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In Today's eHay
Weekly
June 15, 2010
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Hay & Forage Grower
USDA
Hay Prices
Weather
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Rick Mooney, Editor, eHay Weekly, at
hfg@hayandforage.com
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or
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Managing Editor, fholin@hayandforage.com
For specific information from past issues of eHay Weekly and
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function in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage.
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Major rain events last week brought some much-needed relief to hay
growers and livestock producers in East Texas. But locals say it still
remains to be seen how the welcome precipitation will affect the
remainder of the growing season.
Texas A&M Agri-Life Extension agent Aaron Low reports that most of
Cherokee County received 3” of rain mid-week. Heading into the week,
rainfall for the county was 10-12” below normal for the year.
“We had plenty of precipitation through the winter,” says Low.
“But then, in March, the water just shut off and things stayed
extremely dry all the way through until last week. That rain greened
things up, but we’re still way behind on moisture.”
Click
here to read the entire story.
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With so many options on types and varieties, producers can get a
“kid in a candy store” feeling when trying to make a decision about
which summer-annual grass to plant in order to boost cattle numbers or
build hay supplies, says University of Nebraska Extension forage
specialist Bruce Anderson.
He notes that there are basically six types of major summer-annual
forage grasses – sudangrass, sorghum-sudan hybrids, forage sorghum
(a.k.a. cane or sorgo), foxtail millet, pearl millet and teff. “Each
one has its own strengths and weaknesses,” says Anderson. “So base
your choice primarily on how you plan to use it.”
For pasture, he recommends sudangrass or pearl millet. Both are leafy,
regrow rapidly and present less danger of prussic acid poisoning than
other annual grasses.
If you’re looking to produce hay or greenchop, he suggests selecting
sorghum-sudan hybrids or pearl millet. They yield well and have good
feed value over two or three cuttings. “On sandy soils, though,
foxtail millet may be a better choice for summer hay,” he says. “It
dries fast, doesn’t regrow after cutting and handles dry soils
well.”
Cane and teff are other hay options. Cane can be high yielding, but
it’s lower in feed value and dries more slowly after cutting than the
hybrids or millets. Teff can produce a soft, leafy, high-quality horse
hay.
For silage, Anderson recommends choosing a forage sorghum hybrid with
high grain production. “They can't be beat for tonnage or for feed
value,” he says.
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Cornell Cooperative Extension in Northern New York and the Dairy
One Forage Lab, Ithaca, recently announced county and regional winners
of the 2010 NNY Forage Quality Cup. The competition gave farmers in the
state’s six northernmost counties the opportunity to submit forage
samples for analysis and win cash prizes.
Samples were judged on a county-by-county and regional basis for
forage-quality analysis and a milk/ton calculation based on the
University of Wisconsin MILK2006 program. Farmers submitted entries in
two categories: corn silage (non-BMR) and haylage/baleage, and received
a standard forage analysis from the Dairy One Forage Lab for each entry.
Jim and Dan Finney of Finney Family Farm in Adams, NY, captured top
regional honors in the contest’s haylage category. Dan, Don and Dale
Tetreault of Hidden View Farm in Champlain were runners-up. In the corn
silage category, top honors went to Dale and Steve Farney, Silvery Falls
Farm in Lowville. Runner-up honors in the category went to Dennis
Forrester, Forrester Farm, Henderson.
Six county-level winners were also named in each category. The top-rated
samples in each county received $50 cash prizes; the regional winners
won $200 cash awards.
Learn more about
the contest and see a listing of county winners.
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“The hay is down ... it's wet, and we're waiting for shiney
sun to get it up.” – Yakima County, WA, dairy farmer commenting
on how steady rains in recent weeks have slowed first-crop hay harvest
in many parts of the Northwest. Source: KIMA-TV, Yakima.
“Anyone who drove through western South Dakota last summer
certainly understands the severity of a grasshopper infestation and the
detrimental effects grasshoppers can have on our rangelands.” –
U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) in a recent letter to USDA chief Tom
Vilsack. Johnson was requesting additional assistance for responding to
a possible grasshopper infestation in the state this summer. U.S. Sen.
John Thune (R-SD) and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) also signed
the letter. Source: Argus Leader, Sioux Falls.
“Historically, a drought like the Dust Bowl would happen every 100
years, but what we've found is that modern droughts are shorter and can
be more severe.” – Keith Cherkauer, Purdue University ag
engineer, commenting on a study aimed at forecasting the likelihood of
future droughts in Indiana and Illinois. Source: Purdue
University News Service.
