OCTOBER rains have been welcomed by many graingrowers across WA, but for hay growers the wet has caused more harm than good.
Since the hay cutting season started in September, WA’s main export oaten hay production zones around Moora, York, Narrogin and Wagin have received several rain events brought on by multiple frontal systems, causing significant damage to hay quality.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Narrogin weather station recorded more than 30 millimetres on October 22, while Wagin received rain on 12 days in October to record 27mm for the month to Monday.
Last weekend brought more light showers to several areas including Narrogin, Beverley and Wandering.
Water soluble carbohydrates, protein and minerals can be leached from cut hay once wet, leading to substantial grade downgrades for export standard hay.
Colour and digestibility are also impacted.
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) oat research agronomist Georgie Troup said few hay growers had escaped the rain over the past few weeks.
“Multiple rain events recently across the Wheatbelt have come at a time when hay growers were hoping for a dry spell while they cut and bale hay,” Ms Troup said.
“Typically, October is a lower risk window for hay growers, but with much of the hay-growing area experiencing at least one rain event between cutting and baling, drying time has been extended, which will have a varied effect on quality.”
In a season when prices and yield are already expected to be down on last year, Australian Fodder Industry Association (AFIA) board member Peter Gillett said the total extent of the damage to the export hay industry was still unclear.
“It is varied everywhere, there’s some very good hay but there’s also some hay where the analysis is very low,” Mr Gillett said.
“It’s a bit early to tell how much (damage), because every time you think you’re going to get baling another one or two millimetres of rain comes in.
“It’s obviously not good to have rain and very frustrating, it’s just about time to bale and along comes another bit of rain.”
According to the AFIA, WA is Australia’s biggest producer of export oaten hay and last year exported more than 388,000 tonnes of hay and straw.
Australia is expected to produce one million tonnes of fodder to Asia in 2016-2017, with the country’s biggest markets being in Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.
Northam-based export hay company Bodiam purchases hay from growers as far north as Dalwallinu and as far south as Katanning.
Bodiam general manager David Wells said growers in all supply regions had been affected by the rain, and he expected a lower availability of high-grade export hay.
“We’re buying hay from quite a wide range of areas through the State, so I don’t imagine anywhere is that different,” Mr Wells said.
“We’re still sort of halfway through the year but looking at a bit of a snapshot, percentages of very top grade are probably only going to be maybe 10 to 20 per cent of the very top end.
“There’s going to be a lot more what we term mid-grade hay and some of the guys that copped the big rains are going to have very low grade hay.
“Last year we had a lot of good quality – we had nearly all of the hay in the top two grades with a bit of the third grade – whereas on our system with five grades this year we’ve got a lot more in the grade 2 and 3, and more hay in grade 4 and 5 as well, so a lot more mid-grade and lower-grade compared to last year.”
Mr Wells said although he was confident all grades of hay would eventually be sold, he had some concerns about the low-graded product.
“We’re a bit tentative on that very low grade because the past couple of years we haven’t had any, so getting customers to buy that in Asia is going to mean a lot of samples and trials and working on the lower grade and hopefully we can get that shifted over the next 12 months,” Mr Wells said.
“We had a very badly-damaged season in 2011 and some of the hay from that year went into sheds and took probably two years to sell, but eventually it all moved – it just took a long time.
“I don’t think we’re looking at hay that’s quite as bad as 2011, so it gives us sort of some hope that we’ll be able to get it up into the market.”
Toodyay grower Darren Best cropped 1200 hectares of hay this year, which had received 15mm of rain in three separate rain events throughout October.
Mr Best said the consecutive rains had slowed down the process of baling hay, opening up the chance for a big rain event to impact hay quality.
“It’s just the prolonged days with the cold weather and light rain, nothing is going to dry,” Mr Best said.
“If we had a big rain event with 25mm that would just take the quality and bleach it right through the windrows.
“It’s hard to have workers not doing anything, I can’t just send them home, so we are all just waiting for it to dry.”
Mr Best supplies hay domestically throughout WA, with several customers in the Margaret River region.
His decision to focus on the domestic market was made to reduce the risk of being affected by strict export standards.
“We don’t use exporters, on years like this when there can be damage to the quality of hay, they have extremely high standards that change from bale to bale and all end up in the same place,” Mr Best said.
“We already have some weather damage on top of the rows that have been cut a month ago, with black spots which will be noticed when the bale is sampled.”
Although rain had downgraded the quality of his hay, Mr Best said the soft finish was a welcome boost to his grain crops.
Geoff Perkins Farm Machinery Centre dealer principal Geoff Perkins said it was a similar story throughout the rest of the grainbelt.
Based in Northam and Narrogin, the business sells hay balers, rakes, mowers and other hay machinery to growers across the State.
Mr Perkins said although the soft finish was great for graingrowers, it had caused headaches for farmers already dealing with lower yields compared to last year.
“We’ve got customers with hay and crops and they say we’ll lose a bit on the hay but we’ll pick it up with the crop, so it all balances out,” Mr Perkins said.
“The yields are down, growers will probably average 2-2.5 tonne per hectare less than last year, but last year was an exceptional year.
“This year because of that long dry spell in the middle, we just didn’t get the growth that normally you would have so that’s the reason for the drop in yield.”
Mr Perkins said dealing with rain was part of the hay game and did not expect it to deter too many people from growing export hay.
“I’ve seen this 100 times before, and I’ve seen a lot worse where the windrows are just black,” Mr Perkins said.
“The guys who have got sheds have got the advantage of waiting until everything has settled and we know exactly how much hay is around.
“Probably over a 10-year average I would be reasonably confident you would average more out of hay than you will out of any other thing you can grow.
“At the minute sheep might beat hay but taken over a 10-year average, it (hay) has its higher highs and probably lower lows.”
