Bemoaning a sluggish hay market

I’m not a Facebook social butterfly; in fact, I don’t have any friends on the social media behemoth. That’s by choice, and thankfully, I have plenty of good friends in real life.

Even without friends, I still find Facebook to be useful for following groups that I’m interested in, including many forage-related entities. On one of the hay-interest groups last week, I was drawn in by the following post:

So, what the heck is going on with hay sales this year? Southeast Wisconsin had lots of rain. Making dry hay was almost impossible until July. The hay that was made either was rained on or was moldy or both. The good hay made is not selling. What is going on? Thank you.

As you might expect, the responses to this post were many and varied, which again emphasizes the fact that hay markets are location specific, not national. Here were some candid responses prompted by the post:

I’m in Massachusetts, and we are experiencing the same thing, even with our normal customers.

Patience, patience, patience. Never panic about selling hay. Very little good hay in eastern Ontario also. It will sell like hot cakes this winter.

Put it in the barn and wait until colder weather; it will sell when the snow starts falling.

Surprised how cheap it is here, too. Some guys baled a lot of good hay. I had so much rain I just finished some first cutting.

People think because it’s been raining that there will be plenty of hay, so they don’t get in a hurry to buy. They don’t realize that no hay gets made while it’s raining and that compounds into losing cuttings later down the road.

I haven’t sold any hay in almost two months. I’ve had dry hay, but it was late from the rain, so it had dead grass in it. I discounted the price almost $2 a bale from last year at one point, trying to move it, and still had no takers.

I’ve seen good grass bales with no rain on them for $3 in the southeast Iowa area. There’s cheap, good hay all over right now. It’s been a good hay season around here, so it’s a buyer’s market for sure.

Western Wisconsin here. I’m selling all of my hay and getting pretty much what I want for it. It is selling a little slower this year due to how much is available. If you make it right, it will sell. Just need to wait a little longer.

Same here in VT and NH. Some beautiful dry hay put up, and storage is full. Second cut is standing in the fields but not any interest. Just crickets.

Wet years always seem to create low demand. Plenty of pasture and large amounts of hay made, though probably a fair amount is of low quality.

Cheap corn and beans don’t help the hay price any either. Record hay yields is what’s killing the price. We have filled and dry-wrapped 500 bales this year with two cuts to go, and we only dry wrapped 200 last year.

Eastern PA. Lotta rain, nice first cut made at 10% to 12%. Basically, no rain since June 1st until Debby last week. Second cut not looking great.

I don't quite understand it either, but I do know people are tight on money. Winter snow might change things, but then again, I might be wrongfully hopeful on that too.

In Oklahoma, so many people sold off their livestock because the market has been so good. Moving hay has slowed down dramatically.

Quantity over quality. Same rain situation in Michigan. Took so long for first cutting that when it was finally cut the yields were huge. So, the market is now flooded with late-cut or rained-on hay, and it's been dirt cheap here.

Everyone has hay, and no one is needing it right now. Pastures are growing like crazy. No one is feeding hay. I have not fed a bale of hay since May.

Hang in there, friends.