Spring Irrigation

April brought some warm days here to Central Oregon, and warm days also means the start of irrigation season.  As I wrap up spring planting, my focus turns to managing irrigation, and considering we have had 3 inches of rain since Feburary, water is very important.

 

Our water is available April 15th, although most of our neighbors don’t turn on until early May.  We irrigate mostly with wheel lines, and it took us a few days to get everything ready for the season (gaskets, checking drains, flushing lines, etc).  We got most everything on by the 25th, and most of our fields are wet.

Because of a maintainence issue, our irrigation district will be shutting off water from the 6th until the 11th, so we are pushing to get our pre-emergant herbicide watered down on our garbanzo beans.  This means 8 hour sets and a whole lot of labor.   However, we will be ahead of the water, and set up to take advantage of the warmer days in the forcast.

Last spring was a real wet one, and we were shut off most of May, which saved a whole lot of power costs, but delayed 1st cutting hay by 10 days.  It does not look like this spring will be too wet, and if we can get some heat the hay will look real good.

Putting Fallow Ground Back Into Production

Many farms and land owners make  the decision to dry up ground for multiple reasons.  Perhaps prices were down, or the farmer wanted to concentrate on better ground, there are many reasons to dry up ground temporarily but when it is time to get the ground back into production there are some issues to address to ensure a strong, healthy hay stand.

I am doing some custom field work putting dry acres back into production this spring.   I will do the tillage and plant oat hay as a cover crop and then Alfalfa in the fall.  The field has wheel lines and has been dry for over three years.  Currently it looks like an ugly mess of dry mustard, tumble weeds, as well as some hardy grass that managed to eke enough water out of the dry sand to survive.  Here is a list of my top concerns as I approach putting this field back into production:

• I know that as soon as the soil is irrigated, all the weed seed will sprout.  The oats will grow vigorously in the cool spring and should choke out most of the weeds.  Any skips or areas where the seed sprouts poorly, the weeds will overtake and be a problem.
• One benefit of the dry sandy soil is that there is no compaction out in the field, but I will have to make sure I do my tillage work without adding any compaction.
• The soil tested very poor, there is hardly any residual nitrogen or other nutrients. I am going to gamble and not put down much P or K in order to save some fertilizer costs.  However I will put down quite a bit of N for the oats and then I will put down P, K, and some sulfur in the fall for the new seeding Alfalfa.
• Although in my case I will not be irrigating, one thing to think about is the irrigation system.  If the mainline and pipes have been sitting for multiple years, you might as well count on replacing all the gaskets and some sprinklers. it often takes a week or so to iron out all the kinks.
• The borders and fence lines of this field is covered in weeds, so I will burn as much as I can safely and disk areas that are too dry to burn safely.  Those weeds could potentially ruin the Alfalfa next year, so controlling them this year will be a high priority.

Right now is a prime time to get that dry field back into production with prices the way they are. Get on the ball early and get control of those pesky weeds and you will have a clean, green field in no time!

Oat Hay Test Plot

I have been doing some reasearch on oat hay and I have been interested in finding which variety that will produce a high-yield crop without sacrificing too much palatability  In 2011 I had a small field with two varieties, Everleaf and Charisma, and the Everleaf variety was almost 6 inches taller than the Charisma variety and about 10 days less mature. 

Everleaf had a thick stalk with lots of leaf, and I think it is a good variety for cattlemen chasing high yields and can sacrifice some palatability.  However because of the thick stalk, some horses might pick through it and waste too much.  The Charisma was a pretty good utility variety, as it was more palatable, but with reduced yield. 

Because of how tall the Everleaf grew, I had to shut off the wheel line earlier than I wanted which speeded up the maturity process.  If it was under pivot, I would have hit it with another 2 inches of water and I think I could have gotten another half ton/acre.  

