US Alfalfa Market: Prices by State and Output Data

The US alfalfa market is paying farmers an average of $206 per ton for baled alfalfa hay in August 2026, up from $171 a year earlier, according to the USDA NASS Agricultural Prices report of September 2026. Prices ran from $96 in North Dakota to $285 in New Mexico, so the national average hides a wide spread. Below you get state prices, quality-grade prices, production data and a calculator that turns any quote into a delivered cost.

These are prices received by farmers, not dealer asks. A delivered load on your own farm will usually cost more, and a load of top-grade dairy hay can cost much more. Use the national figure as a benchmark and your own quote as the real number.

US alfalfa market: where prices stand now

USDA surveys farm prices each month. In the report for August 2026, the average price received for all baled hay was $190 per ton, up $6 from July and $29 from August 2025. Alfalfa alone averaged $206 per ton in August 2026, against $203 in July and $171 in August 2025. That is a rise of about 20% in one year. Hay other than alfalfa averaged $152.

The same report lists the August 2026 feed price index at 114.8, up 1.0% from July and 8.5% from August 2025, with hay and forages among the items that rose. The feed index covers all farm feed, not hay alone, and hay and forages were among the items that rose from July.

One caution on basis. NASS reports what farmers received in the month across all grades and sales types. It is not a spot price for a single lot and it is not a delivered price. The next section shows how far apart states can be, and the section after that covers how quality changes the number.

Alfalfa hay price per ton by state

State averages show the spread behind the $206 national figure. In August 2026 farmers in New Mexico ($285) and Pennsylvania ($280) received the most of the states in the report, followed by Kentucky and New York at $260 each, and farmers in North Dakota ($96), South Dakota ($101) and Nebraska ($104) received far less.

The table lists the August 2026 average alfalfa price per ton received by farmers in a mix of large producing states, with the change from August 2025. All figures are from the USDA NASS Agricultural Prices report, September 2026.

Two points stand out. Prices rose in every state in the table, but by very different amounts: California moved about 2% while Idaho and Utah moved by a third or more. And a state with low average prices, such as Nebraska, is not a cheap place to buy good hay. Its average mixes grades and local sales.

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Alfalfa hay price received by farmers, selected states

US$ per ton, August 2026, all grades; selected states plus the US average

Premium and supreme alfalfa: quality changes the price

Dairy farms pay for quality. NASS tracks premium and supreme alfalfa separately for the top milk-producing states. The five-state weighted average was $243 per ton in August 2026, against $242 in July 2026 and $222 in August 2025, about 9.5% higher on the year. The five states in the August 2026 average were California, Idaho, New York, Texas and Wisconsin.

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Premium and supreme alfalfa price by state

US$ per ton received by farmers, states in the NASS premium and supreme series

The chart shows the state prices behind that average. Pennsylvania and New York pay the most. Idaho and Wisconsin rose most on the year, while California, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas were lower than a year earlier.

USDA Market News defines the grades by laboratory test, using 100% dry matter. Supreme alfalfa is under 27% acid detergent fibre (ADF), under 34% neutral detergent fibre (NDF), above 185 relative feed value (RFV) and above 22% crude protein. The full list from the AMS Hay Quality Designation Guidelines is below. The guidelines apply to domestic livestock hay with not more than 10% grass.

In plain terms, lower fibre and higher protein mean better hay. The AMS glossary also describes the grades by cutting stage: premium is early maturity, pre-bloom, extra leafy and fine stemmed, while good is early to average maturity, leafy and free of damage other than slight discoloration (AMS Hay Terms).

Do not buy or sell on looks alone. Penn State Extension describes a meeting where about 80 forage producers and industry people ranked four bales by eye. The bale judged best on looks had the lowest lab-based RFV of the four. A forage test costs little against a load of hay, so ask for one.

Which hay price report should you use

There are several price series and they answer different questions. Mixing them is the most common mistake in articles on hay prices.

• NASS Agricultural Prices (monthly): the average price farmers received in the month, by state and for the US. Use it for budgets, loan papers and year-on-year comparisons.
• AMS Market News hay reports (weekly or per sale): prices from auctions and direct sales by quality grade and region. The AMS Hay Reports page lists auction reports such as Dakota Hay Auction in Corsica, South Dakota, and Rock Valley in Iowa. Use it when you are about to buy or sell.
• Dealer or classified asks: what a seller wants. These are not sale prices.

Read the price basis. In AMS terms, FOB means the price at the place of origin, without transport. A delivered price includes freight and handling. A $230 FOB price and a $230 delivered price are two very different deals.

