The hay market repercussions from the dock slowdown are frightening. If a container of hay that is ordered for delivery overseas is not loaded as scheduled, the end user will either sell the livestock or find alternate feed. The container then loses its market, and hay ordered for November delivery will likely not be needed in December, compounding an already difficult problem. That means there is a sudden extra 45-day (and growing) supply of product on hand that now has no market. It disrupts exporters' cash flow and most are unable to purchase further hay supplies. Instead of continuing to purchase hay for export through the fall and winter months, they are concerned with making payment for product already purchased.
In addition to the longshoremen strike, several months ago the hay export market was disrupted when China claimed to have found genetically engineered (GE) hay in shipments that were specified to be GE free. China currently states they have a “zero” tolerance for GE alfalfa. They consider any product testing more than 0.01 percent as being above the “zero” tolerance.
Testing for the objectionable trait has been difficult. It turns out that the test commonly used in the U.S. is not the test currently used in China. For a haystack containing GE hay to test positive, plants that have the trait must be included in the sample sent for testing. If the hay all looks the same, both stacked and while growing in the field, and the grower was told he was planting a traditional variety, then it is indeed a surprise to all when China gets a positive test and several containers of hay are rejected.
A number of speakers at the 2015 Washington State Hay Conference in January attempted to address the reasons that hay might test positive for the presence of GE alfalfa.
Read a related article addressing how to test hay for the presence of GE alfalfa.
Add the longshoremen issues to the Chinese GE disruption and domestic falling milk prices, and we have a real issue in agriculture in the West.
The only bright spot on the horizon is that there is legislation in the works that would put the ports under the same rules as the railroads. Those rules state transportation is a matter of national security and that strikes and slowdowns are illegal. There are big, sharp teeth in that legislation to enforce it.
It’s time to get vocal and get those we elect to office to at least answer some questions. FG
