FTLComm - Melfort - June 5, 1999
The first harvest of the 1999 crop year has begun with Tisdale Alfalfa Dehydration cutting two fields just East of Melfort Friday afternoon. The demand for alfalfa pellets in Asia was down considerably last year with the whole continent experiencing economic and financial difficulties. However, things in the far East are improving and there has been some improvement in the market for this vital feed supplement used so widely in Japan and there is a growing market in China. Like other producers Tisdale Alfalfa Dehydration had an abundance of product on hand
as a result of the soft market
and was able to sell off some of the huge supply of bales it had and has begun processing the remainder into pellets. The Arborfield plant still has all of its huge supply of bails sitting in its front yard. This is one of the first fields to be cut for this year's production and from the look of it there seems to be excellent quality. Market analysts are predicting that though the Asia economy is far from recovered the demand for alfalfa will continue to strengthen through the summer and though last year's surplus may not be immediately absorbed this year's production should have a reasonable market