Vol. I · No. 22 · Tuesday, July 28, 2026
USDA AMS Wire · Free Weekly
LIVE WIRE

Know what hay
is actually worth.

Every USDA hay auction price, gathered and checked in one place — then turned into a free weekly read, a live price board, and a dashboard for buyers and sellers. Know what to pay before you haggle.

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82
USDA markets
7,647
USDA price records · since Feb 2026
06:00CT
Every Tuesday
USDA WIRE This Week's US Hay Market
REC 41 · AUC 5 · REG 5
RegionGradeAvg / tonWoW
Topeka, Indiana
Alfalfa/Grass Mix
FAIR/GOOD $163.00 ▲ +9.9%
Wolgemuth, Pennsylvania
Alfalfa/Grass Mix
PREMIUM $337.00 ▼ −0.3%
Dakota, South Dakota
Alfalfa
GOOD $218.00 ▲ +24.6%
SRC : USDA AMS · RUN : WED 29 JUL 09:33 CT What do grades mean?
See the full board.
Live prices for all 82 USDA markets — every grade, week-over-week moves, state-by-state pages.
Open the prices page
FROM THE FIELD Reported to HayWire directly · not in the USDA index
CA — Alfalfa/Grass Mix $165/ton Dave · Jul 25
CA — Alfalfa $300-325/ton Dave · Jul 25
CA — Alfalfa $185/ton Dave · Jul 25
As featured Bloomberg’s Odd Lots · Cowboy State Daily · Reddit · 2.1M views · Rock Valley Hay Auction · Data Partner
§ 01 — HOW IT WORKS

One place for the
whole hay market.

Hay prices used to live in scattered PDFs and word of mouth. We put the whole market in one place — gathered, checked, and simple enough to use in the time it takes to read a text.

01

We gather the prices.

Every week we pull real sale prices from USDA auction reports across the country — plus results emailed straight from the barns and prices reported by members.

02

We check every number.

No asking prices. No guesses. Every figure is a real, reported sale, checked against a sanity range before it reaches you — so you can quote it and trust it.

03

You use it three ways.

Read the free Tuesday wire, look up any market on the live price board, or open the Pro dashboard to track your own buying against the market.

§ 02 — The free wire

The full US hay market,
in a five-minute read.

Every Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. Central. Real USDA auction prices, organized by region and grade. Built for buyers and sellers who need the number, not the narrative.

  • A. Average 163 price records per issue
  • B. 22 auction markets reporting in a typical week
  • C. Plain-English commentary on the spreads that matter
Read past issues →
HayWire · Issue No. 22 Vol. I · 28 July 2026
Midwest Spotlight

What the wire shows this week.

Topeka, Indiana
ALFALFA/GRASS MIX FAIR/GOOD
$163 ▲
Wolgemuth, Pennsylvania
ALFALFA/GRASS MIX PREMIUM
$337 ▼
Dakota, South Dakota
ALFALFA GOOD
$218 ▲
Your buys vs. the market PRO · IOWA
June 9 · Alfalfa
GOOD · 32 TONS
$21 UNDER
$175
mkt $196
June 23 · Alfalfa
PREMIUM · 30 TONS
$21 UNDER
$205
mkt $226
Season savings
6 LOADS · 170 TONS
+$1,778
vs. market
§ 03 — HayWire Pro

Your own numbers,
against the whole market.

Log what you buy or sell and the dashboard shows it against what the market actually paid that week — so you can see, load by load, whether you got a good deal. Set your state, your hay, and your season budget; it does the rest.

  • A. Every load benchmarked against the same-week local price
  • B. Season savings, budget, and a check-a-quote tool
  • C. Buyer or seller — the whole board flips to fit you
See everything in Pro →
8 calls
4 GRADED VS USDA · NEXT GRADES 31 JUL
JUL 2026
Holding the line — Rock Valley Utility/Fair stays at or belo…
CALL 24 JUL · GRADES 14 AUG
PENDING
§ 04 — Wire Intelligence

The reads that come
with Pro.

Beyond the raw numbers, Pro members get the analysis: the Friday Pulse before Monday's auctions, and The Call — one clear read on where the market is headed. Plain-English, no jargon, built to help you time a buy.

See Wire Intelligence →
§ 05 — THE MATH

Pay for Pro with
one decision.

Pro costs less than what one 50-ton buyer overpays by not knowing the local price. See the spreads, the moves, and exactly where your price stands — before the money changes hands.

COST OF PRO
$17/mo
or $170/yr — two months free
$170/YR OPTION · CANCEL ANYTIME
vs.
COST OF ONE BAD BUY
$1,400
50 tons × $28/ton overpaid
ROCK VALLEY, IA · A +12.4% WoW SWING
Save $17 on a single ton — anywhere, all year — and Pro pays for itself.
One good buy covers years of Pro.
§ 06 — PRICING

Free tells you what happened.
Pro tells you what to do.

Free covers the market. Pro is for buyers and sellers who want the dashboard, the directional reads, and a direct line.

EVERYONE
Free
For everyone in the hay market.
$0
/ forever
  • Tuesday market wire, 22 regions in a typical week
  • Live prices page, sortable & filterable
  • Public version of The Call
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§ 07 — The story

The hay market,
on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots.

We went on the biggest podcast in finance to talk about the business of hay: a $15 billion market that ran on word of mouth, and the wire we built to fix it. If the episode brought you here — welcome. The story’s short, and the wire is free.

— END OF ISSUE —

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