Hay cost per ton in Maine

Maine's hay economy is shaped by a compressed growing season that typically permits only two cuttings per year, occasionally a light third in southern counties, compared to four or five cuttings common in Pennsylvania or New York. First cutting usually happens in mid-to-late June and yields the bulk of the crop; second cutting in August is leafier but smaller. This low-cutting cadence, combined with frequent summer rainfall that can rain-damage windrows, keeps supreme dairy-quality alfalfa scarce and pushes supreme-grade prices to roughly $320-$380 per ton, per USDA AMS hay market reporting for the Northeast region in 2025.

Weather volatility is the single biggest price driver. Maine averages 42-46 inches of annual precipitation with a meaningful share falling in June and July, exactly when producers are trying to dry hay to the 18% moisture needed for safe baling. Wet years compress the usable cutting windows and shift more acreage into silage or baleage, tightening dry-hay supply and lifting grass hay prices into the $210-$260 per ton band reported by UMaine Cooperative Extension's 2024 forage market updates. Dry years, by contrast, can drop large round bale prices to $180 per ton at the farm gate.

For a rancher budgeting winter feed, the math is concrete. A 1,200 lb beef cow consuming roughly 25 lb of hay per day over a 180-day Maine feeding season eats about 4,500 lb, or 2.25 tons, per head. At a midpoint grass hay price of $230 per ton (USDA AMS 2025), that works out to roughly $518 per cow per winter before waste; factoring in a realistic 15% feeding loss from round-bale unrolling brings the true cost closer to $595 per cow. A 50-head cow-calf operation is therefore looking at a $26,000-$30,000 winter hay bill, which is why many Maine producers invest in bale rings, covered storage, and early-summer forward contracts with neighbors to lock in first-cutting prices before the August market tightens.