Because I am mainly buying orchard grass hay I mostly buy from Tennessee and am on a FB group for Tennessee hay buyers/ sellers. At this point I am not seeing huge price increases from last year. For the last couple of years the growers have had really good baling weather the first of May so that is the hay I try to acquire. Those people that wait till latter May and into June for first cuttings tend to run into more humid conditions and pop up showers and the hay tends to be coarser and less likely to cure well. So I think a lot of the growers up there are probably on their second cuttings by now. The nicest looking stuff seems to be in northern Tennessee almost to Virginia. But 6 hours one way is farther than I want to drive even though prices up there are lower. Diesel prices would probably eat up any cost savings though.
You canāt even buy much in the way of local hay for $5 a bale so you people are really lucky. There is some mixed grass hay in Tennessee for that price but my horses do not like fescue so that would be wasted money to buy. Most expensive hay is the hay they wonāt eat,