Find out exactly how many bales you need and what your total hay bill will be per animal, per month, and for the whole feeding season.
The universal starting point for hay rationing is 2–2.5% of body weight per day in dry matter. A 1,200 lb horse needs about 24–30 lbs of hay per day. A 1,400 lb beef cow needs roughly 28–35 lbs. Smaller ruminants like sheep (100–150 lbs) and goats (100–200 lbs) need proportionally more per pound of body weight — closer to 2.5% — because their metabolic rate is higher than large animals. These numbers assume hay is the primary or sole feed source. If your animals are also receiving grain, beet pulp, or other concentrates, you can reduce hay accordingly.
Hay type also affects how much you need to feed. High-quality alfalfa (120–180 g/kg crude protein, 55–65% TDN) delivers significantly more nutrition per pound than mature grass hay (60–80 g/kg crude protein, 50–58% TDN). Animals on alfalfa often eat slightly less total weight because their nutritional needs are met more efficiently. However, high-protein alfalfa is not appropriate for all animals — horses prone to laminitis, dry cows, and wethers do better on grass hay.
Not all hay is equal, and the difference between first-cut and third-cut alfalfa, or between hay baled at 20% moisture and 12% moisture, can be dramatic. The best way to know what you're feeding is a hay test from a certified forage testing lab — they cost $20–30 per sample and tell you exactly what you're getting in terms of protein, energy (TDN or NEm), fiber (ADF, NDF), and moisture content. For livestock operations spending thousands on hay each year, a hay test is always worth the money.
A key metric to understand is dry matter (DM) percentage. Hay baled at 12–15% moisture (typical dry hay) is roughly 85–88% dry matter. If you're comparing hay on a cost basis, you should always compare cost per ton of dry matter — not cost per ton of as-fed weight. Wet hay is heavier but delivers less actual nutrition per dollar spent.
Round bales stored outdoors without covers can lose 15–30% of their dry matter to spoilage, depending on rainfall, soil drainage, and how long they sit before feeding. A $65 round bale stored on bare ground in the rain can lose $15–20 of effective feed value. The math changes quickly when you factor in waste. Options to reduce waste: store bales on crushed rock or gravel pads, use a tarp or bale cover, feed in ring feeders with solid catch aprons, or move to covered storage if your volume justifies the investment.
Small square bales in a dry barn have essentially zero storage waste — but they require significantly more labor to stack, move, and feed, and typically cost more per ton than round or large square bales from the same farm. Large square bales (3×3×8 or 4×4×8 format) offer the economic efficiency of bulk buying with much easier handling than small squares, but require a tractor with a spike or bale handler to move.
When comparing hay prices, always convert to a price per ton for apples-to-apples comparison. Small square bales at $8 each weigh 50 lbs — that's $320/ton. Round bales at $65 each weigh 1,100 lbs — that's about $118/ton. The round bales look dramatically cheaper, but factor in 20% outdoor storage waste and the effective cost jumps to $148/ton — still better, but the gap narrows. Buying in bulk at the height of summer cutting season (June–July in most of the US) typically gives you the best price before fall demand pushes prices up. If you have the storage, buying a season's supply in midsummer can save 20–40% compared to buying bale-by-bale in winter.
The general rule of thumb is: start hay when pasture falls below 3–4 inches of residual growth and stop when it returns to 6–8 inches in spring. In the Midwest and Northeast, most producers feed hay from late November through April — about 5 months. In the South and Southwest, it may be only 2–3 months. In the Mountain West with heavy snow cover, hay feeding can run 6–8 months. Watch your animals, not just the calendar — if they are cleaning up hay quickly and looking for more, the pasture is not meeting their needs regardless of the date.
A 1,100 lb horse eating 2% of body weight in hay needs about 22 lbs per day. A 1,100 lb round bale (with 15% storage waste) provides about 935 lbs of usable hay. That's 935 ÷ 22 = 42 days per bale. For a 5-month feeding season (150 days), you need about 3.6 round bales per horse — round up to 4. This calculator accounts for waste automatically in the "Bales For Season" output.
For most beef cattle, grass hay is perfectly adequate and more economical. Alfalfa is most valuable for high-producing dairy cows and for cattle in late pregnancy or early lactation when energy demands spike. The high protein in alfalfa is not harmful to beef cattle but represents a cost premium you may not need. Exception: yearlings and stockers on a backgrounding program benefit from the extra protein in alfalfa-grass mixes.
Hay is typically the largest single cost in a beef operation. A 1,200 lb dry cow eating 28 lbs/day of hay worth $120/ton spends about $1.68/day on hay alone, or roughly $500–600 per year during a 5-month hay season. Cows on good summer pasture have near-zero supplemental feed costs from May through October. Total annual feed cost including hay, mineral, and salt typically runs $400–$800 per cow depending on region and management.
Yes — free-choice round bales work well for beef cattle and dry horses. Horses on free-choice hay tend to waste more and can overeat if hay quality is high, but it greatly reduces labor. For easy-keeping horses or ponies prone to metabolic issues, limit feeding is safer. For cattle in a winter feeding program, setting out 2–3 round bales per week for a small herd is very common and practical.
First-cutting hay typically comes off the field in late May through June, and prices are lowest at that time when supply is highest and storage is flush. By September and October, hay prices often rise 20–40% as stockpiles shrink and demand from horses and cattle owners spikes heading into winter. If you can store at least 3–4 months of supply, buying in midsummer is almost always the best financial move.