Hay Market Reports

Hay supplies generally exceeded demand as August began, pressuring prices lower, based on weekly state, regional and national hay market summaries.

With the 2016 hay growing and harvest season well underway, USDA’s annual acreage report indicated U.S. hay harvested area will be up from a year earlier. The report, released June 30, set estimated all hay acreage at about 56.1 million acres, up 2 percent compared with the 54.4 million acres harvested in 2015.

Late-May moisture was causing hay quality and demand concerns in many parts of the country, based on regional summaries from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. Hay prices got a late-spring bump, but reports of new-crop sales are light as harvest got into second gear.

The Kentucky Derby is coming up this weekend, and the hay harvest season is just getting to the gate, too. Hay movement and market information has been slow.

Alfalfa harvest is underway in Arizona and California. Fields are greening up in other regions, giving a glimpse of how the hay crop survived winter. Most areas of the country reported adequate to surplus hay and roughage supplies.

Market conditions reported Feb. 29, 2016

Many current agricultural market reports would have you believe “the sky is falling” in agriculture.