Diminishing Hay Stocks

Diminishing Hay Stocks

I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Open Range.

Most of us in the livestock industry are well aware of the current high hay prices. If you need to purchase hay it has likely been more difficult to find in the last year and usually always at a higher price.

And according to Chief Economist for AgResource Company Bill Tierney that hay shortage will probably not be going away anytime soon.

Tierney: “We’ve had two years in a row of declining hay production. Hay stocks are the lowest in some 25 or 30 years. At the rate at which we use up hay, by the time we get to May 1 -- which is the beginning of the hay marketing year -- we may have zero stocks of hay. If the drought is as bad as it appears to be and continues, we’re likely to see a third year in a row of hay decline, diminished carrying capacity of pastures nationwide and again an explosion in forage prices, in forage costs.”

Tierney also comments on beef cattle prices and the current U.S. cattle supply.

Tierney: “There seems to be a fairly broad consensus that feeder cattle prices are going to be raising and fat cattle prices will be raising and of course the consumer is going to see higher beef prices. The main overwhelming fundamental behind that is the declining cow herd in the United States and rising livestock demand and declining domestic beef supplies. That is not likely to change in 2013 or 2014.”