Rain cuts into alfalfa harvest

The weather strikes again.

This time with alfalfa harvesting.

Unusually cool and wet weather has forced alfalfa growers to delay the first cutting of their crops, creating a potential for lower quality hay and a late start to the second and third cuttings.

Cory Parsons, Oregon State University Extension Services agent in Baker County, said the weather, with well above average rainfall in both May and June, has been the enemy for many farmers.

“The weather is definitely making it difficult to cut the hay,” Parsons said. “Some has been cut but has since been rained on.”

After alfalfa is cut it needs to dry and cure for up to nine days before it’s baled.

“When hay on the ground gets rained on it has an effect on the quality and the price will go down,” Parsons said.

He said the break in the weather this week could give growers the time they need to get in a high-quality first cutting.

“Hopefully, we get 10 days of nice weather,” Parsons said.

To dry alfalfa before it is bailed, farmers need to flip the cut crop.

 Flipping the hay keeps the bottom layer from sitting on the damp ground, and results in a higher-quality hay.

If the alfalfa is cut and not able to dry properly, it will begin to lose nutrients and the quality, and thus the price, goes down.

Farmers throughout Baker County and in southern Union County agreed that this spring has been just plain difficult.

Justin Heffernan grows alfalfa and sells to cattle ranchers throughout the state.

He is off to a late start this year.

“Mother nature has made it interesting,” he said.

The preferred time frame to begin cutting alfalfa is the second week of June.

“We’re well beyond that now. We want to start before the hay blooms out,” he said Wednesday, the day he started cutting.

Farmers prefer to start cutting when the alfalfa reaches 10 percent of its bloom. Heffernan refers to this stage as a pre-bud.

Fred Phillips grows alfalfa to feed cattle on his ranch in the Keating Valley.

“(The weather has) been a problem. Everyone is really holding off on cutting,” he said.

“Everyone is getting pretty anxious. We need time to get off and raise a second crop,” Phillips said.

In Baker County, farmers typically have three alfalfa crops per year. If the first crop isn’t cut in time, the third crop, cut in the fall, will be difficult because of the longer and cooler nights.

But there has been an upside to the rain.

Sort of.

The more rain farmers get, the less money they spend irrigating crops.

Parsons said, “Rain will save money on irrigation, but the (alfalfa) quality will be lower.”

Baker Valley alfalfa grower Craig Ward said the rain has helped some, but not enough.

 “The rain has been good, but too abundant. It’s been like a double-edged sword,” he said.

Ward started cutting his alfalfa on Tuesday, June 22.

“We like to start cutting between June 10 and 15,” he said.

The National Weather Service is forecasting generally dry weather, except a chance of thunderstorms, with high temperatures in the 70s and 80s for the next seven days.