The annual release of hay and forage data by USDA that defines the previous year’s hay production and year-ending inventories arrived in email inboxes last Friday. The Crop Production and Crop Production Annual Summary reports offer a glimpse of the current state of the forage industry and provide a gauge to measure hay market sensitivity to various production pressures in 2024.
It's been a couple of years since U.S. forage production metrics were largely positive, but that streak has ended with only a few exceptions. As is usually the case, individual states performed in concert with the type of weather experienced. Many Western states improved their hay production after suffering through several drought years while some Midwest states assumed the drought-stricken role and their production was down accordingly. Let’s take a look into the numbers:
Jan. 16, 2024 08:00 AM
