Should You Plan For A Hay Shortage This Season?

Fields of 2nd cut horse hay at Willowview Hill Farm, Stamford, NY

  

We have been producing organically grown hay for over 22 years, and 2021 has been by far our busiest ever. The hay has been flying out the door like never before.

The expression, 'buy now or cry later' has become a regular post on our social media platform. There is simply an unprecedented demand for 1st cut this year, and like many farmers around, the yield this year was not the best.

Our fellow farmers in CT and MA, saw a poor 1st cut due to the damage done to the grasses by last year's drought conditions. Meantime further north, NH, VT and ME saw drought conditions this Spring so yields were down there as well. 

On our home turf here in the Catskill Mountains in NY, we check multiple weather forecast daily during hay season to hunt down those blocks of 3 good days of sunshine, that will be sufficient to cure our hay to our required 12-14% moisture by Mother Nature. It can be cured faster using applications of chemicals, dry down agents and preservatives, but as many of you know we keep our hay organic to prevent equine respiratory inflammations that can be caused by these agents. 

On a sidebar ~ it is also good to know the provenance of your hay. Round Up Ready Alfalfa and other grass seeds are regularly used by farmers. If you prefer the non-chemical or GMO hay for your horses, do your due diligence before buying.

The front end of June had sufficient good weather for us to harvest much of our 1st cut round without rain. Then there was a long wait, through torrential rains into July, before we could finally get back on the fields to finish the 1st cut.

Thankfully our lands were improved by the DEC 20 plus years ago, and are well drained with tile drains and large 500 hundred year flood swales that take excess water away to the NYC watershed system to our neighbors down south. For many farmers, their fields were too wet to even attempt using large equipment to bring in the hay. We were blessed to be able to finish up 1st cut with no rain damage. 

However the final fields we completed farming had much 2nd growth coming through due in part to the lateness of the cut and in part due to the heavy rainfall amounts. This means those fields will not have time to regrow a 2nd cut so we will definitely have a much lower 2nd cut yield as a result.

The life and times of farming. There is always something. High diesel prices this year, fires out west and need for hay supplies there plus increased demand for hay supplies in the Carolinas and further South due to farms that have lost hay fields due to mold/fungus issues with the wet weather have increased hay prices as supplies are dwindling. 

The export market has also seen a surge in demand so the hay commodities markets continue to rise in prices.

For us, this year has seen our hay flying out the door and our little stack of hay is the smallest ever for this time of year. We have just 350 bales left to sell at this time, the remainder is for our horses' winter needs.

1st Cut at Willowview Hill Farm -

 

While the hay yield here at Willowview Hill Farm was not stellar in the 1st round, the 2nd cut is still to come in and due to the rain we hope to see a boost in those fields that we did manage to get on before the wet July weather set in. We'll see.

When you farm you know nothing can be taken for granted. As I am fond of reporting, equipment only breaks down when you are using it and despite regular service farm machinery has a way of catching you by surprise just when the clouds are gathering and threatening your perfectly cured ready for baling crop. If the machinery doesn't catch you out, the price of diesel might. The long hours spent sitting on the tractor are not mindless, because you have to stay alert when managing heavy equipment, but they are tiring and boring. 

 

Hayfields at Willowview Hill Farm - Looks pretty but it is a lot of work!

During cutting and baling in particular, you spend much time twisted around to the right in the tractor seat, checking the grass lines and that the equipment behind you is operating correctly and that the hay is being properly fed into the machines.

Then of course there is the heavy labor needed in sweltering hot days unloading wagons of small squares onto a stack and clambering about hoisting weighty conveyors about from deck of wagon to the different positions on the stack. As you get higher in the metal building the hotter the temperatures rise. 

So next time you think to complain about the price you need to pay for hay, think of all the work and effort and frankly stress, that has gone into making it.

When the hay is safely stored, the producer then gets to load it all back out to trucks and trailers and handle it a second time. Meantime the hayfields need tending with lime, or organic/chemical fertilizers for the next season. All this needs to be funded.

If you call your farmer for hay and you don't receive a call you back right away please be patient - it's highly likely the farmer is busy working hard, sometimes until late into the evening, sometimes even overnight, trying to manage the task of haymaking.

In fact now I've written this I'm beginning to wonder why we do it! 

Guess it's for those 4-legged wee beasties in the barn we love so much.