The federal government has decided to open up CRP or diverted acres for baling which will drop the alfalfa market, and as an alfalfa producer now is when I can make money, but when the alfalfa market drops to 90 dollars a ton nobody lines up to offer the alfalfa producer any help. I’ve emailed senators Grassley and Ernst and representative Feenstra to see what the say, rant is over for now just needed a little vent.

I need hay, sucks for alfalfa producers but its good for cow calf guys like me.

So let me understand this correctly. We the US taxpayers pay to have you farmers set aside acres of crop land into grasslands and then when summer hits and the rains dry up farmers cry “uncle” and the government agencies allow you to now harvest a crop of hay off these acres you were already were paid to not raise a crop on. Am I understanding this correctly?

I understand where a cattleman whose pastures have dried up maybe using government set aside acres to pasture his cattle but I see farmers that haven’t raised a head of livestock in years selling bales of hay off their CRP acres doubledipping.

You would be correct beeman.

CRP raises hay values every year that is not a drought and lowers them when it is.

Similar to the AG tags given for deer here. Not open to anyone to hunt but the landowner given tags to kill any deer they wish.

Heck of a deal, ain't it?

This happens more then you think.

Well,I for one think the farmer, rancher or whatever should take all they can. The government wastes so much of our money, the little bit the farmer gets is irrelevant. Yes it is a heck of a deal.

It would be a heck of a deal if we all got to double dip, but we don't.

FWIW, when USDA - FSA releases CRP for hay in drought areas, the CRP payment is reduced by $ xyz (as set in the respective state) for the haying.
Unfortunately, most CRP has a high "TDN" value, which is lower digestibility
by ruminants, but it's still feed where feed is needed.

I agree. If everyone had to work as hard as farmers/ranchers there would be alot of bellyaching.
Some places let ag producers mow and bale roadsides too. That's up to the supervisors in that state district.

Don’t think so Crop tags aren’t funded with taxpayer money. If I had known about CRP/ crep programs 20 years ago I’d be a land Barron In 2019 I was looking at farms that still had 5-7 years left on 15 years of payments. One in particular was earning 8600 per year for 15 years! 129,000 over the life of the contract. He only paid 76,000 for the land 126 acres in 2009 .

I haven't seen 90 ton alfalfa in years, its been 200-250 for some time in nebraska, south dakota, north dakota and kansas, you need to start selling it elsewhere if thats what your selling it for, there is a government program out there right now that reimburses ranchers for having to haul hay in

I think you mean or ment that the CRP hay has high NDF and not high TDN. TDN is total digestable nutirients and higher numbers are good. High NDF means lots of fiber, much of which is not highly digestable.
1st cutting of CRP hay in August is really fodder and keeps say gestating beef ruminents alive and maintained and would need supplimentation. I can see it may drop alfalfa prices some but high quality alfalfa is much more a dairy herd forage or other high quality animal forage. The big thing about great plains alfalfa and Manitoba alfalfa coming to say WI, MI etc is trucking costs. If hay sells at our local hay sales for $200-240 per ton and it comes from say western NE, probably half that cost is trucking per ton or 120 plus or minus. There is a lot of CRP land not far from those beef herds in the drought areas. During exceptional drought times this has been a common practice. The only reason that the beef raisers are paying really high prices for forage is that their animals are worth 75% or more than they were 3-4 years ago. The beef cow herd is the lowest it has been since 2013-14 and with high feed prices and limited feed, the heifers are being sold instead of retained so the herd will not grow too fast. Dairy farmers are really benefiting from these shortages. Big, good conditioned Holstein cull cows are bringing $1.10-$1.25 per lbs.! They can sell a 1600 lbs. cull cow for $2K and buy a springer for $1700.
Many larger farms near me are using sexed semen on their better cows and heifers and beef bulls on as much as half the herd and those crosses are worth 2-2.5 times as much as a Holstein calf.
Bryce

Baling crp would be just bailing poor value weeds. Ok maybe for long horns. Would not be worth much and nothing I would feed unless it was a last resort. Nice hay fields are not what you get when it's been in crp.

If you have nice alfalfa your market will not be the same. Most likely horse hay would be where I would market it

don't badmouth farmers with your mouth full

You are correct Bryce, appreciate the correction. Was tired and obviously not thinking clearly. We tested some CRP hay we purchased vack in 2013 when we went through a severe drought ourselves. Not much value for the money, unless one would soak a bale with molasses.

I don’t agree with it but they do it all the time. The producer dose loose his payments or a percentage of them. Bob around here they have bailed every acre of CRP the last 2 years and it didn’t affect the price of alfalfa at all.

The CRP I had experience with in Kansas would not be much (if any) benefit to livestock unless there was absolutely nothing else for them to eat