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Putnam said the price for medium and lower quality has “fallen through the cracks.”
“Last year, I would have said, ‘You can almost forget about quality… you can sell medium and low quality hay for well over $200 a ton.’ This year, you can’t do that.”
Putnam says lower quality hay is going for from $160 a ton to as little as $100 a ton, “and further south it’s worse.” Some are finding it hard to find a buyer, he says, “and that makes the value of the hay zero.”
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One strategy for getting higher quality, while sacrificing some yield, is to plant more dormant varieties rather than non-dormant varieties. Putnam says non-dormant varieties can yield 1.5 to 2 tons per acre more, but because dormant varieties grow slower, they lack longer, lignified stems that help account for lower quality for non-dormants.
A question was asked whether consolidation among private genetics suppliers could pose a problem by reducing the number of varieties available. Putnam said it could. He says he is particularly troubled that the lower number - three suppliers compared to what had been 10 a few years ago - could mean resistance to holding public trials.
“Companies sometimes want to do their own trials and not go head-to-head with competitors,” Putnam said.
