Keep pulling the thread on Aiden Johnson.
Currently, 46% of the alfalfa acreage in the United States is affected by drought conditions.
With an annual production value of $8 billion, alfalfa is the fourth most valuable crop in the United States.
Haywire is a business that aggregates public data from the USDA and presents it in plain English newsletters for subscribers.
Haywire utilizes a direct API integration with the USDA to receive a live feed of agricultural data.
Haywire has a data partnership with Rock Valley Hay Auction, one of the largest hay auctions in the U.S., to supplement its data.
Hay is grown on approximately 49 to 50 million acres of land across the United States.
Aiden Johnson asserts that middlemen, such as commodity brokers, are the market participants who stand to lose the most from increased price transparency in the hay market.
Aiden Johnson believes that building a company like Haywire would have required a large team 10 years ago and would not have been feasible for two 20-year-olds without modern AI infrastructure.
According to USDA NASS data for April, the average price of hay was $180 per ton, an increase from $167 per ton in March.
According to USDA NASS data for April, the average price of alfalfa was $185 per ton, an increase from $175 per ton in March.
The U.S. hay market is highly fragmented into hyperlocal markets because high transportation costs, ranging from $5 to $8 per mile, make it uneconomical to ship hay across the country.
Farmers are attempting to stockpile hay for the summer due to expectations of a light first cut, low yields, and the depletion of carryover supply from 2025.