Hay to China

Hay to China

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
My friend Susan Allen sent me this sad epistleI from Horse and Rider magazine written by Julie S Thorson. "I happen to live in Idaho, one of the top five hay-producing states. This used to be to my advantage; not only was hay for horses plentiful, but the strong supply also kept prices down compared to other regions. Not any more. The hay-export market has gotten so hot that most of the hay grown near me will never be eaten by an American animal. Instead, the hay is baled into massive, one-ton units that are trucked to a port, then stacked on ships and sent to be consumed by livestock in Japan, China, the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere overseas." I called Julie and asked her to explain why all the hay was going to foreign markets. "It's a rather complicated subject. If an entity comes in and says, ' I will rent your acreage, I will plant the hay, I will harvested, I will do all the work, it will be my machinery, but I have this contract and I need to fill for X number of times for my client in Japan or wherever it is', it only makes sense for the farmer to say yes, by all means go ahead, doesn't it? They don't have to use their equipment, they don't have to upgrade, they don't have to buy the fuel, they don't have to buy the labor." I'm certainly no agroeconomist but sadly, everything that Julie says is correct.
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