Listings need care. The Texas Department of Agriculture runs a Hay Hotline that connects buyers, sellers and haulers, and states that it does not verify the prices in the ads. It has also warned of scammers who send a hay seller a check for more than the agreed amount and ask for the extra to be wired back. Never wire money against a check you have just received.

How to read a hay quote

A quote has five parts, and each one changes the real price. Write them down before you compare two sellers.

1. Grade and test: ask for ADF, NDF, RFV and crude protein from a recent forage test, then match them to the grade table above.
2. Basis: FOB at the farm or delivered to you.
3. Unit: price per ton, or price per bale. To convert, multiply the price per ton by the bale weight in pounds and divide by 2,000. For example, a $250 per ton price and a 1,000-pound bale give $125 per bale. These numbers are an illustration, not a market price.
4. Hay type: alfalfa, an alfalfa-grass mix or grass hay. USDA’s alfalfa grades cover hay with not more than 10% grass, and grass hay is graded on crude protein alone.
5. Payment terms: when you pay, how you pay and who weighs the load.

Check the weight on a certified scale if you buy by the ton. Compare quotes on the same basis, or the cheaper one may turn out to be the dearer.

Load cost calculator

Use the calculator below to turn a quote into a delivered price per ton, a cost per load and a season cost for your herd. Every number is an input. The defaults are examples to show how the maths works. Replace them with today’s price, your hauler’s rate and your own herd.

Try the numbers for your own farm below.

The US alfalfa market in tons and acres

US farmers harvested alfalfa and alfalfa mixtures for hay on 14.7 million acres in 2025 and produced 50.2 million tons, up 1% from 2024, according to USDA NASS Crop Production 2025 Summary (January 2026). The average yield was 3.42 tons per acre. Alfalfa made up about 30% of the 49.6 million acres of all hay harvested (14.7 of 49.6 million acres).

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Leading states for alfalfa hay production, 2025

Million tons of alfalfa and alfalfa mixtures for hay, eight leading states

Production is spread across the northern Plains, the Mountain West and the Midwest, not concentrated in the West alone. By 2025 production, South Dakota (3.58 million tons) and Idaho (3.57 million tons) led, followed by Nebraska, California and Montana. Wisconsin produced 2.77 million tons.

Acreage has fallen over three years. Harvested area was 15.6 million acres in 2023, 14.6 million in 2024 and 14.7 million in 2025. Tons stayed close to flat at 49.8 million, 49.8 million and 50.2 million, because yields held up. NASS also reported that growers seeded 1.68 million acres of alfalfa in 2025, down 9% from 2024. New seedings are normally harvested the following year, so fewer seedings can mean fewer young, high-yielding stands later. That is a pointer, not a forecast.

State by state, the picture is mixed. Idaho harvested 870,000 acres in 2025, down from 1.0 million in 2023, and its production fell from 4.50 million to 3.57 million tons. Kansas dropped from 735,000 to 490,000 acres. Minnesota went the other way, from 660,000 to 760,000 acres, and Wisconsin from 640,000 to 710,000 acres (with a high of 830,000 in 2024). All figures are from the NASS Crop Production summary.

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US alfalfa hay: harvested area and production

Million acres harvested and million tons, 2023 to 2025

California and Washington hay markets

California harvested alfalfa hay from 460,000 acres in 2025, a record low for the state according to NASS, at an average yield of 6.8 tons per acre. That gave 3.13 million tons, close to the 3.17 million tons of 2024 on 480,000 acres. Its yield of 6.8 tons per acre is well above the 3.42 US average, as irrigated fields can be cut several times a year.

NASS puts California’s average alfalfa price at $235 per ton in August 2026 (August 2025: $230). Its premium and supreme price was $265, below the $275 of a year earlier. Premium and supreme hay in California therefore sold for about $30 per ton above the state’s all-grade average, and the premium and supreme price fell on the year while the all-grade price rose.

Washington harvested 340,000 acres in 2025 at 5.0 tons per acre, or 1.70 million tons. Its alfalfa price was $185 per ton in August 2026, up from $165 a year earlier. Hay other than alfalfa averaged $225 per ton in the state, which is higher than its alfalfa price. Check the grade and the hay type before you compare Washington with other states.

For a weekly California price, use AMS Market News hay reports. For state acreage and tons, use the annual NASS Crop Production summary, as in the chart above.

What moves alfalfa hay prices

Five forces matter. They act together, so a single cause rarely explains a price move.

• Weather and drought: a short crop raises prices. The US Drought Monitor map is released every Thursday and shows conditions as of the previous Tuesday. Drought.gov notes that USDA publishes weekly maps of drought-affected area for hay as well as other crops.
• Water supply: in irrigated regions such as California, Arizona and southern Idaho, how much water a farm can use decides how many cuttings it can take.
• Acres and seedings: fewer harvested acres, as in the 2023 to 2025 data, tighten supply unless yields rise.
• Livestock demand: dairy farms are the main buyers named in the premium and supreme price series, so herd size and milk income can affect that grade.
• Freight and fuel: hay is bulky and cheap per pound, so a long haul adds a large share to the cost. The calculator above shows how much.

