RIDDLE (AP) - After a dry winter and a wet spring, hay farmers in Western Oregon are bracing for a tough harvesting season.

Because of the dry winter, most hay in the region was ready to be cut in early May. But then the skies opened up in May, and farmers have not had an extended period of dry weather since then.

In most cases, hay can't be cut when it is wet. But the longer the wait, the less chance there is of harvesting a high quality crop.

There are several problems with wet hay. If it's baled with too much moisture, it can catch fire. And when wet hay molds, it's of little use to horse owners.

On the other hand, if hay is baled too dry, it can shatter.

"Looks like we're going to be buying this year," said Riddle hay grower June Miller, who will have to pay the higher costs of bringing in hay from Eastern Oregon - about $4 a bale, up from $2.

Tim Bare, the 49-year-old general manager of K-Bar Ranches in Myrtle Creek, has been working on farms all his life and said this year's hay crop is the worst he's seen since the early 1980s.

For the most part, Bare said that if growers have not made a first cut so far, there will not be much nutritional value to their hay.

"At this point it's just a salvage operation," he said.

But Shelby Filley, a livestock and forage specialist with the Oregon State University Douglas County Extension Office in Roseburg, said late-cut hay can still have some value. Cattle and sheep, for example, can digest it if they're given a protein supplement, she said.

The best way to deal with the unpredictable weather is flexibility, Filley said.

Usually, there is one warm week in early spring that would be ideal for cutting hay, and growers need to be ready, she said.