DAIRY – Organizers said winning isn’t everything at the annual Oregon Hay King contest.

And that’s a good thing because nobody had been declared the king after Saturday’s competition at Rice Feed & Supply in the unincorporated community of Dairy.

Results were delayed because the machine that analyzes hay for moisture and other properties is broken. Contest officials said results would be available after the machine located outside Klamath Falls is fixed, or once bale samples can be sent to another location for testing.

The Central Oregon Hay Growers Association began the contest in 1998, but the Hay King Contest is now the annual competition of the Oregon Hay and Forage Association – the organization for growers spread across Eastern Oregon.

Judges from extension services in Washington, Idaho, Utah and occasionally Oregon consider the bale’s shape, how tightly it is bound, and its color and texture.

Judges also subject the bale to a smell test. A caramel smell means the hay has heat damage. Cows love such hay, but it has fewer nutrients. Judges also mark down hay if there is too much dust or mold, or if includes things that shouldn’t be there.

“One year we opened one up and there was a piece of aluminum pipe inside,” said David King, president of the Klamath Basin Hay Growers Association.

Between 15 and 20 hay growers submitted bales for this year’s contest. The bales covered the gamut of hay varieties, from alfalfa and cereal hays to grass and timothy hay.

The contest awards winners in each category, as well as an overall winner. The prizes fall a bit shy of what you might see on a TV game show: oil, baling twine, a moisture probe, gift certificates and toy tractors that often end up with a grower’s children.

Mylen Bohle, a Crook County extension agent, said the real function of the contest is educational. The growers pick up tips and adjust their equipment back home.

“If growers and the industry didn’t benefit from the event, experts wouldn’t be willing to lend their talents in judging and growers wouldn’t drive from around the state to participate,” he said.