Scorched rangelands, shrinking production acreage, and recent tariffs all share the blame for horse hay price increases in California, a forage specialist from the University of California, Davis, says. | Photo: Raul Horacio Comes/Wikimedia Commons

Scorched rangelands, shrinking production acreage, and recent tariffs all share the blame for horse hay price increases in California, a forage specialist from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), says.

In its Aug. 3 edition The Hoyt Report Inc. analysis of the western states hay market revealed that California alfalfa prices rose to $225-$258 a ton for good-quality hay from a reported $190-$255 a ton last year.

However, despite the widespread wildfires, the horse hay price increases in California and elsewhere is due to multiple long-term factors, said Daniel H. Putnam, PhD, extension agronomist and forage specialist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences