A little 7-year-old Arizona boy went to his neighbor asking about a tractor. The man told the child that he’d sell it to him for $5, thinking it would never happen. He was so excited that he ran home and gathered enough money to purchase his very first tractor, which was an old hand crank John Deere J. He drove it everywhere around the yard feeling bigger than life.

At the age of 12, he finally got to start operating a tractor in the field. This proved to be a good learning experience. He was cultivating cotton and wanted to be more efficient. There were 3 shanks on the cultivator, and he thought he would get a lot more done if he was cultivating 3 rows at a time instead of 2. Dad came to check on him and was livid.

After graduating from high school, he went to Fresno State on a Rodeo Scholarship bulldogging and calf roping. This was about the same time that the developers in Arizona started to squeeze farmers out. In 1973, his father went up north and bought a farm after a hired hand had told him about farming and irrigation in a small Idaho town.

Bordering the nearby lake, much of the ground was under water or full of weeds, which became an everyday battle on the new farm. Many farmers had gone broke trying to make a living in the area at that time. Land improvements began by laser leveling and building new ditches for even irrigation. Fields were cleaned up by better crop rotation and weed control.

Once the land was improved, they went to work developing a new market for their premium alfalfa. This was the same time he joined the National Hay Association. Eventually he would become the President. They started selling their 3 tie bales to racetracks on the east coast. They built a reputation for supplying a high-quality product. Soon buyers came looking for them.

As demand for their product grew, the needs for better storage grew also. They were innovative and started putting in hay sheds to store the bales in, which was unheard of in the area at that time.

To stay competitive, they had to find more cost-effective ways to ship hay. They started loading and shipping from train cars and dry vans to their east coast markets.

To continually improve, they started changing from flood irrigation to sprinkler systems increasing yields and consistency in their hay production. To further improve quality, they went from 2 crops per year to 3 crops. After his father passed away in 1988, he solely ran the farm.

Today, he’s still all about high quality alfalfa that he’s proud of. He farms with his daughter carrying on the legacy of many generations of premium hay producers.

Congratulations, Andy Dobson, Dobson Ranches, Terreton, Idaho, the 2024 Haymaker of the Year!

Andy Dobson with daughters Courtney (left) and Sloane (right).