From the Fields - Brandon Fawaz

By Brandon Fawaz, Siskiyou County hay farmer 

We are in the middle of our first cutting. We’ll probably get three cuttings. Overall, quality is up from what we’ve seen in the last couple of years. Some are just starting, almost ending or in the middle of their first hay cutting. Last year, we didn’t start until mid-June. The year before, the start was June 19, which was really delayed. This year, everything is much earlier with alfalfa and orchard grass, even grain crops.

I thought we had an ideal spring last year, but the plants did not do well compared to expectations. This year, I didn’t think it was that much different, but everything is doing much better.

The hay markets are down. I do not do a lot of export hay, but it’s my understanding the export market drives a very large portion of the California hay market. China is currently the No. 1 importer of hay and is not buying right now. In general, there’s not a lot of nearby markets, so we’re limited by the location and infrastructure. We don’t have a lot of infrastructure to hold grain, sunflowers and corn silage.

It appears to be a very good water year compared to what we’ve seen in the past. Some of our seasonal creeks ran better last year, and certain ones are running better this year. But we’ll know more in August and September. We have a good snowpack, but the Scott River watershed is still under an emergency drought declaration, which gives the state the ability to establish and maintain instream flows. If the state water board feels the flow level is too low, it will issue an order to curtail groundwater pumping. Many have found that reducing groundwater pumping does not drastically improve river flow. There have been no curtailments this year. Some entered into a local cooperative solution where they made certain concessions upfront about reduced usage for more water certainty later in the year.