Let me tell you a story.
There is a farm near where I live (southwest Washington State). This farm, about 20 miles west of Toledo, grows high quality alfalfa hay on 389 acres, all highly prized by dairyman. This hay is sold before it is even baled. This farm sold (not to developers - it is zoned agricultural only) this past week for one and half million dollars.
The owner of the 900 acre ranch in the article owns 450 head of cattle. An individual bovine usually requires 7 acres grazing to survive and this rancher has only two acres for each animal. In addition, he is growing hay and must graze his cattle somewhere else so he can make money, and relies on the Federal Government for grazing land.
Anyone could tell this is a business plan in trouble.
I don’t know what the quality of the hay he bales and sells is, but if he improved the quality he could make more money using less acreage. As for his cattle, selling much of his stock and only keeping what he can support on his land will not make him a potful of money, but independent of the Feds.
Things are tight for everyone right now. This rancher must, if he wants to survive, adjust to the times.
And don’t call me names. It can get you thrown off of Free Republic.
Put a sock in it.
We baled 3000 tons of alfalfa every season. All irrigated.
Four cuttings in a good year. In central and eastern OR you need 40 acres a mother unit plus good water. Without baled
hay, you need a winter and a summer range which means thousands of acres which you have to lease from the BLM or
FS. If you have irrigation, good soil, fertilize, you can
get by with two acres per unit. Notice that everything
depends on water.
High desert hay is prized for it’s high nutrient value. It
gets top dollar.