Southwest Missouri Hay Auction

Although it was a chilly day with a bit of wind the weather for this month's hay auction was much more pleasant than last month. A bit of rain in the last week and temperatures above freezing did make the hay lot a bit sloppy despite the many tons of rock that has been spread over the last year. The supply of hay once again exceeded last month, making this month's auction the largest offering to date. Demand was moderate but buyers did not seem as quite as aggressive as in previous months. Prices were mixed with a few consignments steady to even higher in limited spots but overall, the market had a lower tone which is not totally unexpected as the feeding season grows shorter each day and the overall hay supply remains abundant. Many of the familiar cattle customers were present, however there notably was some of the equine interest missing this month. Each auction there seems to be some new faces in attendance that are there to buy and not just look, this month was no exception with several new first-time buyers. Not including any of the 1833 small square bales in the offering, once math was done a few of the top quality lots of Alfalfa got near the $300 per ton mark but only one small lot managed to surpass that mark this month with an extreme top of $358.00 on six 3x3 bales of high quality Alfalfa that got caught in a bidding war. Aside from one small lot of premium quality orchard grass that topped at $243.00 per ton after the math was done only a few lots of the best grasses managed to slightly pass the $200.00 per ton figure. $100-150 per ton managed to catch much of the good quality cow type hay. There was also more fair down to utility quality grinding that fell under $100 per ton this month.