AgNet west reporter Nick Papagni, “the Ag Meter”, spoke with Nick Folio from Folio Commodities about the hay and alfalfa market.
How’s it looking, especially after tariffs were announced?
“You know, it’s basically the same market here today with maybe a little bit of additional downward pressure. So throughout the winter months, you had that carryover of inventory, particularly on your out-of-state ranches, without having the export outlet because of the uncertainty in the tariff. You had a fair amount of inventory come into the Central Valley.
“And when I say a fair amount of inventory, here’s some numbers to put into perspective. So, China was shipping anywhere between two to 300,000 ton a month of our inventory, you know, Idaho, Utah, Western Arizona, Nevada, of baled forages of both combination between grass and alfalfa. So call it three and a half million tons a year is what China was absorbing.
“Now, with uncertainty in the tariff, they’re taking anywhere between 20 and 30,000 ton a month. So that’s 10%. You know, obviously, there’s some other outlets, some of that hay went into parts of Colorado, parts of Texas to satisfy either the beef market or their dairy needs.
“So, some did stay domestic going elsewhere. But just going into the Central Valley alone, you know, even if you only have 20% of that carryover, that should have gone to export, that’s 600,000 tons that got shipped into the Central Valley throughout these winter months, that should have been overseas. And you feel it here, as we get a little bit farther into this hay season, we’re now basically done and through a wheat silage season here.
“These dairies have a lot of feed on hand; they have a surplus of inventory of both silage and baled forage. So placing this local hay from a week-to-week standpoint, is as labor intensive as it’s ever been.
That was Nick Folio from Folio Commodities. I’m Nick Papagni, “the Ag Meter: for AgNet West.
You can hear the full interview with Nick Folio here.