The June 30, USDA Acreage Survey Report showed both U.S. and Kansas, harvested hay acreage as up from 2022. U.S. All hay acreage, at 51.98 million acres is up 4.9% from a year ago and alfalfa acreage estimated for harvest was up 5.0%, to 15.66 million acres.

Still showing the impacts of drought, Kansas harvested acreage is forecast to grow more slowly versus a year ago, all hay (2.3%) and alfalfa (3.0%), with totals of 2.68 million and 680,000 acres respectively. This is in contrast to USDA-NASS’s March estimate of All Hay Acreage Harvested, which was for a 4.2% DROP in harvested hay acreage to 2.5 million acres.

I believe there will be two more estimates coming in August and October, before USDA-NASS publishes their final estimates for the 2023 crop in January of 2024.