Making Hay

In 1931 Kentucky put itself on the map of forage production with the development of KY-31 tall fescue.The cultivation of that variety of tall fescue went from a small hillside in Menifee County to over 35 million acres in less than 80 years. Today Kentucky hay production ranks fourth in the nation for all other hay than alfalfa.  With Kentucky being the largest beef producing state east of the Mississippi river it is easy to see why hay production is so important to our state.

While it is easy to talk about the estimated 4.5 million tons of hay that are produced in the state, it is more difficult to get a good representation of the quality of that forage.With budget cuts in 2017 the Kentucky Department of Agriculture was faced with some tough choices.  For many years KDA had a very strong forage program that not only tested hay for Kentucky producers, but helped to market it as well.  After some budget cuts and staffing retirements KDA was unable to provide all the services they had traditionally done.

It was at that point the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension service stepped up and agreed to help with the forage sampling and submittal process.  Since January 2018 the Christian County Cooperative extension service has sampled 13 lots of hay for multiple producers.  The total pounds for those 13 lots end up being 326 tons, or 652,000 pounds of dry matter.  When you equate pounds to dollars, those 326 tons would bring around $30,000 on the hay market.

Considering that Kentucky produces 4.5 million tons of hay; you could estimate the hay industry in Kentucky to be nearly a 225 Billion Dollar Industry.   While 326 tons is only a small portion of the total hay production it is easy to see the importance of the hay testing program.  With the partnership between KDA and UK Cooperative Extension Service the forage testing and marketing program has the ability to make a lot of HAY for Kentucky producers.