Uncertainty in courts, rising grain prices steal acreage

By DAVE WILKINS

Capital Press

Last year, it was uncertainty about Roundup Ready alfalfa that discouraged some Western seed growers from planting the crop.

Good prices for wheat, corn and other alternatives appear to have further reduced alfalfa seed acreage this year, industry officials said.

Growers didn't know in early 2010 whether the USDA was going to deregulate Roundup Ready alfalfa again. Rather than stick with a crop they might not be able to sell, many alfalfa seed growers opted to plant alternatives, said Rick Waitley, administrator of the Idaho Alfalfa and Clover Seed Commission.

"It's going to take us a while to recover from that," Waitley said.

Idaho farmers harvested 8,500 acres of alfalfa seed last year, a 23 percent decline from 2009, according to the Idaho field office of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The state has seen a steady decline in the number of harvested acres in recent years. Idaho farmers harvested 22,000 acres of alfalfa seed in 2004.

At about $2 per pound, contract prices for alfalfa seed are better than they were a few years ago, but they haven't kept up with the rising cost of inputs, industry officials said.

Growers haven't hesitated to switch to other crops, including other seed crops, to make more money.

"There has been a pretty aggressive attitude among growers," Waitley said. "We have seen growers who have grown alfalfa seed for a number of years who are not growing it now."

Crops such as wheat also take less of a long-term commitment. A perennial, alfalfa seed requires growers to purchase bees for pollination and to erect bee houses in their fields.

In some areas, including California and the Columbia Basin, alfalfa seed acreage is down as much as 40 percent from a year ago, according to estimates from the Western Alfalfa Seed Growers Association.

Wheat, corn and other seed crops have taken a big bite out of alfalfa seed acres, especially in areas like the Columbia Basin and Idaho's Treasure Valley, said Rod Christensen, executive director of the association.

"It's definitely been a factor in reduced acres of alfalfa seed," he said. "Contract prices just haven't kept up ... the price that has been offered is just not that attractive."

However, in areas with relatively few cropping alternatives, alfalfa seed acres have been more stable, Christensen said.

In southeastern Washington state near Touchet, for instance, alfalfa seed acres are about the same as last year, he estimated.

The same goes for Wyoming, where growers have about 8,800 acres in production, according to estimates.