The 2009 growing season has seen a bumper hay crop in the Wet Mountain Valley. “It’s been a good season,” said local rancher, Bob Canda. “There’s been plenty of irrigation and rain. The early rain helped.” Because conditions were just right, there was a bigger crop this year.

Randy Rusk of Rusk Ranches also said it was a very good year. “It was different,” he said. There was a lot of rain in June, which is unusual. Then it dried up and allowed for a good haying period. “Yields were good, and protein levels were high.”

A good hay yield is two to two and a half tons per acre according to both Rusk and Canda. Custer County District Conservationist Jim Sperry reported the average yield for hay in Custer County this season was 2.7 tons per acre. Good protein levels are 11 to 12 per cent in July. The level drops after the grass is mature, so volume can be high, but protein levels may be lower later in the season. Folks out there haying now are struggling with the wet conditions from afternoon showers, said Rusk. Most everybody is done cutting, though.

Sperry said the grass hay here is a combination of timothy, garrison creeping foxtail, orchard grass, clovers and a few varieties of brome grasses. Mountain brome is the only native of Colorado, said Sperry. The others were all planted a long time ago.

“They probably started reseeding the Valley in the 1920’s after WWI when they could afford the seed,” said Valley rancher Bet Kettle. Sperry said the timothy is just coming back after the more recent 2002 draught.

Dave Hobby has been hauling hay to and from the Valley since 1977. He concurred that it’s been a good year. In past years, ranchers typically have had three quarters to two thirds of a crop, but most have had a full crop this year, said Hobby. He hauls 18 to 19 tons of hay at a time and takes it out east around Colorado Springs and Denver and sometimes to New Mexico and Texas. It all depends on what kind of season folks in surrounding areas have had and what their needs are. There have been years, he continued, that weather in the Wet Mountain Valley has been dry, and he has brought hay into the Valley rather than haul it out. Hay prices are around $4 to $7 per bale either from the field or barn stored according to Kettle and Sperry or $115 per ton according to the Ag Journal.

With ample rains in June and the prospect of a good crop, some ranchers brought in more cattle for the season. Locals may have noticed more livestock on the landscape this summer. The cattle are generally brought in for the summer season then sold at market in fall before the cold weather hits.

Cattle that come from lower elevation are susceptible to brisket, or high mountain disease, said Rusk. Brisket disease is the accumulation of fluid in an animal’s brisket area as a result of congestive heart failure. The condition is caused by hypertension in response to low oxygen levels at higher elevations, making cattle that originated at lower elevations and moved to higher elevations highly susceptible to the disease. Cold weather will exacerbate the disease and cattle can die from it, so it is wise to move cattle to a lower elevation before cold weather. There is a test developed by Tim Holt, Colorado State University assistant professor of veterinary medicine and biomedical science, but it is best to run cattle here in the Valley that were raised here, said Rusk.

The Valley has dedicated 16,500 acres to grass hay and 1400 acres to alfalfa. With much depending on the climate and the growing season for area ranchers, the hay and cattle industry has experienced a bountiful 2009 season.

– Jacque Keller