Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The spring rains have brought summer bales.
Farmers around the county have seen a marked increase in hay after production has been down in recent years.
“It’s not quite double the average yield,” said Colfax farmer Larry Cochran of his hay production.
In his 25 years growing hay on 75 acres, 1,100 bales was the top mark. This year, he had 1,260.
“This year I’m filling every crack in the barns I can find,” Cochran said.
Rain was key, but not the entire reason, he suggested.
“It never got too hot,” he said. “With all the rain and moisture and not-too-hot weather, it just kept growing.”
He said it all just took a little more time, to swath it, to bail it and to pick it up.
“It hasn’t affected my prices,” Cochran said. “I’m not raising top-quality hay.”
In the state of Washington, alfalfa production acreage is down this year, causing a shortage of hay. Much alfalfa planting has been foregone in favor of corn, which has been at a market high.
Many hay growers in Whitman County have just completed their second cutting for the year, with a third expected in September.
Ted Nealey, who runs 200 acres of alfalfa hay at Lower Union Flat, between Endicott and Lacrosse, has seen an increase too.
“We’re about a half a ton above average,” he said of the yield from his sub-irrigated crop.
“It was the more moisture this spring, then a half an inch of rain between cuttings.”
Nealey said most of his crop is compressed to about half the original bail size, cut into 18-inch cubes, then hauled to the Port of Tacoma and the Port of Seattle for export. Much of it goes to Japan and Korea.
“Hay has become a big export commodity of Washington,” he added.
Nealey said this is his best year of the last 10 to 15. All told, it’s a good time for hay.
“The three things; good weather, good yields and good prices,” Nealey said.
A third generation farmer, he took over the family farm in 1978.
Les Guske of LaCrosse has also had a good year for his 550 acres of sub-irrigated dry land hay. He reaped 2.5 tons per acre on his first cutting and said he’s at about that for the second cutting.
Guske now grows more hay than he does wheat.
“It used to be primarily wheat with a little hay, now it’s primarily hay with a little wheat,” he said.
Guske’s family homesteaded the land.
He sells a lot of hay to dairy farms in northwest Washington and in Canada.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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