It’s an interesting year to be in the commercial hay business. In addition to raising crops and cattle, Pennington County, Minnesota farmer Aaron Chervestad sells alfalfa and grass hay. Chervestad is getting phone calls from customers, but says it will be hard to fill all the needs. “Normally, we produce 3×3 square bales. On a normal year, we can produce 4,000 to 6,000 bales, but we’ll be lucky to hit 3,000 bales this year. The first cutting of hay was 50 percent of normal and there won’t be a second cutting. There’s nothing there.” For those still looking for hay, Chervestad says hay prices have doubled from one year ago. “It’s all based on supply and demand. The market is what someone is willing to pay and customers aren’t complaining about quality or price yet this year.”
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