Purdue Ag Roundup
Purdue Ag Roundup
One concern is prices: The price of hay more than doubled in April and May to $250 or $300 per ton, from the average of $123 a ton in March. According to David Petritz, assistant director of the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service, only time and the growing season will determine how farmers will fare later in the year.
Keith Johnson, Purdue professor of agronomy and Extension Service forage specialist, predicts a shortage: "My projection is that high-quality hay will produce high prices. It'll be hard to find the amount of high-quality hay needed to feed livestock with high nutritional needs in Indiana this year."
Southern Indiana is experiencing a poor year for hay-making, said David Trotter, Purdue Extension director in Clark County. "The supply down here is quite limited," he said. "A lot of producers moved hay this week and found the hay to be ropey and that the equipment couldn't get into the fields because of mud."
Trotter said farmers have depleted their carryover supply from the winter and have concerns about building up a new supply. Alternate crops could be the solution for farmers and livestock owners.
Johnson suggested planting sorghum, sudangrass, pearl millet or spring oats as alternatives to traditional hay crops, but he noted that these crops will not match the quality of a legume hay. Also, the majority of the acreage available for seeding might be land currently in winter wheat, because other fields already are planted to corn and soybeans.
"Making sorghum, sudangrass and pearl millet as hay is usually difficult because a lengthy drydown period is needed," he said.
Purdue Cooperative Extension Service bulletin AY-263, "Producing Emergency or Supplemental Forage for Livestock," will help producers make decisions regarding the production of supplemental forage for their livestock. The publication costs 50 cents and is available through county Extension offices or by calling Purdue Agricultural Communications at 1-888-EXT-INFO.
"Unfortunately, the majority of hay in Indiana has been harvested the past several days, a month later than a typical first harvest date," Johnson said. "This means that hay will be less than ideal quality for the first harvest."
CONTACTS: Trotter, (812) 256-4591; e-mail, David_Trotter@acn.purdue.edu
Johnson, (765) 494-4800; e-mail, kjohnson@dept.agry.purdue.edu
Petritz, (765) 494-8494; e-mail, petritz@admin.ces.purdue.edu
The cost is $199 for the first person from a farm and $75 for each additional person from the same farm.
Howard Doster, Extension economist and coordinator of the workshop, said farmers will have an opportunity to write strategic plans for their businesses and revise them during the workshop.
"Also as homework, enrollees will enter information about their cropping system into Purdue's linear program computer budget," Doster said. "During the workshop they'll test ways to improve their profits by changing crops, machinery sizes, or farm sizes."
Since the workshop began in 1968, approximately 7,000 farmers from the Eastern Corn Belt have created about 25,000 computer budgets, according to Doster.
Forty-five farmers, professors and company presidents will share production technology, marketing, and personnel management techniques during the workshop. Among the sessions:
To register for the conference, contact Barb Tyner at (765) 494-2975.
For additional information about program content , contact Doster at (765) 494-4250.
Compiled by Chris Sigurdson, (765) 494-8415; E-mail, sig@ecn.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
