Hay and forage supply is improved over the 2011-2013 time frame, when regional droughts and Upper Midwest winter survival affected forage supplies. With current increased forage supplies, the price of hay has declined somewhat from the highs of the past few years, but not as much as one might expect given the decline in the commodity groups of grain and grain byproducts.

You’ve probably read that alfalfa is the nation’s fourth-largest crop. But did you know that total U.S. alfalfa acreage has been in decline for the past decade? The National Ag Statistics Service (NASS) reports 2012 harvested alfalfa at just more than 20 million acres, a 22 percent decline from a decade prior.