News

Better hay supplies will pressure prices

A livestock market analyst says the news is generally good for cattle producers’ near-term input costs for hay.  Agriculture economist Jessica Sampson with the Livestock Marketing Information Center tells Brownfield Ag News that production is increasing for alfalfa and grass hay.

“USDA just released their most recent crop production report and it had alfalfa hay production up by about 1 percent compared to 2014, and other hay up by about 2 percent,” Sampson told Brownfield.

She says the increase is mostly because of better yields, but that’s not the case everywhere.  Greater amounts of rain this season have ranged from blessing to curse.

“We’ve seen it really help hay production in some areas and other areas are really struggling with either hay quality, getting the hay off the field because it’s being rained on, or drought if we talk about the western side of the U.S. and just not having the water to grow the hay,” said Sampson.

For the week just ended, a report from USDA Market News in Iowa says alfalfa hay is “extremely rare.”  According to the report, growers believe prices will increase for top-end alfalfa bales because of the weather hindering mowing and baling.

AUDIO: Jessica Sampson (6 min. MP3)