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If two months make for a trend, then hay prices are on the downside of that trend. The U.S. June all-hay price dropped by $6 per ton while the alfalfa average price declined $5 per ton in USDA’s most recent Agricultural Prices report released last week. The report pegged the June all-hay price at $134 per ton, down from $140 per ton in May and $28 behind last year’s June average price. The June alfalfa average hay price dropped to $142 per ton. This was $36 per ton less than June 2015. The USDA price averages account for all qualities of hay sold, and the final U.S. estimate is a volume-weighted average rather than a simple average of state values. Those states with the most volume sales will impact the final U.S. dollar value more than those states with fewer sales. For alfalfa hay, large average price reductions occurred in Arizona (minus $15 per ton), Ohio (minus $20), and Pennsylvania (minus $30). No state had an average price spike of more than $13 per ton (Oklahoma).
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