With the low hay prices of 2016, some producers may be thinking of trying to get into the organic hay market. Organic farming systems rely on practices such as cultural and biological pest management, and virtually prohibit synthetic chemicals in crop production and antibiotics or hormones in livestock production.

Is the market price for hay lower than your cost of production? Do you know your cost of production? I suspect many of us have not calculated it for a while. I recently went through the process of updating a budget for irrigated alfalfa hay in southern Idaho.

Everyone should have inventoried, sampled and tested each lot of hay by now. Regardless if you market your hay or use it yourself, a forage inventory complete with quality tests is essential to making informed decisions. A test is a no-brainer for marketing purposes. How do you know what each lot is worth without a test?

September is probably the most critical month for alfalfa’s stand health and next year’s yield. Alfalfa will be in an energy-deficit situation after cutting until it reaches 6 to 8 inches in height.

We have some effective pesticides, but when do you need to apply them? The answer for many of us procrastinators is 10 days to two weeks ago. Rather than adding to a problem of selection for pesticide-resistant insects, maybe a better plan is to just cut the forage early and then monitor for continued problems.

The quality of alfalfa hay is determined by its maturity at cutting, environmental conditions prior to and during harvest, and by handling and storage processes post-harvest. Environmental conditions vary from year to year and day to day, so calendar date is not a good predictor.

Early spring is the time to get out the soil probe and sample for soil fertility in preparation to provide adequate plant nutrition for alfalfa and other forage crops.

For convenience or necessity, we sometimes want to work in or make applications in our alfalfa fields during the late fall, winter and early spring. Alfalfa is most dormant then, and it is a good time to apply fertilizer, compost or manure. Sometimes we need to use herbicides that are supposed to be applied while alfalfa is dormant.