New to Washington? A Livestock Owner's Guide to Sourcing Hay Locally

First, understand the Cascade divide.

Washington is really two agricultural states stapled together.

East of the mountains is hay country. The Kittitas Valley around Ellensburg is the heart of timothy production, and the Columbia Basin is the state’s alfalfa engine, with orchard grass grown widely alongside it. Irrigated fields, hot days, cool nights, and a long dry curing window make for hay that dries down clean and keeps its color.

West of the mountains is a different world. Between the rain and the humidity, putting up consistently dry, mold-free hay in western Washington is genuinely difficult. Local small-acreage hay exists and some of it is lovely, but supply is limited and weather-dependent.

What that means practically: most western Washington livestock owners are feeding eastern Washington hay, trucked over Snoqualmie or Blewett Pass. Your hay has a supply chain, and understanding it is what keeps you from panic-buying in February.

Know the main hay types you’ll be offered

• Timothy — The Northwest’s signature grass hay. High fiber, moderate protein, soft-stemmed when cut at the right maturity. The default for most horses and a solid base for goats, sheep, and small animals.
• Orchard grass — Softer and leafier than timothy, often a little higher in protein and usually more palatable to picky eaters. Grown heavily in the Columbia Basin and popular with pleasure-horse owners.
• Alfalfa — A legume, not a grass. High protein, high calcium, high calories. Excellent for lactating animals, hard keepers, and growing stock. Too rich as a sole feed for most idle horses and easy-keeping ponies.
• Alfalfa/grass mix — The middle ground, and often the sweet spot for cattle, goats, and horses in moderate work.
• Oat hay and other cereal hays — Bulky, economical, popular for cattle and dry stock. Watch nitrate levels and check with your supplier.
• Local meadow or mixed grass — Common in small-farm sales. Quality swings enormously, so inspect this hay especially carefully.

Cuttings aren’t a quality grade.

New buyers often hear “second cutting” and assume it means “better.” It doesn’t. Cutting number tells you when in the season it was harvested, not how good it is.

Generally, the first cutting is coarser and more stemmy with more weed content; the second cutting is leafier and softer; the third cutting (where the season allows) is the finest and richest. But a well-timed, well-cured first cutting beats a rained-on second cutting every single time. Maturity at harvest and curing conditions matter more than the number.

The export factor nobody warns you about.

Washington’s premium timothy and alfalfa are world-famous, and a large share of the top-grade product is compressed and shipped to Japan, Korea, China, and the Middle East. That’s great for growers, and it’s why the quality here is so high, but it also means domestic buyers are competing for supply in a market driven by overseas demand.

The takeaway for you: don’t wait until you’re on your last four bales. Hay season runs roughly May through early October. Prices are usually friendliest at harvest and least friendly in that late-winter stretch between February and April when everyone’s stock ran out at once. If you have the space, buy your year’s supply, or a solid chunk of it, off the field.

How to inspect hay before you buy.

Never buy hay you haven’t put your hands in. Ask to open a bale, a reputable seller will say yes.

• Smell it first. Good hay smells sweet and grassy. Musty, sour, or tobacco-like smells mean moisture problems or heating. Walk away.
• Look at color inside the bale. Sun-bleached outsides are normal and cosmetic. You want green on the inside. Yellow or brown throughout suggests rain damage or overmature cutting.
• Check leaf-to-stem ratio. Leaves carry the nutrition. Thick, hollow, ropey stems mean it was cut late.
• Feel for moisture and heat. Bales should be dry and springy, not heavy, damp, or warm. Warm bales are a barn fire risk, not just a feed problem.
• Shake a flake out. Dust clouds mean respiratory trouble for horses and small ruminants.
• Hunt for weeds. This one is Washington-specific and serious: tansy ragwort stays toxic after it’s dried and baled. Animals that would avoid it on pasture can’t pick it out of a flake, and it causes irreversible liver damage in horses and cattle. It’s a regulated noxious weed here for exactly that reason. Learn to recognize its ragged leaves and daisy-like yellow flower heads, and check any hay of unknown origin. Your county noxious weed board and conservation district will help you ID it for free.

Ask for the numbers when they matter.

For most healthy adult animals in light work, a good visual inspection and a trusted supplier are plenty. But get a forage analysis if you’re feeding:

• a horse with insulin resistance, PPID/Cushing’s, or a laminitis history (you need the sugar and starch numbers).
• pregnant or lactating animals.
• growing youngstock.
• anything your vet has flagged as a special case.

Many suppliers can provide a test on a specific lot, and testing labs will run a sample for a modest fee. It beats guessing.

Where to actually buy

• Direct from the grower. Best price per ton, best traceability. Usually requires you to haul it, buy volume, and get on their list early.
• A hay supplier or broker. They buy across multiple fields and lots, store it under cover, and deliver. You pay a bit more for consistency, availability year-round, and not owning a flatbed.
• Feed stores. Convenient for small quantities and emergencies, highest per-bale cost.
• Local classifieds and Facebook farm groups. Real deals exist here, and so do disappointments. Inspect in person, always.
• Your county extension office and conservation district. Free advice, pasture and forage resources, and often a line on local producers.

Store it like you live in Washington.

Buying good hay and then ruining it is the most expensive mistake on this list. In our climate:

• Get bales off the ground on pallets or a gravel pad. Concrete wicks moisture straight up into the bottom layer.
• Keep it under a roof if at all possible. Tarps are a fallback, not a plan, condensation under a tarp can do as much damage as rain.
• Leave airflow between the stack and exterior walls.
• Feed oldest first, and keep the stack away from anything that leaks.
• Check for heating in the first few weeks after delivery, especially on hay baled late in the season.

Your supplier questionnaire

Screenshot this and take it with you:

1. Where was this hay grown, and what cutting is it?
2. When was it baled, and did it get rained on?
3. Has it been stored under cover the whole time?
4. Do you have a forage analysis for this lot?
5. What do the bales weigh, and are you pricing by bale or by ton?
6. Do you deliver, and what’s the minimum?
7. Can I open a bale before I commit?
8. Will you have this same hay again next month?

That last one matters more than people expect. Sudden forage changes upset rumens and guts. Finding a supplier who can keep you in consistent hay all year is worth more than chasing the cheapest load.

Welcome to Washington!

Sourcing hay here has a learning curve, but it’s a short one. Learn the types, buy in season, inspect every load, store it dry, and build a relationship with a supplier who answers the phone in January.

At Ohana Hay, that’s the part we care about most. We’re here to help new Washington livestock owners get the right hay for their animals without the guesswork and to still be here when your stack runs low.

Questions about what your animals should be eating? Reach out. We’d rather talk you through it than have you guess.