I went to Corvallis Feed & Seed company, a seed company that moves quite a bit of oat seed and asked for 6 samples of varieties and I planted a test plot.  The varieties I planted were:

• Grey
• Swan
• Texas Red
• Charisma
• Montazuma
• Everleaf
• I also planted some triticale

We will see what the different varieties produce this summer. In the meantime, I think I will be planting some Texas Red and Everleaf this spring for the horse and dairy market.

If you have any thoughts on varieties, feel free to comment below. I would expecially like to hear from consumers.

Horse Barns Converting to Big Bales

Horse barns locally here in Central Oregon, as well as in other areas have traditionally preferred hay put up in small bales versus the mid-sized and big bales (800-2000lbs).  This is because the small bales can be handled one at a time easier and no equipment is required.  But with this spike in hay prices, I have had some success in getting some big bale horse barn interest. This post is about the pros and cons of big bales and how a horse barn can convert to them and potentially save time and money.

Many hay producers have settled on the 3X4 bale size because then they can stack the bales 3 high on the trailer versus 4X4 bales that can only be stacked 2 high because of height restrictions when hauling.  3X4 bales can weight between 1000-1500 lbs based on kind of hay it is and moisture levels.   Alfalfa usually is the heaviest, while straw is the lightest.  If a horse barn uses 200 tons a year, it would be roughly 290 big bales versus 4,000 100lb small bales.   Big bales can be stacked as high as the loader can reach, while small bales are usually stacked no more than 18 feet high.

The main advantage I see in big bales for horse barns is the ease of transportation, both from the farm to the barn, and even from barn to the various corrals.  Many trucking companies no longer haul small bales because of the hassle of unloading and the liability issues of losing their load.  Farmers and small trucking operations still haul small bales, but it’s just a big hassle. Big bales however take far less time to load and unload, and they ride so much better than a loose, wobbly stack of small bales.   Big bales do take a machine to unload, either a grapple, squeeze, or bale spears, but unloading a semi of small bales is usually done with a grapple or squeeze as well. 

Once the semi reaches the horse facility, it must be unloaded with a tractor or backhoe that has some weight. Even unloading one bale at a time, the leverage of a 1300 lb bale 8 feet in the air is considerable but a backhoe or a heavy built 80hp tractor usually has no problem. I use a bale spear that I built myself for $300 and chains or bolts on to the front bucket of a loader and it works great! So if a horse facility does not have a heavy enough tractor, chances are they have a connection with someone who does own a backhoe or another piece of equipment heavy enough to unload a semi and then they just chain or bolt on the spear and they are in business! Once the bales are unloaded, they can be handled with a 40hp tractor pretty easy. Most small Kubotas or other small tractors have loaders with over 2000 lb capacity as long as the bale is not lifted to high.  Using a small tractor, the bales can be transported easily all over the facility. Spears are also manufactured for 3-point hitches, and then the bales can be moved around and the bucket is usable for other jobs.  A 3-point hitch have much higher load ratings than a loader and the center of gravity is lower so the tractor is more stable.

In addition to the ease of transportation, big bales are usually cheaper per ton and more readily available. Big bales are almost always $10-$20 cheaper per ton because of the lower baling cost for the farmer. However hay farmers with big bales almost always require semi-load lots versus small loads. But if the horse facility has more than 10 horses, a semi load should be no problem.

The last main benefit of big bales is that they store much better out in the weather. When stacked, the top 6 inches or so of the top bales absorb most of the moisture, leaving most of the hay in great condition even for horses. If tarped, the bales are near barn-stored quality if barn space is an issue.

In conclusion, big bales offer many advantages for horse facilities. They are easier to transport from the hay producer, easier to haul around the horse barn, as well as cheaper on a per ton basis. They remove much of the stress of hauling and they even store better out in the weather.

Grain Versus Hay Update

The last few months I have been mentioning how grain has been taking acres out of hay production in 2011. This was due to high grain prices along with other variables, (read this post), so I wanted to write a little update for the horse owners out there.

