By Chandra L. Mattingly, Journal-Press Staff Reporter
To make hay when the sun shines, you first have to have some rain.
The combination of a late freeze in April, followed by drought and high temperatures, has made hay scarce in Dearborn County, said farm specialists and area farmers.
"We just haven't had any growth or regrowth," said USDA Farm Service Agent Mike Kohlsdorf.
Hay farmers usually can cut the same hayfields two or three or more times during the growing season, but this year even the first cutting was reduced by about 50 percent due to weather, he said.
The second and third cuttings have been reduced by 75 percent or more, said Kohlsdorf.
Mark Hall, New Alsace, a hay farmer for 30 years, got out of major hay production three years ago due to his growing farm equipment business. But he expects hay to be extremely short this fall and winter, he said.
Not only has the weather been uncooperative, but high corn prices enticed many farmers to switch crops.
"There's so many people that plowed hay fields up and put them in corn," said Hall.
So even without the freeze and drought, there would have been less hay available, he said.
"It's going to be the worst hay year in history. There's never been a year like this year's going to be," he said.
Still a hay broker, he is considering hauling hay by the semi load from out west to sell locally, said Hall, who provides hay for the Cincinnati Zoo.
But while that might help out locally, he doesn't think there will be enough hay in the nation to feed the nation's livestock, he said.
That will lead to some tough decisions as owners are forced to reduce their herds, said Hall. But while cattle producers can sell cattle for meat, horse owners do not have that option as all horse slaughterhouses in the nation currently are closed.
"They're going to be turning horses loose like they do dogs on county roads," he said.
Use reserves?
Folks already are feeding hay to both cattle and horses, said Kohlsdorf.
"Pastures are basically non-productive right now," he explained.
"... If we're feeding hay now, what's that going to leave for winter?" he asked.
The Dearborn County Farm Service Agency is trying to get permission for emergency haying and grazing of Conservation Reserve, he said. That would allow land in the Conservation Reserve Program to be used as pasture or cut for hay, he said.
"We had to show at least a 40 percent reduction in rainfall for the prior four months," he said. But the first statistics he looked at, from Friendship, weren't that severe because scattered rainfalls have watered that area more than most of the county.
The weather station at Central Elementary School, Lawrenceburg, however, showed a 68 percent reduction in rainfall when he was able to get that information from Janice Ziegler, the school's librarian, said Kohlsdorf. Using that data, he now has applied for emergency CRP use.
But he questions how much that will help.
"All that stuff is pretty matured. There's not going to be a lot of feed nutrients to it," he said, explaining the plants will be fairly woody.
"If you were a termite, you could live on it," he said.
Livestock owners are looking for hay now, trying to make sure they've got supplies in before winter hits, said Dearborn County Agriculture and Natural Resource Extension Educator Nick Held, Purdue Extension Service of Dearborn County.
Were the weather just hot, or just dry, the hay crops would have fared better, he said. But the combination of hot and dry is really affecting the crops.
Especially hit are the cold-season perennial grasses: fescue, orchard grass, timothy, he said. The annual warm-season grasses, such as sorghum sudan, have done a little better, he said.
"People who have planted some of that are still cutting it," he said.
Hay prices are ranging anywhere from $3 up to $7 for square bales, which usually range from about 30 pounds to 50 pounds each, he said. A lot of people expect hay to go up to as high as $10 per bale by the end of the summer, he said.
Hall is not optimistic about future rainfall making much of a difference.
"It would have to be consistent rain ... on a weekly basis," he said.
But Sherman Hughes, Farmers Retreat, offered a more positive note.
"It's still just the middle of August. We could have a late cutting," even as late as October, if we get the rain, said Hughes.
Chairman of the Farm Service Agency County Committee, Hughes said even Farmers Retreat which has gotten more rain than most of the county is "a little short" on hay and pastures.
"Probably we'll chop some corn and put up some silage, maybe look at baling some cornstalks," he said.
©Journal Press 2007