Livestock producers shouldn’t have trouble finding enough good quality hay at lower prices this winter.

Supply and quality are much higher from last year when a historically wet spring hurt production and quality, said Paul McGill of Rockville Valley Hay Auction Co. in Rockville, Iowa.

McGill also said the price of hay despite being at higher quality is roughly 15-percent to 20-percent lower than a year ago because of stronger yields and slightly lower demand from livestock producers. 

“The quality is higher but the prices are not,” he said.

McGill said the per ton price of hay in his region covering Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota is selling anywhere from $125 to $190.

The price of straw ranged from $80 to $120 per ton, he said.

McGill said the price of straw is much lower from higher yields this year and greater supply of dry corn stalks and poor quality grass caused by lack of rain late in the growing season.

As a result, McGill said livestock producers are turning to the less expensive stalks and grass as a substitute for bedding and feed to help with profit margins squeezed by lower beef prices the past few years.

Straw, the lower end of the plant left after harvest, is used primarily as bedding.

However, McGill said more livestock producers the past decade or so have used straw as a feed mix because of its lower cost.

“The straw market is in pretty tough shape this year,” McGill said.

McGill said the price of straw has also not been helped by a mild November limiting the need for bedding, so far.

Much of the hay in the nation is produced in states like Wyoming and Montana along with the western ends of the Dakotas and Nebraska.

McGill said helping producers to the east and into the Midwest is an uptick in demand from the west because of very dry weather cutting into typically abundant supplies.

“There’s pretty good demand out there which holds the market up a little bit,” he said.

Greg Bussler, a statistician with USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service in Wisconsin, said hay in that state was priced at $146 per ton in September.

Alfalfa hay was selling at $159 per ton.

He said the price of both kinds of hay was down about $30 per ton from a year ago.

“It’s a pretty significant drop,” Bussler said.

Bussler said driving lower demand in Wisconsin is a continued drop in the number of dairy farms.

The number of dairy farms in the state has decreased from 12,502 in 2010 to 6,966 last year because of the nationwide slump in milk prices and lower demand for the beverage, he said.

According to NASS, the amount of hay produced for every acre this year saw a modest .40 increase to 2.8 tons.

Lower demand resulted in 148,000 acres of less hay planted this year.

Bussler said there should be no shortages of hay this winter unlike last year when farmers in some parts had to find other sources to get by until spring.

According to NASS, the condition of 80-percent of the hay in Wisconsin was rated as excellent.

“It was a good year for hay,” Bussler said.