WITH more growers having the flexibility to make hay this season, there’s plenty of good quality feed available to finish cattle.
Australian Fodder Industry Association (AFIA) director, Frank McRae, said there was a lot of good quality hay and hay blends on the market after some of NSW had a good season.
With a current booming cattle market, Mr McRae said some growers chose to use their dual purpose oats crops strictly for grazing this year.
However, those who had good rainfall throughout the season were able to grow oats for grazing, harvest and hay production.
There were also growers around the state who hadn’t grown oats, or ran livestock for years but decided to with the expensive cattle market.
Mr McRae said some of these growers would have cut their oats for hay.
Southern NSW growers were also able to make silage out of some of their pasture this year.
Mr McRae said having silage gave growers the flexibility to look at hay options for their oats crops.
There has been hay made in areas throughout Tasmania and Victoria after a very tough spring.
Mr McRae said some farmers in these areas decided to cut their crops for hay early instead of taking them through to harvest.
“There will be good demand for hay to feed stock in these areas through a hot, dry summer,” Mr McRae said.
With farmers wanting to capitalise on the current cattle market and areas across the country still dry, Mr McRae said domestic demand for hay was still good.
He said there was going to be two ranges of quality available on the market, depending on when growers cut their crops.
“Stuff that was cut and on the ground when areas had big rain is going to be poorer quality,” he said.
“Because most of our oaten hay doesn’t go to export, it won’t have a big impact on prices.”
