Oregon Public Broadcasting

Hay is one of the most valuable crops in the Northwest. The region's farmers harvest more than 3-million-acres of hay each year.

They're bucking those sweet-smelling bales right now. But across the country hay farmers have seen a dramatic decline in income. That's partly because hay prices are closely related to the dairy industry which has fallen on hard times.

Richland Correspondent Anna King trekked out to an alfalfa farm in rural southeast Washington to see how things are stacking up.

Drex Gauntt stoops and pulls a wad of alfalfa from a windrow of hay at his feet. Holding both ends of it in his fists, he wheels the hay like the motion of bike peddles. A couple of turns and the hay breaks apart.

Drex Gauntt, 37, of Kennewick, farms about 2,000 acres of alfalfa hay in the Columbia Basin in Washington State. Farmers have had a hard go this summer because hay prices are down about $100 a ton from last year.

Drex Gauntt: “Normally we check to see how tough the hay is. You grab a handful and twist it. If you can twist it in less than three turns than it's dry enough. That's just kind of conventional wisdom I guess. It's the kind of stuff your grandad teaches you."

Gauntt wears a tightly-woven straw hat and a pressed, red button-down shirt. Haying is in his blood. Gauntt works alongside his father. His grandfather farmed hay too.

Things have changed since those times. Bigger tractors, air-conditioned cabs and advanced irrigation makes farming a bit easier now. But some things have stayed the same.

You've heard the phrase, “Make hay while the sun shines?” Well, actually farmers bale hay at night.

From the edge of the field it looks like some sort of weird race track under a full moon. Five massive tractors sport bright flood lights. They zoom around the field punching out and picking up massive bales. They're not racing each other. They're racing the dew.

Hay farmers harvest in the middle of the night so that the alfalfa or timothy have just the right amount of moisture. It makes a big difference in the money that this hay will bring.

Drex Gauntt: “Bailing at night is worth real easy 20 percent.”

That 20 percent is important because hay is selling for about half what it did last year. Prices are down about $100 a ton.

Gauntt says that hurts when fuel, fertilizer and chemicals cost about the same as last year.

Hay prices are down across the country because of the down economy and because of low milk prices. There's a surplus of milk on the market, and other countries aren't buying as much powdered milk and cheese.

Mark Anderson is the president of one of the largest hay companies in the United States. It's based in Ellensburg, Washington. He says hay prices were inflated last year, and now a sharp correction has arrived.

Mark Anderson: “We've seen a big drop off in demand, because of high prices we've seen a carryover of last year's crop going into this year. As an industry I think we've realized that alfalfa can be replaced in a dairy ration, if pricing reaches a point where it's not workable for a dairy farm.”

It turns out dairy farmers can use alternatives to hay like soy, cotton seed or grain corn. Gauntt says what's more, rain destroyed some farmers' hay this spring.

Drex Gauntt: “It's very disheartening. You've put a great deal of time and money and really a part of yourself in that field and your hanging your hopes, your future and your finances on that crop.”

Despite the challenges Gauntt says, hay farming brings moments of pure bliss, like the perfume of the first cutting.

Drex Gauntt: “It's the smell of summer. It's the smell of work. I've had people tell me, ‘Oh I worked on a farm when I was in high school and there is nothing like the smell of fresh cut hay.'”

Drex Gauntt and his crew of ten won't sleep much for weeks. That's OK he says. A year's hard work leads to this reward: when they bale like mad under the moon in these brief moments of summer.