AFTER large falls of rain and warm weather across the state in the past few weeks, many hay makers are hard at work, and for Greg and Tricia Kiddle from Coolah Hay and Steel, it is a welcome change in an unpredictable season.
Mr and Mrs Kiddle, who run a contracting business which mows, rakes and bales hay for producers but also makes and buys hay to sell through their store, service about 35 properties in the Coolah district and surrounds, making about 10,000 bales in a six-month window.
Mrs Kiddle said they have had a patchy season so far, with strong south-easterly winds sucking the moisture out of the ground.
The recent downpours did affect at least one of the Kiddle’s cut hay crops, but it was made into lucerne mulch for gardens. They also sell sorghum stubble for gardens.
This season the Kiddles have made mostly oats, barley and wheat stubble straw bales, which are made into large square bales.
They also made 2000 to 3000 small square bales and about 500 five-foot cereal round bales, which mostly go to cattle and sheep producers.
She said the market has been fairly slow so far this season. Lucerne hay, depending on quality, had sold for about $250 to $350 a tonne plus GST, while cereal crop stubble was selling for about $150/t plus GST.
Mrs Kiddle believed hay prices hadn’t changed much in the past 10 years.
“People are very cost-conscious,” she said.
“Farmers have got their finger on the pulse of what hay’s worth.”
She said farmers tried to buy hay locally to avoid large freight charges.
Despite the huge falls of rain in some parts of the state, Mrs Kiddle was not expecting an excess of lucerne in the coming months.
“It will depend on the winter. If it turns cold, people will buy more cereal hay or straw,” she said.