Danny Decker, owner of Decker Hay Farm<\/a> near Cortez, has completed his first cut on about 300 acres. He said he expects hay will sell for $220 to $350 per ton, depending on its quality, in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n He cautions that a number of factors go into hay prices, including the quantity of hay available from farmers across the nation and the amount of hay exported to Asia. Still, he expects high-quality hay will maintain its price from 2018 despite the greater yield expected this year.<\/p>\n Decker said even high corn and soybean prices will act to drive up the national price of hay.<\/p>\n He also cautioned that excessively wet weather can also hurt prices.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need dry weather when making hay,\u201d Decker said. \u201cIf it rains a lot, we\u2019ll have a lot of rained-upon, cheap hay available.\u201d<\/p>\n Decker expects to be finished with his second cutting by the end of June, and he plans to begin his third cutting two weeks after finishing his second cut.<\/p>\n Despite last year\u2019s drought, Decker said he got three cuttings in 2018, and he expects up to four cuttings on some of his acreage, which he said is spread throughout Montezuma County.<\/p>\n This year, with its plentiful precipitation, Decker said, should mean yields will double from 2018, but he noted 2018 yields were only about half of average because of the drought.<\/p>\n parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Ideal conditions for a bumper hay crop also benefit the invasive weeds that choke out native plants, damage natural ecological systems and may be poisonous to humans and livestock. \u2018Some people haven\u2019t had to irrigate at all\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[281,21,13,28,445,1263],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-agriculture","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-ranching"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65941"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bumper crop of noxious weeds expected<\/h4>\n
\n \u201cAll the weeds are going nuts. It\u2019s going to be a huge weed year, and you need to control them before they go to seed,\u201d said Bonnie Loving, head of the Montezuma County noxious weed department.
\n Hoary Cress, a white-flowering perennial forb in the mustard family, is especially problematic this year, Loving said.
\n \u201cI just harvested a 34-inch (hoary cress) plant. That\u2019s the tallest I\u2019ve ever seen them,\u201d she said.
\n The trouble with hoary cress, Loving said, is that it dominates an area, creating a monoculture that pushes all other species out. Once it\u2019s established, she said it can expand by 15 feet in one growing season.
\n \u201cWe knew it was going to be a problem, but we didn\u2019t think it would be this bad,\u201d Loving said.
\n So far this year, Loving said 41 enforcement letters have gone out to private landowners who have previously been identified with having a problem with various noxious weeds and have been asked to develop a noxious weed management plan but have failed to do so.
\n Loving encourages livestock owners to purchase local hay because imported hay can introduce non-native, noxious weeds.
\n Loving said the Montezuma County Weed Program will conduct property visits for free to inform landowners of issues with noxious plants, whether they are native or non-native.
\n The department also has a backpack sprayer program that any county landowner can use twice for free. Training is provided on the use of the backpack and proper and safe application of herbicides.
\n In addition, the Montezuma County Weed Program has $40,000 dedicated to a cost-share program that will be used to cover a percentage of a landowner\u2019s cost for herbicide to eradicate noxious weeds.
\n Montezuma County Weed Program is at 103 N. Chestnut St. in Cortez. It can be contacted by phone at 565-0580.
\n Other plants Loving identified as troublesome this season include:
\n Black Henbane, introduced from Europe as an ornamental, it blooms June through September. A mature plant reaches 1 to 3 feet with foliage that has a foul odor. Its leaves are shallowly lobed to coarsely toothed sticky hairs. The outer flower is brownish yellow with a purple center and veins. All parts of the plant are poisonous to humans and livestock when ingested.
\n Jointed goatgrass, a mostly erect cool-season grass that closely resembles winter wheat and can be problematic if it infests winter wheat fields because combines can\u2019t separate the grass seeds from wheat seeds.
\n Leafy spurge, a non-native perennial that spreads by seed and creeping roots that can extend 30 feet into soil. The plant can grow from 1 to 3 feet and has stems that are pale green and thickly clustered. Its flowers are small and yellowish-green and enclosed by yellowish-green bracts. The entire plant contains a milky white sap that exudes readily when a stem or leaf is broken and can damage eyes or skin. It is aggressive when established and crowds out other plants.
\n Russian knapweed, a perennial thistle with white hairs on its stems and leaves and purple- to rose-colored flower that is an aggressive invader of pastures and cultivated fields.
\n parmijo@the-journal.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"