2014 was a challenging year for putting up alfalfa and as a result there is a shortage of high quality product going into the winter. Amy Freeburg with Freeburg Hay in Gayville, South Dakota says a cool wet season made it difficult to put up dairy quality alfalfa.
She says while protein is still running around 25-percent, the Relative Feed Value is lower. As a result alfalfa prices have slipped about $50 per ton verses the fall of 2013.
Freeburg says with $3 corn its likely grain farmers will convert some of their crop acres back to alfalfa, so they are expecting an increase in acreage in 2015.