Hay growers continue to send fodder north to drought stricken NSW and Queensland

DRY conditions in Queensland and northern NSW have eaten through the large volumes of cereal hay produced last season.

Penny Baker Howlong

DRY conditions in Queensland and northern NSW have eaten through the large volumes of cereal hay produced last season.

Big volumes were produced in southern Australia after a big frost hit grain growers in spring last year.

Many turned their frost-damaged crops into hay, and there were concerns this would create a surplus that would hang over the fodder industry. But it was sold to producers and feedlots in northern NSW and Queensland, who are still suffering from drought.

Australian Fodder Industry Association industry development manager Caitlin Scholfield said the strong demand for hay from the north had taken up a lot of the extra produced from the frosted cereal crops.

“There was speculation about the big amounts of cereal hay produced after the frosts last year but it now seems there was not as much as first thought,” Ms Scholfield said.

“There was strong demand from the north over summer and autumn and then it quietened down for a while.

“But that demand has stepped up again in the past two weeks as the weather has cooled down in the north and there is no bulk in what feed there is.”

Ms Scholfield said industry sources had told the association that most of the hay made through southern NSW after the frosts was now either sold or was going to be sold.

“Supplies will certainly hold, but there won’t be an excess of hay coming into the 2014 hay season,” she said.

“There had been a general trend of decreasing hay production and last year, with frosted crops being baled and better yields, production was up.

“We needed a good season to build up hay supplies and fill sheds that had been empty for years.

“And while the industry believes there will be carry over, it won’t be an oversupply situation.”

Ms Scholfield said returns for croppers who had turned their frosted crops into cereal hay had been good if the hay was high quality.

Penny Baker, from Baker Grains at Howlong, and her family are continuing to load hay to send north, and last week sent two loads to a central Queensland feedlot.

The Bakers lost all but two paddocks of cereal crops to frost last spring, but have now contracted to sell all that as cereal hay.

Mrs Baker said it was ironic they were struggling to load hay in wet and boggy conditions, but it was going to drought-stricken Queensland.