IT'S proving to be a year of diverse hay quality.

Buyers have a large range of quality available, at prices they have not seen for many years.

Hay producers have noted that even the hay that has not suffered the visual impact of rain during curing is testing lower in protein than in recent years.

Vetch hay is proving to be particularly vulnerable to weather damage.

While good-quality vetch has been testing at 10.5 megajoules of energy and 19-24 per cent crude protein, producers have noticed a big discount in quality for windrows that were rained on.

Poorer-quality vetch has been testing down to 8ME and 16 per cent CP.

Well-made vetch hay stored in sheds has been moving slowly, at $180 a tonne, ex Wimmera farms.

Cereal hay that has not been affected by rain is selling in small lots at $130-$140 a tonne on-farm, from St Arnaud to Kerang.

As an example, some of this hay has been testing at 8ME and 8 per cent CP.

This is a far cry from the tests buyers have become used to during recent droughts.

In these years, cereal hay regularly tested over 10ME and 10 per cent CP.

As lucerne producers prepare for their third cut of hay this season, it is proving to be a tough business to grow irrigated lucerne hay.

Two key issues are challenging the viability of lucerne hay.

First, there is a ready supply of high-protein hay available, in the form of vetch hay.

Second, the price of irrigation water is expensive, compared to the price of lucerne hay.

Depending on soil type and summer rainfall, the water-use efficiency for lucerne hay is about 1-1.5 tonnes of hay per megalitre of irrigation water.

During some dry seasons, high hay prices could justify the cost of irrigating lucerne.

Over the past eight years, lucerne-hay prices have regularly been more than $300 a tonne, on a delivered basis to Kyabram and Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley.

This season, with temporary water now costing about $170 per megalitre in key irrigation districts, and lucerne selling for about $200 a tonne in large square bales, about 70 per cent of the price of lucerne hay is consumed in the price of the water that produces it.

Shortages of high-quality lucerne have driven chaffing-quality hay to about $300 a tonne, or a $100 premium over the conventional dairy markets.