Cash crop: Utah hay growers keep eyes on the weather

SYRACUSE — Alfalfa grower Neal Briggs stood in one of his cavernous hay barns last week shaking his head and uncounting his chickens.

"To look at it, we should have one of the best crops we've ever had," the fifth-generation farmer said as he leaned against one of his big, and idle, International 1486 tractors. "The problem is, most of it is still in the ground, not in here."

Being in the ground in June — not lying on it drying in the summer sun — means for the second year in a row, the early growing season has been cold and wet, featuring battering storms with hail the size of quarters, not to mention that it's been raining sideways a lot.

First crop hay — always the largest yield of the three or four crops Utah farmers raise each summer — was nearly devastated last year. All but ruined, one grower said. "Too much water, and in a desert of all places, and would still be one if the pioneers hadn't figured out how to irrigate it."

Alfalfa and Utah's arid climate are a perfect match; some of the best hay on earth is grown here. But Utah, when it feels like Ireland, in June, is not the place for alfalfa.

In one corner of Briggs' barn is a stack of about 3,500 75-pound bales of his custom alfalfa/summer rye grass blend, a highly desired, even coveted, hay for area horse owners who are waiting impatiently for Briggs' to get his first crop of hay in so they can get it into their animals.

"If I've only got this much baled, and they're completely out, it's not a normal year," Briggs said, noting that his hay crop and most everything in the ground or due to arrive on trees is way behind this year. "And the longer it takes for us to get cutting hay, the poorer the quality is."

In normal years, Briggs would have first crop — which usually accounts for half a growing season's yield from his 300 acres — cut, raked, dried and mostly baled by Memorial Day.

Briggs isn't worried, yet, although his persistently optimistic disposition clouds up as he checks the latest weather forecast. "Well, I won't be cutting again at least until next Tuesday."

Hay, which is Utah's No. 1 cash crop and chief source of protein and nutrients for livestock, is still made, not surprisingly, while the sun shines. For people whose livelihood depends on the weather being hot and dry when it's supposed to be hot and dry, having March come in like a lion and stay through June is causing a delay that even a sudden dry, 90-degree spell couldn't make up.