As of today, Soft White Wheat (SWW) can be contracted for $6.53 a bushel delivered to Mid Columbia Producers on the Columbia River. Now I use 100 bushel as my target yield but that is a pretty conservative number, many guys get as high as 150 bushels/acre but using 100 bushels that is an income of $653/acre.

Orchard Grass hay is mostly sold in the fall for market price and very little is contracted.  The are many factors that goes into the hay price and it is very hard to predict as a farmer what to expect per ton. I have been using $200 a ton as my price for next year, it might be higher, but I don’t think I will be willing to go lower based on my outrages input costs projections. I use 4 ton/acre as my yield which is also conservative but I rather come out ahead at the end of the year than below my expectations.  4 ton means $800/acre income for the year.

So I am expecting around $650 an acre for my wheat, and $800 an acre for hay, now Hard Red Wheat, (HRW) can sometimes pencil a little better than SWW but I don’t have the latest price for September and I am planning on growing SWW in 2012.

Now for inputs, I figure my SWW inputs right at $475/acre with out equipment, and my hay inputs to be $520/acre also without equipment. So before equipment costs,  hay looks like a clear winner  but once equipment comes into the picture, hay starts looking more and more rough.

Wheat takes one piece of equipment to harvest, a combine. I figure my equipment cost per acre to be around $20 per acre, and cheaper the more acres I harvest.  Hay however takes a swather, rake, baler and stack wagon or other means to get the hay off the field, as well as tractors to run all the implements. I figure at least $100 per acre for the equipment costs in the harvesting. Now that number gets cheaper somewhat the more acres you do, but I think it illustrates the picture very well.

So in the end, wheat with an income of $653 and an expense of $495 leaves a conservative profit margin of $158 an acre. Hay has an income of $800 and an expense of $620 per acre for a profit of $180 an acre. So on paper, hay still looks a little better, even after the large equipment expense. But as a farmer, there are other factors that are not reflected on paper. Hay must be irrigated all season, while wheat is finished in July, and it sure feels good to shut the pumps off early.  Another factor is that wheat can be contracted and there is no worry about selling the wheat at the end of harvest.  Hay has to be sold to the clients and the farmer usually has to deal with many people buying the hay and most is not sold until November or December.  Another big issue is that orchard grass that is spring planted takes most of season to get established so the farmer has to think a whole year away on spring planted grass. 

I will be getting some new land in 2012 to farm and at this point with these current prices I will keep the best fields in orchard grass, but any fields that have any sign of weakness will be disked under and put into wheat. The land that I grew wheat in last year will be mostly put into seed peas or another legume to break the desease cycle, except for some acres that were fallow before I put in wheat in 2011.

If you have any questions please comment!

Which Hay Market To Pursue?

I am the planning type, and people like me go crazy in the winter as we sit and look at our cold, wet fields and plan for next year. I have run literally hundreds of scenarios through my head in the last couple months as I prepare for next year.  One big choice however looms for me and perhaps other farmers in Oregon.  If we are going to stay in the hay business, which hay market are we going to cater to for the next few year?  In Oregon, the difference between the cattle and the horse market is pretty much night and day and I think that a grower has to dedicate him or herself to one or the other in order to succeed.

Making a decision on which hay market to be in is not just a one year commitment.  The horse market pretty much requires small bales and most horse owners prefer orchard grass or timothy hay.  The cattle market is almost exclusively alfalfa hay and most operations take big bales.  So right off the bat, we see that there are two separate lines of equipment, as well as two separate products to grow for the two markets. There are a lot of variables in this discussion, but the one I want to focus on in this post is supply and demand.

Unlike wheat or corn, a hay-field usually lasts at least 5 years before it needs plowed under and replanted.  because of this, when I am making the decision on which hay crop I will plant, I consider what the demand will be in the next 3-4 years.  As of right now, both markets are red-hot. Horse hay is going for over $240 a ton here locally in Central Oregon, while high-test dairy alfalfa is the same or higher. Usually alfalfa is $20 or so a ton cheaper, but right now that price difference is gone. These high prices make the hay market look real attractive obviously, but I remember 2009 when prices spiked like this, and in 2010, prices were right back in the $130 range.

