EAST LANSING, Mich. — There are mixed signals in Michigan’s hay market this fall.

Michigan State University extension grazing and field crop educator Jerry Lindquist said it appears there is a surplus of some types of hay; however, he believes hay marketing will become more challenging than it has been in the last few years.

A favorable growing season produced an ample supply of hay throughout the state, but wet and cool conditions caused some to be of lower quality than the marketplace demands. Pricing is lower than the last couple of years on lower-quality hay, yet it is remaining steady for better quality feed.

"The hay supply is building in Michigan and across the United States," Lindquist explained. "Rainfall has returned to the Midwest and much of Michigan, so yields were better this year."

However, Lindquist said cool and wet conditions made it difficult to put up dry baled hay. "It was hard to get three days of sunshine in a row. A lot of hay was wet or delayed in harvest," he said. "Some hay was lost, where farmers maybe chopped it and it was blown back on the field."

Other hay was put up as haylage just to get it off the fields.

While there appears to be a good quantity of hay going into winter, some of it is low in quality.

"Clean, dust-free horse hay is harder to find because much of it got rained on," Lindquist said. "For the dairy farmers, high-quality alfalfa hay is probably a smaller supply, too, because so much of it was delayed at harvest.

"The high-quality hay that did not get rained on will be one of the few hay types that will still be in short supply this year."

So far prices are holding steady on the higher-quality hay, but are falling on some of the lower-quality forage. High-quality dairy hay is averaging $180-$240 per ton and small square bales of horse hay are averaging $140-$190 per ton, which Lindquist said is in line with last year’s pricing.

"What has really dropped in price is the lower-quality hay that is mainly utilized for beef cattle and other livestock, especially in the round bale package," he said.

"Much of that has dropped to below $100 per ton for the first time in about four or five years. There seems to be plenty of that hay around.

"Many of our hay producers across the state feel the price in higher-quality hay won’t fall much. A lot of sellers of hay are a little worried about what their traffic will be this winter – if it will really slow down or not."

Terry Gerber, who grows hay near Reed City in Osceola County, isn’t sure how the market will hold up this year with higher yields; however, he just sold out of hay for the season.

"We had about 680 big round bales and 1,400 small square bales," he said.

He said although the growing season was challenging, he put up all of his hay without it getting rained on. "Yields in this area were quite high because of all the moisture. A lot of farmers had a hard time getting it off the fields without it being rained on once or twice. We didn’t have any of ours rained on.

"Right now the prices of hay have dropped considerably from what they were earlier this summer. I see it dropping more yet," Gerber added.

According to the USDA crop report, total estimated acres of alfalfa hay increased this year by 2 percent, or about 400,000 acres, and overall hay production is up about 12 percent nationwide.

"A large factor is because the drought is really decreasing in the Midwest and western states," Lindquist said. "Those states especially have rebounded in their hay production.

"We got more rain in Michigan, too," he said, estimating the state’s hay production increased by 15-20 percent this year.

In addition, Lindquist said falling grain prices could further impact the hay market, with some fields returning to hay production.

"This year, we have a lot of corn silage being harvested because the corn didn’t mature fast enough," he explained. "And, corn prices have come down, too, so now it’s a little easier to feed a little more grain so they don’t have to feed quite as much hay.

"All of these factors are kind of softening the demand for the lower quality hay," he added.