feed price advice

[wmoebis]

I would like some advice on how to price some feed.
This is what I have. durum wht. that was swathed on the green side. