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Minnesota farmer calls second crop hay “awful”

It’s been a challenging hay season for some Minnesota farmers.

Jake Thompson of Barnsville in northwest Minnesota says overly wet conditions continue to cause problems.

“We product a lot of commercial hay that we sell to dairies, we finished up second crop and my brother is probably going to start cutting third crop (this week). But that second crop was awful, the humidity and everything just with the constant little bit of rain we got, what usually is a week took us three (weeks).”

Speaking to Brownfield during Farmfest in southwest Minnesota Thursday, he said a family near the Canada border has struggled to get first crop hay put up.

“I know them pretty well from Baudette, they just finished first crop (Wednesday). It has been so wet and you get that area up there with the trees and the terrain, you just don’t get any airflow.”

Thompson serves as president of the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association.

The latest weekly crop update for Minnesota says the second cutting of alfalfa is about 80 percent complete statewide.