Little Lake Hay Harvest Hurt by Drought

June 24, 2014

The yearly hay harvest has come a little early this year, with high temperatures bringing annual grasses to maturity sooner than usual, and across the valley for the past several weeks farmers and ranchers have been busily cutting, raking, baling and loading their hay, stocking it away to feed their herds. Little Lake Valley grows grass hay, watered by nothing more than nature, or as Tyler Miner, 17, says "This stuff here grows natural, by the wind sun and rain." That of course means the drought has hit Little Lake Valley especially hard, and this year's harvest has been seriously hurt.

Tyler Miner, who is a high school level rodeo champ, and his nephew Will Miner, 15, could be seen across the valley in recent days tending to their own fields and the fields of friends and neighbors. The pair are dedicated to the ranching life, says Tyler, "That's what I've always wanted to be is a cowboy, and making hay is part of being a cowboy, making hay for your animals." Most of the equipment they use is older than they are by a few decades and consequently Tyler has had lots of opportunities to hone his skills as a mechanic, "All the equipment is so old it seems like I spend more time fixing it than cutting hay."

Like most of the hay farmers in the valley they've started early this year, and while they are too young to have a long memory of what a normal hay harvest looks like, they lamented what they saw as a small crop.

A couple fields over Gary Ford who has been harvesting hay on his land for decades, and whose family has been in the area since 1868, was having the same problem. He said his crop was, "Probably half the amount of hay as we should get."

Across the 200 acres he harvested this year the drought has stunted the grasses, "This time the crop is like this high," he said gesturing to just above his knee. "But a lot of the times they're topping my tractor tires."

Giving an example of one 12 acre field he works, in previous years it reliably yielded 1,500 bales of hay, while last year it yielded only 1,100, and this year it provided only 600 bales of hay.

And not only annual grasses were affected, "The oat crop that was planted before Thanksgiving, it never came up till the rain in February, and it was less than half of usual."

And here his wife Diane Ford interjected, "It was only 3 feet tall."

Still, the Fords won't find themselves buying any hay to feed their cattle this winter, yet they will be curtailing their sales to other ranchers. Last year they ran short, sayd Gary, "We had to discontinue our hay sale, because we were so low."

They've also had to raise their prices in part due to the decreased supply and also because of increases in everything from the cost of fuel to the cost of wire.

Last year they started out selling at $6 a bale, but had to raise their prices, and this year they'll be starting at $7 or $8 depending on which Ford you ask.

The drought has affected hay harvests across the county, especially in areas dependent on local grass hay, as opposed to irrigated alfalfa hay which is grown in some parts of the county, and which has been affected by the diversion of water to other crops.

Devon Jones, Executive Director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, says that in the north of the county around Covelo has seen a 25-30 percent decline in hay production while in Anderson Valley the shortfall has been as much 45 percent.

Ray Hebrard, raking his field off Hearst Rd., said, "Times are rough," before pulling a worn notebook out of his shirt pocket and listing off the steadily declining numbers of hay bales he's managed to get out of these fields. He's been farming the field he was raking and working his neighbor's field since the late 1990s. Before 2012 he commonly got 3,000 bales out these fields, while in 2012 he got 2,774, and in 2013 only 188. This year, with most of the harvest done, he guesses he'll hit about 1,500.

Along with the decrease in production comes an increase in price, as Hebrard says, "It's dry out there in the valley which makes the prices go up, due to scarcity. The hay's just not going to be available in January and February." Even if the rains come he doesn't expect that he'll get more than 2,500 bales out of his fields, less than the old averages.

As meticulous with his records on pricing as hay Hebrard comments that his price per bale has risen from $5.25, 3 years ago, to $5.50, to $6 last year and he plans to start prices at $7 this year. As with the Fords, Hebrard has been affected by the rising cost of fuel and wire; he has switched to twine for his bales recently.

As for the impacts on local herds John Harper of the UC Cooperative Extension who works with farmers in Mendocino said, "A lot of the herds, especially the cattle herds, have already done their reductions of animals. They've either sold off animals, or some of the more creative ones have leased their cattle off to other ranches so that they can in turn not lose their genetics. Most of the people going in to the year have already reduced their numbers."

Harper noted that while the market was good at the time, "When they sold cows it's like selling your house, you're selling an asset." What's more ranchers have to pay capital gains tax on this sold asset, an issue Harper has brought up to Congressman Huffman, continuing, "people don't realize that that's what happens when they sell off their breeding herd."

However, Mendocino County Agricultural Commissioner Chuck Morse, noted the last minute spring rains kept things from being a total disaster, "It's better than nothing, the annual grasses responded really well to the rain we did get. We didn't get enough rain to break our drought conditions, and the annuals were stunted, they got a way late start but the rains that we got in February and March were actually very, very helpful for the annual grass production, basically a Godsend."


Source: By Adrian Baumann