Arizona alfalfa prices have dropped as much as $70/ton over the past month, and sales have screeched to a halt, reports David Sharp of Lyreedale Farms near Roll.
“The alfalfa is tired, the market is tired, everything is tired,” says Sharp, who puts up 1,500 acres of irrigated alfalfa with his brother Clyde in southwestern Arizona.
Current alfalfa-hay prices are in the $160-175/ton range, depending on quality. They’re down from prices averaging $230/ton in July. Lower, late-summer hay quality contributed to the price drop, Sharp notes.
Cheaper corn has given farmers a feeding option other than alfalfa. And, he adds, China has scaled back its alfalfa imports, allegedly wanting more stringent testing for genetically modified organism (GMO) traits in the crop (see our story, “U.S. Hay Exporters Await GMO Clarification From China”).
On top of that, Arizona hay growers recently ramped up production as prices rose, the grower notes. "We all knew that, because the hay market has been so strong, eventually there would be a glut. It is a supply-and-demand issue.”
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