Hay/alfalfa and wheat are the 3rd and 4th largest crops by acreage.[1,2]
USDA NASS (2024) Acreage, ISSN 1949-1522, p. 32. [The USDA reports only harvested acres for hay/alfalfa.]
For Animal Feed Usage, sources are noted throughout these pages with calculations relying primarily on USDA data. Figures are based on percent of “disappearance” – the utilization of a crop or product, e.g., food, industrial use, exports. [USDA NASS (1999) Understanding USDA Crop Forecasts, No. 1554, p. 9.]
According to the USDA, hay is defined as “grasses, clover, alfalfa and other legumes, or any other leafy plant material that is cut and dried to be used for animal feeding.”[1]
Hay is considered by the USDA to be a “forage crop.” These are crops for which “most of the aboveground portion of the plant is removed from the field and processed for later feeding.”[2] Stored hay provides a “consistent, reliable, and predictable feed supply for confinement feeding systems such as beef feedlots and dairies.”[3]
“hay” (n.d.) USDA NAL Agricultural Thesaurus.
“forage crop” (n.d.) USDA NAL Agricultural Thesaurus.
Michael Collins & Kenneth Moore (2017) Forages, Volume 1: An Introduction to Grassland Agriculture, 7th edition, ch. 17, Wiley-Blackwell, p. 321.
Almost all hay is grown to feed livestock, probably ~95%.[1] A portion goes to horses that are unable to graze during the winter in colder climates.[2,3]
John Woodmansee, Purdue Univ. Extension (2022) Understanding Agriculture – Growing Hay. https://extension.purdue.edu/news/county/whitley/2022/06/understanding-agriculture–growing-hay.html [“Hay is used to feed livestock, and it is especially important in winter months when pastures are not growing and not available for grazing.”]
U.S. Government Accountability Office (2017) Animal Welfare: Information on the U.S. Horse Population, GAO-17-680R. [Estimate of between 5 and 9 million horses]
Ericka Crowl, Univ of Maryland Extension (2021) Calculating Your Horse’s Winter Hay Needs.[Yearly need = 2,668 lbs. hay per horse (including waste) x 4 million horses = 5.3 million tons = approx. 5% of total hay production (5.3 / 118.8 = 4.5%). The warmest states, including Texas, California, and Florida, have the largest number of horses. See: Beth Mallory (2023) Horse Industry Statistics in 2023 (Latest U.S. Data), Horses Only]
In 2023, hay was the 3rd largest U.S. crop (behind corn and soybeans) with nearly 53 million harvested acres.[1] Some percentage of hay acres is grazed directly on cropland (called swath grazing or windrow grazing) and is therefore not counted by the USDA because the acres are not technically “harvested.”[2]
Multiple hay harvests per year are common; alfalfa can be harvested continuously, up to a dozen times a year in warmer regions.[3]
USDA NASS (2024) Acreage, ISSN 1949-1522, p. 32. [All hay harvested = 52.8 million acres. For hay/alfalfa the USDA estimates only harvested acres (not planted)]
South Dakota State University Extension (2023) Swath Grazing. https://extension.sdstate.edu/swath-grazing
James Isleib, Michigan State University Extension (2019) Getting the most from your single-cut hay system.
By weight, alfalfa hay was ~42% of all hay production in 2023.[1] Alfalfa was grown on ~30% of all harvested hay acres.[2]
Alfalfa is the primary species of hay in the U.S. and is the most widely grown forage crop. The USDA separates its data on hay into “alfalfa” and “other hay.”
USDA ERS Feed Grains Yearbook Tables, table 8 (updated 9/12/24): Hay: Production, harvested acreage, yield, and stocks. [Alfalfa production = 49.9 million tons; other hay production = 68.9 million tons. Total hay production = 118.8 million tons. Alfalfa share = 42%]
USDA NASS (2024) Acreage, ISSN 1949-1522, p. 32. [All hay harvested = 52.8 million acres. Alfalfa and alfalfa mixtures = 15.6 million acres, or 29.5%. For hay/alfalfa the USDA estimates only harvested acres (not planted)]
About 11% of wheat went to animal feed in 2023. Of that, ~5% went to animal feed domestically and ~7% went to animal feed via exports.[1,2]
USDA Economic Research Service, Wheat Data-Recent, table 6 (updated 9/12/24): Wheat classes: supply and disappearance, MY 2023-2024. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/wheat-data/ [Feed & residual use = 86 million bushels / Total disappearance = 1,818 million bushels == 4.73%]
Export analysis: ~39% of all wheat went to exports [USDA ERS Wheat Data-Recent, table 6]; the top 10 export markets used ~17% of wheat consumption for feed [US Agricultural Trade data update, Top 10 U.S. agricultural export markets for wheat, corn, soybeans, and cotton, by volume, Feb. update of Dec. 2023 data (Jan-Dec. 2023) and USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, PS&D Database, graphical queries for “feed waste domestic consumption” as a percentage of “total domestic consumption.”] The export analysis weighted “feed waste domestic consumption” by country and found ~6.7% of exported wheat went to animal feed (.39 * .17 = 6.6%).
In 2023, wheat was planted on 49.6 million acres and harvested on 37.3 million acres.[1]
Some of the unharvested acreage (~12 million acres) was likely used to graze livestock directly or to produce hay/forage, though the USDA does not provide data on either usage.[2,3]
USDA NASS (2024) Acreage, ISSN 1949-1522, p. 32.
Beef Magazine (2023) Winter wheat may be more valuable for grazing, hay crop this spring. https://www.beefmagazine.com/grazing-systems/winter-wheat-may-be-more-valuable-for-grazing-hay-crop-this-spring [“For some producers, the option to graze out wheat or harvest it as hay may net more value per acre than harvesting it for grain, especially if grazing would keep them from purchasing additional feed at current market prices.”]
Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, Cropwatch (2023) Pasture and Forage Minute: Wheat Grazing vs. Grain Value, Choosing Summer Forage, https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2023/pasture-and-forage-minute-wheat-grazing-vs-grain-value-choosing-summer-forage [“Cereal grains like wheat are grown for dual purpose (forage and grain) production in the Central Plains and Southern Plains states.”]