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Hay producers have had a tough couple of years in some areas of the southeast, with drought conditions impacting yields greatly.
That's changed this year, with a combination of ample moisture reserves and some well-timed heat causing a jump in yields.
Agrologist Edgar Hammermeister says that's got producers very happy, even as the season has had some problems.
"It's certainly making the cattlemen happy as they're trying to put up with the earlier moisture where we're getting rain every day or every second day. That just was not conducive to hay production at all. So the hay cutting is going pretty fast and fierce here now. It's my understanding talking to a few guys that. It's a pretty good problem."
Farmers who have planted younger stands are making out much better as those are more receptive to higher moisture levels.
"Things are influenced by the age of the stands and so new stands one and two years old. They will have very, very robust growth, but stands that are five years old, they're older, they're starting to get a little bit played out and they're not taking advantage of of the moisture that we have received unless the farmer had fertilized the grass then it would respond."
Producers will be looking to jump don't any opportunity to profit from these better conditions, says Hammermeister.
"This is an opportunity for above-average hay production this year. Now that the heat is going to move the hay crop along very quickly there's one thing that the cattlemen, as they're considering they're hay cutting and whatnot, they're looking for volume versus looking for quality."
That'll be especially pronounced in alfalfa fields where more heat can take nutrients out of the leaves quickly.
"This heat is going to move the hay along, particularly the alfalfa very quickly where it gets into the latter part of flowering and the leaves start to drop because the plant is looking to reproduce and the nutrients were stored in the leaves and as soon as the seed production starts the plant starts to move nutrients from the leaves up into toward the seeds and that loses the nutrient quality out of the heat."
Hammermeister says that producers will look to keep any more rain away from their hay fields in order to benefit from the increased moisture in the spring.