However I see something different in the hay markets going forward. Cattle numbers are at a 50 year low right now, and alfalfa still is commanding a great price. It is hard to imagine cattle numbers to keep dropping much in 2012, especially as the global economy gets back on its feet. Milk prices are back up and as long as dairymen get those checks, I don’t see any reason why alfalfa demand will drop at all next year. Alfalfa takes a year to establish in high altitude areas, so if the acres come back into hay from wheat and corn, the new high-test, high altitude hay hitting the market won’t be until 2013.  Of course if you are reading this in warmer climates, your new seeding alfalfa is probably coming right along and you will be all set for 2012, but premium high altitude dairy hay will be planted this spring and one good cutting will be taken off this next year. (Forage hay might flood the market if we see a rise in new seeding alfalfa fields.)  All in all, seems like the supply will be pretty constant of what we saw this last year, a warm spring might help 1st cutting yields, but I don’t predict a huge deluge of alfalfa acres planted.

Now for the horse market. I am amazed how the orchard grass prices have been slowly climbing all year long! I thought that we would hit a ceiling at around $220 a ton, but I see grass hay for as much as $270 a ton.  This year especially in Central Oregon, many farmers chose to rotate their grass fields out and there was a whole lot less hay put up for the horse market. I think that the demand for horse hay in 2012 will be down from this year as the economy forces horse owners to liquidate their animals. Feeding one horse is expensive, but if you have three or four in the back pasture that you don’t ride, they sure look like luxury items when hay is $240 a ton!  The horse slaughter ban was also lifted this fall, which may take care of the unwanted horses that seem enumerable.  I think local demand will drop by a good amount, and unless we see some new hay fields planted locally, the supply will drop as well. The Pacific Northwest is blessed with healthy market for hay overseas, but there has been some articles about foreign buyers starting to balk at these high prices.

I think that there is far more stability in the alfalfa market going forward. I am a big fan of small fertilizer bills and big bales of alfalfa, versus high fertilizer bills and small bales of orchard grass.  I don’t think that the horse market will be willing to pay premium prices in the next few years. Dairymen and cattle producers have every reason to be enraged over $240 a ton alfalfa, but I see a greater stability in the milk and beef markets that will enable profitable alfalfa prices in the future.

 

 

Horse Slaughter Ban Lifted

When Barack Obama signed the latest Farm Bill, it made it legal again to slaugher horses here in the United States. Because of this there has been a huge uproar by the enviromentalits, including PETA, and numerous other groups and private bloggers.  In this post, I will share my thoughts on legalizing horse slaughter.

First off, I don’t think the horse slaughter industry will roar back to life quickly. I think it will take a few years to get slaughterhouses up and running and to regain market share that we lost to Canada and Mexico. But if businessmen do get busy and slaughterhouses do start popping up all across the nation, it will be a great blessing to horses.  This may seem totally ironic and rediculous but read further and you may agree with me.

With the current lack of slaughterhouses, old or unwanted horses have no place to go.  With today’s economy and high hay prices, many poeple can no longer afford their horses and have no way of selling them.  Because horses live for such a long time, a huge glut of horses has been created in the United States and many of these horses are worth pratically nothing.  Horse owners have few options to get rid of their unwanted horses, many try to give them away for free. Horse rescues have been created to care for unwanted horses, but most are filled to capacity and feeding worthless horses with expensive hay is not a sustainable solution.  Many people released horses out on public land. 

I rememeber back a few years, my family wanted to buy horses and the value of a well-broke horse was much higher than it is today. On the Bend craigslist, there are hundreds of horses posted for sale for a fraction of what they would have been worth 5 years ago.  There is just no way to remove the unwanted horses on the market and it has been dragging down the horse industry. I wonder how many horses are being malnurished because the owners can no longer afford feed for them.  If a horse has any sort of injury or blemish, you might as well put a bullet in it’s head because no one wants a lame horse. This is a sad state for a horse to be in now days.  If horses had more value, they would be given more care, and live longer, healthier lives.

