From the Fields: Joe Lemenager, Yuba-Sutter hay and rice farmer

By Joe Lemenager
Yuba-Sutter hay and rice farmer

We’ve had a good winter with a decent amount of rain. The grasses are growing well, and the hay crops that were already planted are growing well.

On the rice side, we’re at the point of year where you’re trying to pick the right time to start working ground so you’re not going to have to go backwards. If we get far enough in the process and get a big rain, it can set you back a step or two. 

For hay, during the busy season we typically get five cuttings a year off the alfalfa. That usually starts mid-April to the first part of May with the first cutting, then another cutting every 30 to 35 days after that.

It takes scheduling to time those cuttings with other aspects of the operation because about that same time, we’re also putting fertilizer down into the rice fields. That turns into complications of timing. Sometimes we bale late at night, and it can be a 16- to 20-hour day.

We’re hoping the hay market increases a little bit. It should be at least the same as last year. On the rice side, things are looking slightly better than they did at this time last year. But rice gets marketed throughout the entire year, so when we harvest, we don’t know what our price is going to be. It goes to the marketers, and they sell throughout the year. Some early indicators are showing we might see a slightly higher price, but there’s a lot of time for that to go either direction.

Last year was my first year growing teff grass through the summer. It’s a low-starch, low-sugar grass hay with a specialty market in the horse industry. That seemed to be the one hay crop that held a higher value. We were able to successfully grow that last year in trials, so we intend to do that again this summer and potentially increase the acres that we plant.