MANSFIELD, Ohio – Production for all types of hay in 2021 was 120.196 million tons, down 5 percent on the year, according to the USDA. Average yield decreased slightly to 2.37 tons per acre on harvested area of 50.74 million acres.

By comparison, production of all types of hay in 2020 was 126.812 million tons with an average yield of 2.43 tons per year and harvested area of 52.24 million acres.

The total for 2021 included 49.25 million tons of alfalfa and alfalfa mixtures, 7 percent below the previous year. All other types of hay combined for 70.95 million tons, a decline of 4 percent from 2020.

The culprit in the decline was weather, especially in the drought-impacted portions of the U.S. Plains.

In the Midwest, much of that decline was to blame on the wet weather in 2020, though it may not have been as bad as the wet growing season of 2018. That year the abundance of wet weather in 2018 created a shortage of hay for farmers to feed their livestock through spring of 2019.

Mike Goodsen, of Van Wert County, Ohio, said 2018 was one of the worst hay shortages he’s seen in many years. “The wet weather did affect the quality of my hay,” Goodsen recalled. “I wasn’t able to sell as much hay to other local farmers because of the need to keep backup supplies for my own livestock.”

An Ohio State University Extension specialist in Athens County suggested putting aside the work and worry associated with growing hay on their acreage.

Ed Brown suggested that growers weigh their options before raising hay next season.

“We have seen food costs rise and at the same time the cost of feeding your hay field has risen,” Brown said. “Nitrogen prices now are at an all-time high.”

Wintertime, Brown said, is the time to consider a plan for next hay season. First, he said, is it to take a soil sample to see where thing stand.

“The first option is not to raise hay at all,” he said. “Turn that field into a pasture and put the cows, sheep or goats on it. Cattle, sheep and goats are great a nutrient recycling.”

Brown even suggested letting someone else grow the hay and take on the added expense.

“Most people undervalue their hay. We’ve done the research,” Brown said. “We know the numbers. Fescue hay, for example, has approximately 36 pounds of nitrogen, 14 pounds of phosphorus and 48 pounds of potassium per ton of dry matter.

“If you calculate cost per pound of each of those nutrients, you can calculate the value of a ton of hay just in nutrients. This is before you even add in the cost of equipment and labor. The added benefit is that the animals spread someone else’s nutrients on your pasture.”

Hay production in 2021 across the Farm World readership area included Ohio (930,000 tons), Illinois (1.09 million tons), Indiana (858,000 tons), Iowa (3.185 million tons), Michigan (1.73 million tons) and Tennessee (57,000 tons).