Beeson Farms wins top hay prize as entries hit record

Beeson Farms of Climax, North Carolina, won the Southeastern Hay Contest with a Relative Forage Quality (RFQ) score of 341, the highest among a record 628 submissions from operations in 10 Southeastern states.

By Priya Raman

A quality record under dry conditions

For more than two decades, hay producers across the Southeast have entered their best forage in the contest. This year’s overall winner was Beeson Farms, whose hay production is managed by Josh Beeson. Its 341 was the top RFQ result, achieved in a season shaped by drought rather than dependable rainfall.

“Anyone with a managed hayfield is qualified,” said Lisa Baxter, University of Georgia Extension forage specialist. Producers work with local Extension agents, who sign off on entries to make certain they are handled correctly. The contest’s 628 submissions included operations of all sizes.

The RFQ index measures hay quality and tops out at 400. Beeson Farms also posted the highest RFQ score in last year’s contest, breaking the RFQ index mark. Contest rules then made the farm ineligible for the top prize in 2025, so Jon Pope of Coats, North Carolina, took the overall award with alfalfa scoring 354.

Scores should be read as contest evidence, not a promise of a larger crop. Contest organisers noted that some high-quality stored forages came through despite the drought. Useful forage quality survived difficult conditions, even as the volume and timing of production suffered.

What the winner receives

The contest ran nine sponsored categories. The top three entries in each received cash, while the overall winner could choose either a new Massey Ferguson DM Series disc mower or an RK Series rotary rake for this year’s hay-production season, plus $2,000 in cash.

Contest organisers presented the awards on Oct. 20, the opening day of the Sunbelt Ag Expo. The equipment prize points at this hay-production season rather than a distant award year. Cash rewards reputation; machinery puts the prize to work.

Drought sets the limits

Baxter described the season in blunt terms: “Our 2025 season ended early, and most winter crops did not go into the ground because of intense drought last fall. We normally see some relief in midwinter, but we were dry through spring and into early summer.”

The regions that normally produced the most submissions spent months in D3 to D4 drought. Rain slowly returned to much of the Southeast, but Baxter said conditions remained abnormally dry and it would take time for the region to bounce back.

The record entry count landed in the same field as widespread crop failure. Quality did not disappear. Consistency did.

What does this change for haymakers?

It gives them a 341 benchmark from a managed operation, backed by local Extension checks, without pretending that one drought-season score solves a dry-region forage problem. Farmers can use the result as a quality reference, but the larger question is whether their own fields can establish winter crops and sustain harvest volume.

For Beeson Farms, the immediate choice is specific: a new Massey Ferguson DM Series disc mower or RK Series rotary rake for this hay-production season, plus $2,000 in cash.

For other growers, the contest offers a measured comparison, not a turnkey prescription. Extension sign-off helps make entries comparable; the score leaves the harder work in the field.

The next test comes with winter-crop establishment and the pace of recovery in the areas that spent months at D3 to D4 drought. Watch whether returning rain lifts forage supply and entry quality without erasing the drought deficit. The trophy is settled; the forage balance is not.