SOMERSWORTH, N.H. (AP) – Wet weather and the high cost of fuel and fertilizer have increased the average price of hay in New Hampshire.

State Agriculture Commissioner Stephen Taylor said prices per bale this year are close to $7. Last year, prices more likely fell in the $4 to $5 range.

“New England weather is like a pendulum; it swings from too wet to too dry,” Taylor said.

He said the grasses that make up hay start out with 85 percent moisture content and need to be dried to about 20 percent moisture before it can be put up in the barn. This process requires three sunny days in a row to get the grass dry enough to make hay.

Farmers also have other hay making choices, including haylage and balage, although both products are better for cattle than horses, Taylor said. Haylage is cut hay, which has only been dried a day or less. It is blown into a silo and stored.

Balage bales resemble giant marshmallows, and are similarly filled with a wetter hay mixture that has only had a day to dry and ferments inside the sealed white plastic.