MOSES LAKE — Klompen Farms of Royal City is the 2026 hay-growing champion of Grant County. 

Owners Bob and Anne Wieldraayer were named Hay King and Queen at the Grant County Fair Aug. 18, winning both first and second place for export alfalfa with Alforex AFX 439. 

The first-place ribbon was for the farm’s first cutting, which the Wieldraayers did on April 26. It was very early in the year to cut, Bob said, but he wasn’t going to be available for a while after that and wanted to get the cutting out of the way. 

The second-place entry was from the fourth cutting, which the Wieldraayers, with help from their daughter Erin Wieldraayer, baled Aug. 15. That was also a little early, Bob said. 

“There were 26 days of growth between third and fourth cutting,” he said. “The reason I shortened up that because I wanted to have enough time to make a fifth cutting (in September). The ground was dry and there was smoke in the air. It’s difficult to make hay when with the smoke.” 

The turnaround on the fourth cutting was tight, Bob said, a matter of four-and-a-half days from the swather to the baler. The baling was done quickly too, he said. 

“We started about 10 o’clock Friday night,” he said. “I’m running the rake with the girls chasing behind with the tractors and balers, and we all got in the house about 12:30 Sunday morning.” 

Other first-place winners were Jordan Cobb of Ephrata for dairy alfalfa and TCF Hay & Timothy, also of Ephrata, for feed store alfalfa, domestic grass and export timothy. 

This year is the fourth time Klompen Farms has won the Hay King honors, following honors in 2008, 2021 and 2023. 

The Klompens have been farming on the Royal Slope since 1988 and growing hay since 1990. Bob had worked on a farm on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, Anne said. They were planning to work with some family friends on the Royal Slope, but when a farm became available, they bought it, she said. 

“Bob knew what he wanted to do,” she said. “We had a small amount of equipment, and the neighbors were helpful to get us started. I worked full-time in Moses Lake as an RN for the first several years. We’ve been doing it ever since and didn’t look back.” 

They named their farm Klompen, which is the Dutch word for a wooden shoe, a nod to Bob’s heritage. 

Erin grew up on the farm, she said. She works at Callahan Manufacturing in Royal City, but she comes back to help out when Mom and Dad need the extra hands. 

“As a kid I moved a lot of water and caught a lot of gophers,” she said. “We just do whatever needs to be done to get the job done.” 

This summer has been especially bad for wildfires, and the smoke from those affected the weather in the Basin, which in turn affected hay production. 

“It’s difficult to make hay when there’s smoke,” Bob said. “We get late sunrises, early sunsets, heavy dews, lots of humidity.” 

“When things don’t dry the way they should, they kind of stall,” said contest Superintendent Kirk Jungers. “You get humidity trapped and it’s just stagnant air.” 

Overall, Jungers said, the crop has been good despite the smoky air. 

The Hay King competition is managed by the Mid-Columbia Hay Growers Association as a way of bringing attention to central Washington’s role in producing cattle feed. The hay is put through a series of blind tests by three judges to determine the winner. The Wieldraayers’ hay undergoes some rigorous testing before that, Erin said. 

“We have horses, and they taste-test it,” she said. “We’re like, ‘will our horses eat it? Yes? Okay, let’s ship it.’”