YAKIMA – Nick Vander Houwen pulled his white pickup past the last of his apple trees – a venerable block of Golden Delicious that still produces good fruit. He parked where the orchard gives way to an open field of cut alfalfa hay, drying in the midmorning sun.
“I’ve had several people ask me if there’s any money in it,” Vander Houwen said, looking at the hay. “It beats nothing.”
Earlier that morning, Vander Houwen explained his decision to take out the majority of his 25 acres of apples and put in hay: “We decided to plant alfalfa just because the apple deal was extremely uncertain,” he said.
That was in 2000, when the bottom fell out of apple prices. Vander Houwen and his long-time orchardist neighbor, Jim Dale, split the price of a used swather, hay bailer and harrow bed and gradually taught themselves a new business.
It has yet to become a mass movement, but for growers looking to get out of orchards, hay is proving an attractive alternative.
“There’s been a lot of dismay in the fruit business and they’ve been putting it (hay) in on old orchard grounds,” said Gary Kirckof, president of the 30-member Yakima Valley chapter of the Washington State Hay Growers Association.
Yakima’s share of the total state crop in 2002, the last year for which county figures are available, was 43,500 acres. At a statewide average price of $470 per harvested acre, the Yakima crop was worth a bit less than $20.5 million.
Hay acreage is decreasing in Washington and the West in part because prices for crops such as corn, spring wheat and beans are increasing. Especially on marginal land, growers are replacing hay with these crops, said Rod Christensen, executive secretary of the hay growers.
Kirckof said the large number of pet owners, small livestock operations, dairies and cattlemen in close proximity to Yakima creates a stable and diverse marketplace for hay.
When he took out his orchards, which were mostly out-of-fashion Red Delicious apple trees, Vander Houwen thought about replanting a more desirable variety at some point in the future. A wind machine, used to protect orchards from frost, still pokes out of one of his lush green hay fields.
“I raised apples all my life and I miss having an apple orchard,” he said, “but there’s a lot more work, a lot more regulations and a lot of labor involved.”
He had to hire 15 to 20 workers to harvest his apples. But he only employs one man, part time, to cut and bail hay three times a season. Hay is a nice fit for Vander Houwen, and experts say it can be for other orchards in transition as well. There are many of these as the apple industry adjusts to consumer demand for varieties other than Red Delicious.
“It’s a very good rotation crop,” Christensen said. “It’s a nitrogen fixator, which means it puts nitrogen back into the ground.”
Associated Press
Surrounded by apple, pear and cherry orchards, Yakima-area grower Gary Kirckof cuts his field of alfalfa on May 26.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
