LOCKYER Valley lucerne growers have taken full advantage of ongoing warm weather and a good supply of water to produce bumper hay cuts throughout the winter.
Steep Gully Produce farm manager Shayne Reck said 2015’s winter had been unseasonally warm on the company’s 480ha of farming country in the Lockyer.
“The lucerne just didn’t slow down the way it would in a cooler year,” Mr Reck said.
“It’s been a good year for making hay, especially with the amount of water we have had access to this year.”
The crop is baled into either square bales for the livestock industry or farm bales for the horse industry.
Scott Reed from Feed Central at Charlton near Toowoomba said lucerne hay was selling for anywhere from $300 to $450/tonne and cereal hay from $220 to $320/t, depending on quality.
“We’re now just waiting on the first fresh cut for spring,” Mr Reed said. “Given the way the weather is travelling and the talk of El Nino, we are expecting prices could strengthen in coming months.”
The market was currently dominated by feedlots and dairies, although there were still quantities of hay being transported to drought-affected areas, he said.
Mark Phelps
Editor-in-chief of Queensland Country Life.
Editor-in-chief of Queensland Country Life.
