Excessive rainfall has not only hindered soybean and corn farmers’ attempts to plant but has contributed to a near-record-low level of hay to feed livestock across the Midwest.

The hay inventory in Ohio has dipped to the fourth-lowest level in the 70 years of reporting inventory, leaving farmers struggling to find ways to keep their animals well fed, according to Stan Smith, a program assistant in agriculture and natural resources at Ohio State University Extension, the outreach arm of The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural & Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

The situation is not much different across the Midwest, where some livestock owners are having to pay much higher prices for animal feed.

“We’re all in the same boat. There’s very little stored hay in the Midwest, and there’s been very little opportunity to harvest more. It’s a huge challenge,” Smith said.

Ideally, hay should be dry when it’s baled, but the wet conditions have delayed and even prevented the harvest.

Dairy and beef cows have been the most affected by the hay shortage as neither can graze outdoors year-round and, therefore, require dry hay at times, CFAES explained.

Proper drying times for cut hay have been hard to achieve. Harvesting hay when the soil is too wet and soft can do long-term or irreversible compaction damage to the soil, and this lowers the productivity of future crops, Smith said.

Ohio’s hay inventory has been steadily declining in recent years, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture records. The state had 410,000 tons in May 2017. A year later, that number dropped to 260,000 tons, and in May 2019, hay levels were at 180,000 tons — less than half of the inventory two years ago.

Despite the shortage of hay and the higher prices farmers have to pay for it, consumer prices for meat and dairy products are unlikely to go up in the coming months, Ben Brown, program manager of the CFAES Farm Management Program, said.

That’s because, though the price of raising livestock may go up, farmers can’t bring up the prices they earn for dairy or meat products unless large numbers of them sell off their herds and significantly bring down the supply, Brown said.

For now, farmers could purchase hay from other states, but transportation costs make that an expensive option. Instead, producers are trying to graze as much as possible. Additionally, some will plant hay on fields where they were unable to plant corn or soybeans, CFAES said.

“The best outcome would be if we get better weather and have an opportunity to grow more hay. Then, everything would be copacetic, but in the meantime, a lot of people are thinking about options for what they can do if there’s not enough feed in the barns this winter,” Smith said.