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Nebraska’s first cutting alfalfa yields good, expert worried about ‘severe’ hay shortage

Nebraska growers have been busy with their first cutting of alfalfa hay.

University of Nebraska Extension forage specialist Darren Redfearn tells Brownfield so far, the yields have been good. “We did have some issues with some rain occurring during some of the harvest and drying periods.  We also had this year something that we normally see but it seemed like it was more widespread and that was insect pressure early on.

Redfearn says those issues are uncommon during the first cutting. “Maybe what you might call a perfect storm,  They are things that we normally see that occur every year, but they tend to be separated but they happen to coincide at the same time this year,” he says.

He says Mother Nature will have the biggest impact on the second cutting especially with parts of the state needing rain.  “Those fields that are irrigated and as you tend to move out further west in Nebraska, I don’t think they’ll be impacted quite as much.  Although I am a bit concerned about these high temperatures that are currently going on that are forecast at least the end of this week and hopefully they’ll be a bit of reprieve later next week.”

He says without timely rains there could be a shortage of hay across the state this year. “If we don’t get some timely precipitation here we could be in a pretty severe hay shortage by the end of the summer.”

He says other parts of the state are likely to be worse off than others. “I do think we are going to see some reduction in our prairie grass hay.  There does seem to be quite a bit of cool season hay at least here in the southeast part of the state. I do think some other areas had some longer-term drought and are moisture deficient so overall I do think our grass hay production will be down.”

He says Mother Nature will be the biggest influencer for the third and fourth cuttings.