FARMINGTON -- Navajo Agricultural Products Industry is running out of alfalfa hay, a spokeswoman said Monday.
“We are actually possibly going to run out of hay by Saturday,” said marketing assistant Rae DeGroat. “It could go on till next week, but we wanted the public to be aware of this information.”
NAPI is a major supplier of hay in San Juan County. The crucial livestock feed has been in short supply this year because of drought that has hurt production.
Prices for alfalfa hay have climbed throughout the Southwest.
Hay is tough to come by and increasingly expensive throughout the region. Demand from ranchers in Texas and Southern New Mexico, where drought is devastating agriculture, is rippling throughout the feed market. The hay shortage has drawn national media attention.
“Supplies are very short due to the drought down south,” said Tom Campbell, agronomy manager at Basin Co-Op in Durango, Colo.
Prices for premium hay in the Durango area are approaching $300 per ton, while cow hay is going for about $200 per ton.
The climbing prices and tight supplies are worrying ranchers. Many rural residents keep cattle, horses and sheep, all of which need feed to get through the winter.
“People are getting scared,” said Dean Bradshaw, owner of Valley Trading Co. in Waterflow.
Valley Trading Co. annually sells about 10,000 bales of hay that are raised at an irrigated farm near Cortez, Colo. Bradshaw said his barn is half empty, and once it’s gone, he won’t get any more.
“We get a dozen calls a day asking if we have any hay, and we have some, but it’s not going to last,” he said.
Bradshaw said the hay shortage is not unprecedented, but it’s the worst in several years.
Adding to the problem is a growing population of older horses since domestic horse slaughter was essentially banned several years ago, he said. “The old horses have increased in number.”
NAPI, a massive Navajo Nation farm, sells hay on contract to dairies and other customers, and to the public from its Region 2 storage facility south of Farmington and a sales office at Shonto, Ariz.
NAPI is selling “good” hay for $220 per ton and lesser quality cow hay for $190 per ton. The Navajo agriculture group raises 84,000 tons of hay a year.
“We sell to whoever stops by,” DeGroat said. “The general public is more than welcome to stop by Region II and pick up whatever quantity you need.”
DeGroat suggested alternatives for feeding livestock such as cornstalk and Hay Grazer. Cornstalk costs $100 per ton, Hay Grazer $150 per ton and wheat straw $100 per ton.
Retailers expect tight hay supplies to continue for a while.
“It’s going to take a couple or three years to get this straightened out,” Campbell said. “But who knows? If we have really good production, we could get it straightened out sooner.”
