Hay cost per ton in Massachusetts

Massachusetts sits at the expensive end of the US hay market. USDA AMS weekly hay reports consistently show New England grass and mixed hay trading $220-$320 per ton in 2025, roughly double the delivered price of comparable quality hay out of Nebraska or South Dakota. The premium reflects thin local supply: USDA NASS New England data put Massachusetts all-hay production in the low hundreds of thousands of tons per year against steady demand from horse boarding operations, small beef herds, and dairy remnants in the Pioneer Valley and Berkshires.

Local cuttings follow a tight weather window. UMass Extension forage guidance notes that first cutting normally comes off between late May and late June, with June rainfall the single biggest driver of quality - wet Junes push growers past boot stage and drop hay from premium into fair, cutting $60-$100 off the per-ton price. Second cutting in late July and a lighter third cutting in early September give growers a chance to recover quality, and small square bales of leafy second-cutting grass or mixed hay routinely top $320/ton at the barn for the horse market.

For a 1,200 lb beef cow eating roughly 25 lb of hay per day through a 150-day New England winter (UMass Extension budget assumption), that is about 3,750 lb - just under two tons - per cow per winter. At a mid-range MA price of $260/ton for good grass hay, the winter hay bill lands near $490 per cow; at $320/ton for higher-quality mixed hay it climbs to roughly $600 per cow. Buying large round bales off the field in July at the low end of the $120-$220/ton range is the single biggest lever a small MA operator has to keep that per-cow cost under $400.