re asking $200,” Hale said, “but telling people to ask around to see whether they can get it cheaper.”
Cole Erb, co-owner of the Blackfoot Livestock Commission, said the slaughter cows and bulls are being sold at high rates because ranchers are culling their herds early this year due to the high cost of hay.
“Last week we sold 270 cows and 50 bulls,” Erb said. “That’s double over what it was a year ago.”
He said slaughter cows and bulls are those destined to become hamburger, and ranchers normally cull their herds of the older animals in late September or early October. Reading from a quote in a national beef magazine, Erb said the selling of slaughter cows is being likened to 1976, which it said saw the largest cow liquidation in U.S. history.
While his business may be booming now, ERB said, it’s not something he’s happy to see because the cow liquidation will take its toll in the long run. “It’s going to reduce the numbers of cattle throughout the region,” he predicted.
At the Hale farm, Judi was swathing an 11-year-old hay field and said it will be plowed up and replanted this fall. “We normally only keep a field for five years,” she said.
Wheat prices that rose to the highest in history last year had the Hales as well as many other farmers switching crops this year.
“Everybody got used to $2.50 wheat,” she said, “but a world shortage shot the price up. The price went as high as $20 a bushel in some places because there wasn’t any wheat to be found. Even the storehouses were empty and will have to be refilled because of droughts and other weather related causes around the world.”
They normally cut 80 acres of hay three times a year, Hale said, but this year put half the acreage into wheat to bring in some cash.
“We contracted our wheat for $7 a bushel last spring. We did it to have money to pay the bills, but we’re going to do way better than that.”
She said 40 acres of $7 wheat producing 50 bushels per acre would pay the bills nicely, but they will do much better than that this year.
The cool, wet spring has been good for the wheat crop, not only saving on power for irrigation, but increasing the yield. “We’re going to see over 100 bushels an acre,” she said.
High hay prices have created a busier than usual summer for her, Hale said. “Even people with a little patch of pasture have called wanting it cut and baled for their few head of horses because they don’t want to have to pay those high prices this winter. I’ve cut patches as small as an acre and a half, and some of them are pretty rough.”
But that doesn’t bother her, she said, climbing back into the cab of her 880 Disc Mower. “I have air conditioning, a radio and air ride seats, so I just float along. It’s actually a pretty good place to be on a hot afternoon like today.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 July 2008 )
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