The NASS prices-paid index for feed rose 8.5% on the year to August 2026. If you feed hay, that is a cost trend to watch alongside the hay price itself.

Reading the numbers together

Three facts fit together. Farm prices for alfalfa were about 20% higher in August 2026 than a year earlier. Harvested area fell from 15.6 million acres in 2023 to 14.7 million in 2025, while production was flat to slightly up. And new seedings fell 9% in 2025. Nothing in these data says where prices go next, and this page does not forecast. What they do show is a market where the price you get depends on your state, your grade and your freight bill more than on the national average.

For a buyer, that means getting at least two quotes on the same basis. For a seller, it means selling on a forage test, not on the colour of the bale, and checking the regional AMS report before accepting an offer.

Water limits and alfalfa income

Alfalfa uses a lot of water, so water rules often matter more to farm income than the hay price does. A University of California Cooperative Extension trial in the Intermountain region (2003 and 2004) tested what happens when irrigation stops after a cutting. On a silt loam in Tulelake, California, stopping irrigation after the first cutting saved 21 inches of water (measured in 2003) and cost about 0.7 tons per acre over the season in both years (UC Cooperative Extension, Deficit Irrigation Strategies to Maximize Alfalfa Returns). The same trial found yield losses on a sandy loam site in Malin, Oregon, of 0.60 tons per acre in 2003 and 1.46 in 2004 over the second and third cuttings. These are preliminary results from one region, so use them as an illustration, not a rule for your fields.

Put a price on it. At the August 2026 US average of $206 per ton, 0.7 tons per acre is about $144 per acre of lost hay. Whether that beats the value of the saved water depends on what you can do with the water, which is why the answer differs from farm to farm.

▶ The NDWI and MNDWI water index formulas for Sentinel-2 and Landsat, explained step by step. · 2:36

Satellite monitoring for alfalfa growers

Satellite images cannot give you a price, but they can show you the field. Vegetation index maps, such as NDVI, show where the crop is growing well and where growth is weaker, so you can walk to those spots instead of the whole field. The Farmonaut Satellite + AI Farm Monitoring System offers this view on web, Android, iOS and API. The video shows how it works on a large farm.

A map shows that something changed. It does not tell you the cause, so confirm with a field visit, a soil test or a forage test.

▶ How satellite NDVI maps show crop stress across a large farm, explained with memes. · 4:09

How to track the market each month

1. Read the NASS Agricultural Prices release at the end of each month for the US and your state, and note the basis (all hay or alfalfa, all grades or premium and supreme).
2. Check AMS Market News hay reports for the sale nearest to you before you quote or buy.
3. Ask every seller for a forage test and for the price basis, FOB or delivered.
4. Run the quote through the calculator above with your own freight and herd numbers.
5. Check the Thursday Drought Monitor map for your supply region before you commit to a large forward purchase.

This guide is for information only. For contracts, loans and tax questions, get advice from a qualified professional and use your own supplier quotes.

FAQ

What is the average price of alfalfa hay per ton in the US?

USDA NASS reports a US average of $206 per ton received by farmers in August 2026, up from $203 in July 2026 and $171 in August 2025. This is an all-grade average. Premium and supreme alfalfa in the five largest milk-producing states averaged $243 per ton.

How much does alfalfa hay cost in California?

NASS reported $235 per ton for California alfalfa in August 2026 and $265 per ton for premium and supreme. Your delivered price will differ with grade, bale type, distance and whether the quote is FOB or delivered.

How many tons of alfalfa does the US produce?

NASS estimates 50.2 million tons of alfalfa and alfalfa mixtures for hay in 2025 from 14.7 million harvested acres, with an average of 3.42 tons per acre. South Dakota and Idaho were the top two states by tons.

What makes one load of alfalfa cost more than another?

Quality is the main reason. USDA grades range from supreme to utility based on fibre, relative feed value and protein. Bale type, moisture, cutting date, rain damage, distance and the buyer’s use of the hay also change the price.

Where can I find the current alfalfa hay price near me?

Use the AMS Market News hay reports for auctions and direct sales near you, and the NASS Agricultural Prices report for the state average. Ask any seller for a forage test and the price basis. State hay listings do not always verify prices.

Why are hay prices different between states?

Grade mix, hay type, local supply and demand, water, and distance to dairy farms all differ by state. NASS state averages mix these effects, so use them as a guide and compare like with like.

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