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Pennsylvania
The growing season is off to a great start at Heidel Hollow Farm near
Germansville.
“We’re about a week and a half ahead of schedule on everything,”
says owner David Fink. “Ordinarily, we don’t get going with our
first-crop harvest until Memorial Day. This year we were able to start
cutting in mid-May. Yields have been excellent, too.”
Fink puts up alfalfa-grass mixed hay, orchardgrass and timothy hay on
800 acres. The majority of the hay is processed into double-compressed
bales weighing 35 or 80 lbs and exported. The equine industry is his
primary market. Heidel Hollow also buys hay for processing from growers
in a half-dozen states.
He describes sales over the past year or so as fair. “Product has been
moving,” he says. “Prices vary month to month, but over the last 12
months they’ve been up around 5% on average.”
Learn more about Heidel
Hollow Farm. To contact Fink, phone 610-767-2409 or email hhollow@ptd.net.
Utah
A colder-than-normal spring, followed by a stretch of rainy weather at
the start of the harvest season, has crimped yields at Neal Briggs’
haymaking operation near Syracuse.
“Normally, we get half of our total yield for the year from first
crop,” says Briggs, who puts up alfalfa, grass and alfalfa-grass hay
in small square bales on 300 irrigated acres. His primary market is made
up of horse owners in the Salt Lake City area. “This year, though,
with the weather the way it’s been, we figure our yield for first crop
will only be one-fourth to one-half of normal.”
Briggs started first-crop harvest in late May, about two weeks later
than normal. “The crop just didn’t come on,” he says. “The
plants were small, very short. Then right when we started cutting, it
started raining. And it’s been raining off and on since. There’s a
lot of hay down in the area getting rained on.”
As a result, pressure has already started to build on local hay prices.
Briggs has been selling his best-quality hay at $5/bale. Last year the
price was $4-4.50/bale. “Even some bleached hay that we had left over
from last year is bringing $4/bale,” he says. “I’ve never seen a
year like this. And it’s not over yet.”
To contact Briggs, phone 801-725-0149.
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Alfalfa growers in some parts of the country will want to be on the
lookout for alfalfa caterpillars, says Jay Chism, University of Missouri
Extension agronomist.
Chism reports finding some caterpillars while scouting fields in
southwestern Missouri earlier this month. The pest is normally taken out
with a natural fungal pathogen and does not require control. “Under
dry conditions, though, the pathogen may not be prevalent, so continue
to watch your fields for signs of caterpillar feeding,” he says.
Chism found no potato leafhoppers in alfalfa on his scouting trip. He
recommends using a sweep net and taking five sweeps. The threshhold is
reached on alfalfa 2” tall when you catch one leafhopper in the five
sweeps. If the alfalfa is 6-10” tall, one leafhopper per sweep is the
threshold, and at 10-12” tall it’s two insects/sweep. “If you are
growing potato leafhopper-resistant varieties you can increase these
thresholds threefold,” he says.
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Leading forage and corn agronomists, ethanol producers and industry
representatives from throughout the Corn Belt will gather for an
Alfalfa/Corn Rotations Workshop in Iowa on June 29-30. The workshop’s
goal is to develop an action plan for reaping the environmental and
economic benefits of an alfalfa-corn rotation system as it relates to
producing cellulosic ethanol.
Speakers at the two-day workshop will address alfalfa and corn as
companion crops, ethanol from alfalfa, economics of alfalfa-corn
systems, cellulosic economics and carbon footprint and more. There will
be a panel discussion featuring representatives from leading ethanol and
enzyme companies. Also planned is a series of roundtable working
sessions on agronomic, environmental, logistical, and economic and
policy issues. The workshop will be held at the Pioneer Hi-Bred Carver
Center in Johnston, IA.
To see an agenda, go to the National Alfalfa and
Forage Alliance Web site.
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June 16-17 -- 2010 Hay Expo, Matt and Jana Hamlett farm,
Strawberry Point, IA. Details at www.HayExpo.com or call 866-264-7469.
June 21-23 -- American Forage And Grassland Council Annual
Conference, University Plaza Hotel, Springfield, MO. Get details.
June 23 -- Dodge County/Fond du Lac County (WI) Forage Council
Twilight Meeting, Lemmenes Custom Farms, LLC, Waupun. Get more information.
For a complete list of upcoming events, click here.
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