Horse Hay Exporting From Central Oregon

I am sure by now if you are a horse owner, you are getting sick of hay being over $200 a ton and you wishing orchard grass would just start growing on the sides of the roads again like last year. Last year hay was $130 a ton and every barn was overflowing.

Travel down south about 600 miles and start shopping for orchard grass. As I write this post, I am in Sacramento and orchard grass (if you can find it) is selling for more than $350 a ton. Most of the hay down here is actually trucked from central Oregon or Nevada. In fact I saw oat hay, yes oat hay selling for $200 a ton! This market down here is much larger than the horse owners back home in Bend who can still afford the feed for their animals. Farm land down here is used mostly for high dollar crops, alfalfa is grown but it is mostly destined for the large dairies.

I don’t know how many tons of horse hay are trucked down here, but it is a large amount. Many ads down here in California advertise “Central Oregon Premium Hay” with ridiculous prices to cover the long routes the hay is trucked. I really feel sorry for horse owners down here. Maybe next year some fields will be converted to orchard grass or some other crop suitable for horses. Until then, I think this market down here will keep prices up back home in Central Oregon up for the near future.

Horse Owners: Watch Wheat Prices

I have heard a lot of comments from horse owners about how high hay prices are and the huge jump in price from last years crop. There is a long list of why prices are so high, and the discussion would fill many posts, but it boils down to supply and demand.  Very few (if any) hay farmers receive subsidies from the government to grow hay, I actually don’t think there is a program for hay, so the government has little do with the amount of acres being grown unlike corn, wheat, soybeans, etc.

Central Oregon’s hay is grown for the local horse market, but a large portion is also trucked to dairies, as well as to ports for export.  The hay that leaves the area is what causes the price swings in our local market. Last year, Washington got lots of summer rains, and many tons of orchard grass that would have been exported or used as horse feed got drenched and turned into cattle feed. The growing season was good however and the supplies did not really tighten until spring of this year. Barns got emptied quickly and by this last spring, barns were empty.

Another interesting thing happened as well.  A huge jump in wheat prices.  Wheat prices jumped over $9 a bushel this last winter and suddenly wheat seemed really attractive and farmers started tearing up the old hay fields and putting in wheat.  This happened not only in Central Oregon, but also all over the Northwest.  This meant a lot less acreage in the Northwest, and coupled with our cold spring, the amount of horse hay being put up was a whole lot less than normal this year.  This exact same chain of events happened in  2008, but not as many fields in Central Oregon were converted to wheat as this year.  The prices were as high as $250, but in 2009, they plummeted back down to $130-$150.

So what is going to happen this coming hay season? Will prices fall back down again like 2009, or will prices stay high again for another year?  In my opinion, a good gauge to watch will be the wheat prices. If prices are more attractive for wheat than hay, there would be no reason to put hay back in, expecially with the crash of 2009 fresh in farmer’s minds. But on the flip side, a drop in wheat prices could mean a rush back into hay and orchard grass would again be more affordable.  Right now market prices in Central Oregon is about $200-$240 for horse quality orchard grass, and I think that these prices are unsustainable for the horse market with the economy as it is.  However, another cold spring or lots of summer rain storms could quickly drive up next years prices, but this winter keep an eye on wheat prices.

New Website for Central Oregon

I spend a lot of time online researching agriculture-related topics, and any new website I find is exciting to me because of how behind agriculture is in the online world.  A few days ago I stumbled upon www.centraloregontack.com, this site is like a craigslist dedicated to the agriculture community in Central Oregon.  Although it is still very young, there are many items for sale already, and as more poeple discover this site, it could become a powerful way to buy and sell items.

Check it out!