Total U.S. forage acres reported for 2014 is 66,508 (in thousands of acres), according to the USDA NASS report, and newly seeded alfalfa acres continued to increase for the third straight year, even as total all-hay acres decreased.
Total forage tonnage increased 2.8 percent. Elements affecting 2014 hay production and markets included the driest stretch of California’s drought for the past 120-year period on record, the longshoreman strike affecting hay exports on the West Coast, China’s refusal of hay containing genetically engineered traces and record milk prices in the dairy industry.
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