Proper storage of hay prior to feeding is important to reducing waste, avoiding nutrient loss and maintaining palatability.

Depending on your geography, the 2025 forage season is underway. Regardless of where you crop, questions regarding ag and trade policies, input costs, labor, planting, production and prices are front and center. Here’s a review of what we know about hay and forage markets as you continue to look for answers.

The best nights for sleep were after unloading, being safely parked and with a gentle rain making a nice sleepy-time patter on the roof of the truck.

“The market sometimes, or at least now, feels like we've gone from good, to difficult, to different. And I think one of the most significant things about the current hay market right now is that things are very different,” market analyst and hay exporter Scott Courtright told attendees at the California Alfalfa and Forage Symposium.

Josh Callen, market analyst and publisher of The Hoyt Report, gave attendees at the California Alfalfa and Forage Symposium an update on hay markets in the western U.S.

As we begin to wrap up the winter hay-feeding season and look towards spring, you may find hay resources are beginning to dwindle. There are several things to keep in mind as you manage the gap between now and spring greenup.