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Record Rains Dampen Farmers' Outlook On Hay, Vegetable Profits

Hay farmer Carl Allison looks at the quality of the cow hay from one of his rolls. Allison has resorted to selling cow hay because the rain has cause his horse hay to become brown and too mature.
Hay farmer Carl Allison looks at the quality of the cow hay from one of his rolls. Allison has resorted to selling cow hay because the rain has cause his horse hay to become brown and too mature.

At Allison Farms in Lake City, rolls of hay sit along the fence of the property. The rolls span the vast fields of the 750-acre farm – about the size of 567 football fields.

This may seem like a hay farmer’s paradise, but not for Carl Allison.

The rolls that populate the farm are cow hay, lower quality hay than the kind harvested for horses, said Allison, who owns the farm. His business usually lies in growing Bermuda square-bale horse hay, which requires more time and resources than cow hay.

However, he has had to bale more cow hay than usual because the recent increase in rainfall has not allowed the grass to be dry enough to use for horses.

Allison said horse hay yields twice as much profit as cow hay, but because horse hay requires a higher level of dryness many farmers stick to producing cow hay to avoid having to store horse hay in big barns.

Now, Allison hopes he can at least cover his farming costs.

“This year we’d be lucky if we break even,” he said.

Rain, the bane of any hay farmer’s existence, has made its presence felt in North Central Florida over the past few months.

University of Florida meteorologist Jeff Huffman said June to September are usually rainy months, but this year they have been rainier than usual with longer-lasting periods of rain at unusual times. Collectively, rainfall has been 9 inches above normal between July and September.

Allison, who comes from many generations of farmers, said that to harvest the hay it takes between three and four days to get it dry enough to bale, but he has had very few stretches of time to do that.

On several occasions, he could not cut the hay because of the rain, and it became so mature and brown that it lost its sweet scent and green color.

Though it is not for horses, he still rolls it and sells it as cow hay to try to make some money off of it. Allison said the farm normally produces an average of 500 rolls of cow hay, but this year they have reached almost 5,000 rolls.

Part of the reason the hay turns brown is because of fungus that develops from the humidity.

UF professor of food systems Anna Prizzia, said rain leads to a variety of problems, including drowning of seeds and roots. It also makes crops susceptible to diseases, particularly mold and mildew, she said.

“Mold and mildew rely on water to move from plant to plant, so if you have too much rain and it stays humid it is an ideal condition for them to flourish,” Prizzia said.

But the hay industry is not the only form of agriculture that has been affected by the rain.

Cody Galligan, owner of Siembra Farm in Gainesville, has had issues with the weather. The farmer said the humidity from the rain has led to insects and diseases among his crops and leaching of nutrients.

Galligan grows vegetables at his small, organic, family farm and said he has experienced crop losses, which have led to a lower income.

“We’re selling less in general because of the weather,” he said. “It’s been more work for less money.”

Whether it is hay or vegetable agriculture, farmers in the area are in hopes that the weather will improve, but that might not be the case.

Huffman expects higher than normal rainfall this winter because of El Niño, a warming of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean. He said it does not mean that that there will be more rain than in the past few months, but that El Niño will lead to more rain than usual during a typically dry season.

Allison said he fears he won’t meet his yearly quota of 140,000 square bales of horse hay because of the upcoming El Niño winter. Around this time of year, the farm has usually produced more than 100,000 bales of horse hay, but has only just reached the 70,000 mark.

This means he might not have enough hay to store and supply feed stores through the winter.

Allison usually sells the square bales of horse hay to about 20 different feed stores in the state, and is having a hard time finding customers to purchase his current abundance of cow hay rolls.

“It’s not our business. We don’t have the cattle customers like we have the horse customers,” he said. “Now we’re scrambling trying to find someone to buy it, and of course, everybody is on the same boat so everybody has lots of rolls of cow hay.”

But through the financial struggle and shortage of horse hay, Allison has his hopes up and may even have a solution to getting rid of the rolls.

“One of my hay friends made a comment that we’re just going to have to teach the horses to moo,” he said, “because they’re going have to eat cow hay anyway.”

Laura is a reporter for WUFT News and can be contacted by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.