Southwest Missouri Hay Auction

Much better weather for this month's hay auction, although short sleeves were common just a couple of days prior to the sale, a cool down did bring the coats back out. For the first day of March though the weather was quite pleasant and there were no complaints as less than two weeks ago everything was snow covered and the mercury was barely visible with some record-breaking lows set a couple of nights. The supply of hay was once again heavy as there is still a lot of hay in the country locally and many producers continue to truck hay in from other states as their local markets are currently depressed due to over supplies. This does benefit the local buyers as they are able to avoid the freight cost on some top-quality hay that typically isn't seen by most local buyers and sure not in the quantities or in a single location like the auction offers. All in all, the market has held up very well even as there is now a tint of green beginning to show in the fields of southern Missouri. Hay prices were mostly steady with a few spots both slightly lower and slightly higher and of course like any auction there is always the one or two consignments where two or three buyers get caught up in a bidding war in which the second-place bidder might actually be the winner. This month's offering was made up of 1911 small square bales, 1812 round bales, and 837 big squares. Quality stretched across all the grades from utility grinding hay to some of the finest supreme quality alfalfa which would likely melt in the mouth of ones' favorite old toothless horse. Overall, the quality was on the higher end of the scale which speaks for the supply still left as there are several years in which all that is left this late in the feeding season is some barn clean outs if that could be found.