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Hoyt was the lead off speaker at the 2015 Western Alfalfa & Forage Symposium held in Reno, Nev. in December. He delved into the many factors which impact alfalfa prices.
Among the factors include the ongoing drought, milk prices, slowly falling California milk cow numbers, large hay inventories held by dairies, acreage competition from tree nuts in California, alfalfa hay export strength, plus feed competition from corn silage, wheat straw, and almond hulls.
Overall, Hoyt glared into his crystal ball, saying the strongest prices for alfalfa growers in 2016 may be in higher quality hay.
“The general industry feeling is that supplies of feeder dry-cow hay remain large in the West so that market will likely continue at depressed price levels. How long will it take that market to clean out? I don’t know.”
That said, 2016 season could be a tough season for feeder hay prices. A lot depends on how much snow falls this winter in the West which could increase the demand for feeder hay for beef cattle producers.
Hoyt’s resume includes more than 25 years as a marketing specialist with the California Market News program, plus nine years with the California Agricultural Statistics Service in Sacramento.
