An Observation

mnmthunting

mnmthunting

Banned
As some of You may know? I did a road trip. :)
I only covered a sliver, of course, in a day or two.:confused:

Going through some of Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. I'm thinking (among other things):eek: Where the heck are the hay bales! where the heck is the hay ground? It's almost nonexistent!
So I'm thinking? Hay ground has has been sacrificed to supply contracted corn to the ethanol plants:( and their baling up the public land and CRP for their hay supply.:(
So why should public and CRP land be used for supplying hay?

So, Any producers out there? Tell me where I'm not seeing the picture.:cheers:
 
mnmthunting said:
As some of You may know? I did a road trip. :)
I only covered a sliver, of course, in a day or two.:confused:

Going through some of Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. I'm thinking (among other things):eek: Where the heck are the hay bales! where the heck is the hay ground? It's almost nonexistent!
So I'm thinking? Hay ground has has been sacrificed to supply contracted corn to the ethanol plants:( and their baling up the public land and CRP for their hay supply.:(
So why should public and CRP land be used for supplying hay?

So, Any producers out there? Tell me where I'm not seeing the picture.:cheers:
Click to expand...

The WPA's by my place have been cut flat for hay or grazed for the last several years. Personally I think land reserved for wildlife in South Dakota is nothing more then a poor joke. You might just as well sell it all to the big operations. They are using it anyways.
 
There are no hay bales sitting around unless you sit beside any major hiway and watch them go by on semi-trucks-and they go in all directions.:confused:

PS they did NOT graze or hay my CRP this year nor will they any year--and I did get asked.:D
 
mnmthunting said:
As some of You may know? I did a road trip. :)
I only covered a sliver, of course, in a day or two.:confused:

Going through some of Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. I'm thinking (among other things):eek: Where the heck are the hay bales! where the heck is the hay ground? It's almost nonexistent!
So I'm thinking? Hay ground has has been sacrificed to supply contracted corn to the ethanol plants:( and their baling up the public land and CRP for their hay supply.:(
So why should public and CRP land be used for supplying hay?

So, Any producers out there? Tell me where I'm not seeing the picture.:cheers:
Click to expand...

In this area many people are no longer in the cattle business and much of what was cow habitat now produces grain. The weather severely reduced the amount of hay and grazing. As far as where the hay that was produced on public land went, it probably went to where the cattle are and most likely it has been fed. Many cattlemen are still looking for hay. We still have a month or more till I can turn out on grass. You should have seen some trucks hauling hay on the hiways. Hay is short and expensive.
 
mnmthunting said:
So why should public and CRP land be used for supplying hay?

So, Any producers out there? Tell me where I'm not seeing the picture.:cheers:
Click to expand...

Because it was part of the contract that they entered into in order to indices the land owner to sign up.
 
I also saw LOTS of center pivots and shinny new (large)grain bins. The area I drove through in Nebraska especially, is big time cattle country. The bales are corn stalks and ground with distillers grain for the fed cattle. No doubt a little corn added to the fed rations. Good cattle feed I reckon.:)
Few years ago a lot of those pivots had hay, not so anymore. Irrigated, fertilized hay ground would produce what? 20X the annual tons per acre as CRP hay.
With all these acres in corn 2013, An average year across the country. I say that corn will drop below $5. About break even.
I saw a lot of grazing in the corn stalks. This is VERY pheasant friendly!
I also saw LOTS of pheasant on the trip.:cool:

I got off the main roads by the way, did a lot of gravel county roads. :thumbsup: Much better feel of what's going on that way.
 
The private producer gets permission to harvest hay crops either by grazing or by haying in CRP due to emergency county based relieve. I would also claim that it is a boondoggle, the producer will be debited for the hay crop, but usually only about 25% of what he got originally. So with hay $300+ a ton, use the hay, get paid twice! Thank you taxpayers, and the desperate livestock producers who pay extremely high prices for inferior product, because it's all there is.
 
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