A 7 percent drop in Idaho's expected hay acres is adding to dairymen's concerns in an already tight market.
USDA's planting intentions report, released March 31, pegs expected harvested acres at 1.37 million acres, down from 1.47 million last year.
"It'll definitely put prices higher. Right now, we're in a deficit mode for hay supplies," said Adrian Boer, a Jerome dairyman. "It's not going to be a good situation."
Some area dairymen are buying hay, where they can find it in other states, at substantially higher prices, $180 to $200 a ton, he said.
With all feed following corn prices higher, things aren't looking good at all, he said.
"The milk price is not rising fast enough to cover feed costs," he said.
While Class III milk price for April is $16.74 per hundredweight, cheese-yield pricing in the neighborhood is only $14.50 to $15 per hundredweight, way below cost of production he said.
Boer grows all the corn he needs for corn silage, but purchases the biggest share of his hay needs. And hay represents 25 percent to 35 percent of his ration.
Jack Davis, a Kuna dairyman, is also expecting higher hay prices.
"How much higher, we don't know," he said. "And we may have to go further to find hay. We've never been in this situation before."
That situation is a shortage of hay due to high corn prices and the resulting increased corn acreage, he said.
At 390,000 acres, expected acres of field corn in Idaho jumped 22 percent this year.
That acreage will help in the availability of feed corn, but the price of it won't help dairymen, Boer said.
"Corn hit almost $8 this week per bushel," said Greg Sanders USDA Market News reporter in Moses Lake, Wash.
High corn prices all winter, with wheat prices following suit, led to a lot of farmers planting hay ground to corn and wheat, he said.
While hay prices didn't react to the planting intentions report, they've been pretty high all winter, Sanders said.
Click here to see more...