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.
I’ve known folks here in ‘Rain Land’ who only buy hay from eastern Oregon because it’s the best. Glad to know you have a cash crop.
I don’t know what to say about the BLM situation. The Obama administration pushed through Congress passage of the U.N.’s Treaty of the Sea last year, and it gives that anti-U.S. organization authority over ALL our shorelines AND inland waters, including non-navigable streams and fresh-water lakes (particularly those with fish stocks).
How the Treaty will impact everyone’s adjoining property has been unknown but this may be just the beginning, and existing lease contracts on Fed controlled land will mean nothing. The existing contracts Chrysler car dealers had were seized and given to someone else by the Obama administration despite its being illegal.
That is why I said to be flexible and be creative in finding a way around this situation. You don’t want to lose your land. Cattle and sheep can be replaced but losing one’s land is the worst thing possible, closely followed by losing the ability to profit off it. Our government has become a criminal enterprise and we citizens are the victims.
If ever there was proof of how one election can adversely impact a nation, the election of Obama is that proof.