Annual Ryegrass Strengthening With High Demand

16 Sep 2016

Posted in General by Curtis Williams

In what appears to be a classic case of supply and demand, Annual Ryegrass has strengthened over the last few weeks due to strong demand and poor availability.

It seems as though growers don’t want to sell it until it has been cleaned and tested, and there are more buyers than sellers at this point. It does not appear to be related to yields or overall supplies, just immediate availability. There is also not enough Oregon Kentucky 31 and Orchard grass ready to ship either, but there have been no market indications of this as with Annual Ryegrass.

September has been pretty ideal to date for plantings for the 2017 Oregon grass seed crop with sunny days, and cool nights. Concerned with the low price of wheat, many growers may be planting perennial ryegrass with or without contracts and this could lead to market weakness in 2017. It is way too early to be concerned with the potential for 2017, with many months of unusual weather, armyworms and even slugs between us and the next crop!