Hay is a grade, a type,
and a place.

Quality grades, Supreme to Utility.

Roughly best to lowest, driven by protein, leafiness, color, and maturity at cutting:

• Supreme — top of the market. Dairy- and performance-horse quality. Commands the highest price.
• Premium — excellent quality; strong demand from dairies and horse operations.
• Good — solid all-around hay; the common benchmark grade for tracking the market.
• Fair — usable, lower protein; fine for many beef cattle.
• Utility — lowest grade; weather-damaged or low-nutrition. Cheapest.

The spread between Supreme and Utility at the same auction in the same week is often $100/ton or more. Grade matters as much as type.

Types of hay.

• Alfalfa — a legume, high protein. The premium product; what dairies and export buyers want. Big producers: Colorado, California, Arizona.
• Timothy — a grass, great for horses; consistent quality, lower protein than alfalfa.
• Orchard grass — similar to timothy, slightly higher protein.
• Fescue / Brome — common Midwest grass hays; good for beef cattle, lower value.
• Mixed grass — whatever was growing in the field, baled together. Most variable.

Units — read these carefully.

• Per ton — how most large-square (3x4) and large-round bales trade. The standard for comparing markets.
• Per bale — common for small squares (the kind you stack by hand). A per-bale price isn't comparable to a per-ton price without knowing bale weight.

HayWire reports per-ton, verified trades as the benchmark, and flags estimates so you know what's measured vs. inferred.

What moves the price.

1. Supply — drought is the big one. A short first cutting in a drought region keeps prices high through summer.
2. Quality — see grades above; buyers pay up for Supreme/Premium when they need it.
3. Location & transport — trucking runs $60–90/ton for a full load, so regional markets can decouple by hundreds of dollars per ton.

The bottom line.

"The price of hay" is never one number. It's a grade, a type, and a place. That's exactly the lens HayWire reads the market through every Tuesday.