Dry spring cuts hay haul

An abrupt end to the season in late winter in many areas has meant a fraction of normal hay volumes have been produced, and demand has been strong from both northern and southern Australia.

The hay market is traditionally quiet until early in the new year, but most producers have decided to act early and fill their sheds for the autumn feeding period.

It has been an almost perfect season for export hay production in the Mid North and Yorke Peninsula, with excellent quality and average yields, meaning few downgrades for the domestic market.

Some frosted crops in the Mid North were baled, but this has gone as far afield as northern NSW.

There are also reports road trains from SA's northern agricultural areas are freighting cereal hay into NT stations at more than $300 a tonne - a price softened by the lift in live export cattle prices.

In the South East, an extremely dry spring has seen most pasture hay paddocks amount to nothing.

According to the latest Dairy Australia Hay & Grain Market Report, in the central districts of SA cereal hay is trading between $180/t and $220/t, and lucerne hay $280-$330/t. In the SE, cereal hay is quoted at $230-$260/t and lucerne $300-$350/t.

These prices may be on the high end of the market but reflect the volatility in the marketplace and strong gains on 2013 prices.

There are also reports of barley straw making upwards of $100/t.

Australian Fodder Industry Association industry development manager Caitlin Scholfield says the dry season is driving steady demand for hay, especially high protein hay such as vetch.

It is already in short supply in some key growing areas such as the Mid North.

"This is indicative of the dry season with growers looking to secure protein hay while they can," she said.

Many buyers have moved from vetch onto lucerne hay, but supplies are likely to be down on average in 2014 due to the dry finish and high water costs affecting some key lucerne growing regions in Vic.

In SA, the dry spring has impacted both hay and silage production in the state's SE, although there were a few areas which still achieved average yields of good quality silage from a wet winter.

Pasture hay production was also down in south west Vic.

"Conditions have been much drier than average and there are some reports of farmers feeding out of 2014 silage already," Ms Scholfield said. "If we don't have an early break and the forecast hot, dry summer does eventuate there will be pressure on the hay market in 2015."

She said there had been some carryover stocks from a huge year in 2013 in areas such as the Vic Mallee and north central Vic, but reports indicated that these stocks had been in demand over the past few months and carryover hay supplies were now starting to run short. Ms Scholfield encouraged livestock producers to become proactive in contacting their feed supplier and securing the volumes they needed.

"Now is the time for people to make arrangements for the year ahead and as always get a feed analysis and visual assessment on hay," she said.

"It is likely that prices will remain firm in 2015 and supply looks set to be tight, but the silver lining is that the quality is also much improved on last year."