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SPRING RAIN | WALLOWA COUNTY
Hay:
Continued from Page 10
“It looks like we have a really good win-
dow toward putting hay up,” said Mark But-
terfield, chairman of the Wallowa County
Hay Growers. “I don’t think anybody’s com-
plaining about extra moisture. It’s been a
blessing both for the stockgrowers and us.”
Butterfield has about 1,900 acres east of
Joseph evenly split between the two types of
hay. Because of the late spring, Butterfield is
hoping fall gets a late start as well.
“Alfalfa’s behind and timothy’s ahead,
but everything looks good,” he said.
He began cutting the alfalfa on June 23,
already several days behind the pace from a
year ago. He will move to the timothy after
completing alfalfa. Butterfield is expect-
ing a strong season for the timothy, and the
alfalfa crop could be bountiful too if the heat
picks up.
Most hay growers agree the cold, wet
spring hindered growth of the hay crop,
and it can be a delicate balancing act that
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Seth Parker swaths a field of Mark Butterfield’s alfalfa hay Thursday, June 23, 2022, in a field
along Dobbin Road south of Enterprise. The first hay cutting of the year happened later than
usual due to a cool, damp spring.
the weather presents by keeping them out of
their fields longer.
“They are trying to do two different
things with higher production and higher
quality,” Nash said. “If they miss that qual-
ity point that breaks between dairy qual-
ity and feeder hay, it can be as much as
$100 a ton. It is hard to make that up with
volume.”
Most growers are expecting higher
prices for their hay once it’s baled.
Butterfield was hesitant to predict the
price.
“It’s a bit of a jinx to predict hay prices,”
he said. “It should be as high or better than
last year.”
He said he sold his hay for $190-$290
a ton last year on the farm — where the
buyer loads and hauls it from the farm.
Tyler Coppin, who farms 1,000 acres
with his father in both timothy grass and
alfalfa in the Upper Prairie Creek area, is
quite optimistic about hay prices this year.
“I’m thinking this is going to be high-
est prices we’ll get in anyone’s lifetime,”
he said. “It’ll be knocking on the door of
$350-$400 a ton, maybe more.”
He attributes this to the fact that com-
petitors in the Ellensburg, Washington,
and Columbia Basin areas had trouble with
their crop getting rained on.
“If we can get our hay in, it’ll be pre-
mium,” he said.