Consistency is key if you want to take advantage of export hay markets, but given the challenges of making hay under humid summer conditions, Ontario producers need strategies and technology.
That was one of the messages from a panel discussion that looked at hay as a cash crop during the recent Ontario Forage Council (OFC) annual meeting and tradeshow in Elora.
WHY IT MATTERS: Perennial crops are big boosters of soil health when included in a rotation, but many growers need hay to compete on a profit margin basis with other crop options.
Panelist Chris Martin and his brother farm 2,000 acres — half owned, half rented — between Alma and Drayton. They have close to 600 acres of hay planned for this year, including stands of alfalfa/timothy, straight timothy, and some with more of a mix.
They typically follow a five-year rotation, with most of the hay started as a cover crop that’s planted with another main crop, and some direct seeded. “We kind of base our rotation around the hay,” Martin said.
They are also the operators of hay drying equipment manufacturer Chinook Hay Systems. The Martins export between 8,000 and 9,000 tonnes per year — mainly to Pennsylvania, New York and the Carolinas, with a bit going to Florida.
To help keep that market supplied, they also buy a lot of hay from other producers, with Chris Martin doing most of the purchasing and marketing.
“I’m amazed with today’s technology that we still struggle with bale consistency,” he told the OFC gathering, held March 10 at the GrandWay event centre.
The hay they buy from Alberta is typically much more consistent in terms of bale shape and density compared to Ontario sources. During the question-and-answer session, this comment led an audience member to counter that “there’s no comparison when you look at the humidity we battle here (in Ontario).”
In the West, the audience member suggested, it’s more consistently dry — sometimes to the extreme, leading to severe hay shortages — so hay producers can rely on a narrow range of species to grow in their mix. In Ontario, meanwhile, there’s a much greater tendency to grow a range of species in the mix, with the understanding that some of those species might not produce well under certain weather conditions but might thrive if the summertime weather takes a different turn.
A lot of hay produced in Ontario, Martin said, comes from farmers with livestock to feed who aim, weather permitting, to make some extra income through selling excess hay. “By and large in Ontario, that mix will get you through” if you’re hoping to feed livestock with as much home-grown hay as possible.
Consistency of hay getting better
Panelist Jamie Fisher, president of the Hay Press Company which has its bale compactor at Marhaven Agri near Alma, farms 1,400 acres with about 1,000 of that in perennial crops — mostly hay but also some biomass grasses. All of the hay goes into three-by-three big square bales.
Fisher said he believes the potential for Ontario growers to provide consistently shaped, high-quality hay will gradually increase.
“The big operators out there are practiced at growing for export,” he said. This doesn’t only include bale consistency, Fisher noted, but also factors like having sufficient space and handling capability to segregate different species mixes and harvest maturities once they’re off the field.
Segregating is important for the export market, Martin said. Buyers want to see everything about the hay the same as what they’ve purchased in the past.
“They want the load you’re delivering to be the same as the last load they got and the same as the load before. And if it’s not, they’ll dig in their heels and say they’re taking a few cents off what they’re giving you for it.”
That consistency includes protein content, dry matter content and moisture level.
“You can have two guys side-by-side growing on basically the same land, using the same mix, and you would think you would get the same protein level,” Martin said. “But that’s just not the reality of Ontario hay production.”
“It’s very hard to make consistent product on test. It might look similar, but it’s not the same.”
Fisher added, though, that even if you’re a small crop farmer just starting out and wanting your rotation to include hay that’s cut and baled by a customer operator, there are things you could do to promote consistency.
The custom operator will want to do all your field at once even if there’s uneven drying due to topography or field-edge treelines. You should be aware of this and encourage the operator to take off the inside rows first before moving later in the afternoon to the outside rounds.
Supplies and demand
Ideally, the cutting and harvesting equipment is ready to enter your field as soon as conditions are prime.
“There’s a finite number of good hay days in the summer,” Fisher said. “You’ve got to get it out of the field in good condition.”
Panel moderator, Ian McDonald of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, stressed the province’s hay producers are “very lucky” to have innovative equipment manufacturers such as Marcrest — creator of the Bale Baron line of products — that allow them to make high-quality hay most years despite the humidity and other weather-related challenges.
But if that weather isn’t perfect or the harvesting equipment is delayed, small square bales might not be your best option. That less-than-Grade-A hay probably won’t make the export market, Fisher stressed, but there is still sufficient demand locally for livestock feed, especially if it’s made into easy-to-handle and easy-to-transport big squares.
The Q-and-A session then moved to the potential carry-over stocks of Grade-B and Grade-C hay in the province as livestock producers assess their ability to feed their herds through to first-cut harvest in May or June. Martin cited last summer’s dry weather as a reason why stocks are low.
“The last couple of years we have had carryover but not this year,” he reported, adding the biggest demand has come from eastern Ontario where drought conditions were most severe last July, August and into September.
Fisher, whose Hay Press Company deals strictly in three-by-three and three-by-four big squares being converted to export-destined 16x17x18-inch small squares — each weighing 90 pounds for the most efficient loading of transport containers — said there should still be a fair amount of good hay available through the spring. Most of it, however, will be in round bales.
He added that the price being asked might be too much for some livestock farmers, many of whom have other fallback plans, such as cutting and wrapping a cover crop, and will choose this instead of purchasing high-priced round bales.
“In this part of Ontario,” Fisher said referring to the southwest and south-central areas of the province, “unless we get a very dry year, we do grow enough hay to supply the local market, given where the livestock numbers are going.”
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