Hay cost per ton in Florida

Florida's hay market is dominated by warm-season grasses, primarily bahiagrass and bermudagrass, which UF/IFAS Extension identifies as the backbone of the state's 600,000+ acres of hay production. Producers typically take 3-5 cuttings per year between April and October, with round bale prices for grass hay landing in the $150-$220 per ton range in recent USDA AMS Southeast Hay Reports, while premium horse-quality square bales can push above $240 per ton at the farm gate.

Rainfall drives both supply and price volatility. Florida averages 50-60 inches of rain annually, with most falling May through September, which is also the peak cutting window. Wet summers routinely force producers to bale around storms, and rain-damaged hay is discounted heavily while barn-stored, rain-free hay commands the top end of the USDA AMS price bands. Alfalfa is essentially all imported because humidity and leaf diseases make it uneconomical to grow in-state, which is why UF/IFAS notes that delivered alfalfa prices in Florida typically run $80-$120 per ton above Midwestern farm-gate prices.

For a typical 1,200 lb beef cow, UF/IFAS Extension's forage budgets use about 25 lb of hay per head per day during the winter supplemental feeding period. Over a 90-day north Florida winter feeding window, that works out to roughly 2,250 lb, or about 1.1 tons per cow. At the recent USDA AMS midpoint of $190 per ton for grass round bales, the hay bill comes to about $210 per cow per winter; at the premium alfalfa end near $340 per ton, the same cow would cost closer to $375 if fed straight alfalfa, which is why most Florida cow-calf operators stick to bahiagrass rounds and reserve alfalfa for horses and show cattle.