2019 Year End Hay Observations, Lessons Learned and Changes

We had a great year in 2019, in spite of the early rain and later drought. I felt about half of our timothy had been invaded enough by orchard grass and fescue that I sold it as Timothy mixed grass, the rest - straight timothy.

With the drought, hardly any second cut yield.

The shortage of hay really showed me a lot of different customers and their REAL needs in hay. Most could give not a rat’s arse about hay verity (these are horse customers) - but wanted green, clean hay at the lowest price and preferably second cutting. Most could care less about forage analysis. However, we have a core of repeat customers that don’t mind paying for straight timothy - forage tested.

The joke around the barn were customer’s words, “I’ll take all you’ve got” which always translated to BS and no hay sale.

It was amazing how many customers bought our hay because that’s all they could find vs buying quality hay as the motive for spending money with us.

2020 will be another interesting year. We will have more timothy mixed grass and at the end if the season have a decision to make. Refurb completely some of our fields back into straight timothy or go all clean mixed grass hay.

As long as the core customers want and will pay the cost to grow forage tested timothy, we will continue that hay need beyond 2020. We’re going to plant some Teff this spring too, beyond that - it will be interesting to see if we have a hay shortage or glut in our area and the overall customer reaction to it.

Hope everyone has a great 2020 haying season!

Bill

2019 Year End Hay Observations, Lessons Learned and Changes