In most years, buying standing alfalfa has always been a good deal compared to buying harvested alfalfa. Actual prices being paid in the county vary based on location and the condition of individual fields.  In recent years, the price for renting a field of standing alfalfa (3 to 4 cuttings for the season) has increased along with land values and bare ground cash rent values.  However, there is a difference between renting bare land and renting an alfalfa field.  In the latter case, you’re really buying a product that you have to harvest.  Of course the buyer assumes the risk of how much and how high of a quality the crop will be. 

        Assuming a normal growing season, we make assumptions on the yield, divide by the “rent” cost, and add the harvest cost.  This gives us an idea of what we are paying per ton of dry matter.  For example,at $160 per acre, you are paying $40 per ton of dry matter for a 4 ton per acre total season yield (after harvest and storage losses).   So if harvest costs are $35 per ton, we can determine that $75 per ton is invested in the crop. 

        Today’s fertilizer prices, especially K, throw a real monkey wrench into the negotiations.  It’s always been a factor, but not this big of one.  Removing the equivalent of 250 lbs. per acre of K has a value of $125 per acre ($0.50 per unit K).  That’s nearly as much as the total per acre price paid in our example and adds significantly to the value of the purchased hay.  Note we haven’t even discussed the possibility of needing to replace phosphorus. 

        So the all important question is.....who pay’s the freight for the fertilizer?  In the past, it’s been done in a multitude of ways ranging from nobody (also known as mining the soil) to a split arrangement.  It seems that the land owner must at least get the prevailing bare ground cash rent value plus a prorated cost of establishment if there is one.  This probably should be the case even after paying for all or some of the fertilizer cost.  Otherwise, why would you not simply rent the land as bare ground?  (perhaps this isn’t entirely true since there is value to growing a perennial crop like alfalfa from a soil erosion and crop rotation perspective).  All of these ramblings come down to one thing.......short of mining the soil, the real cost for buying standing hay just got higher.  Go figure.