Washington Hay As An Export

Washington Hay As An Export

Susan Allen
Susan Allen
I'm Susan Allen, when I was driving the pass to Seattle last week it was filled with Semi's heading from Ellensburg West loaded with Hay. Where is all that Hay going? I asked Steve Norberg, Regional Forage Export for WSU He says it's alfalfa it's probably going to China.

NORBERG: Typically the same alfalfa could be exported to Japan or China, the one thing is that China is more picky about the GMO issue than Japan. China they basically say if we find it we have the right to reject it.

Is most of the hay going for their beef market?

Most of the Hay exported to China is alfalfa for the dairy market and in fact, China has surpassed Japan for use of hay for Alfalfa. That's not the case for all hay, but for alfalfa it has.

In the past I know Japan has bought our hay for their race horses and having worked in the industry I know I know Saudi Arabia is very invested in it as well. So does much of our Washington State Hay get shipped to the middle east?

Despite these other counties, China is our fastest growing export market, from 2014-15 a whopping 24 percent increase.

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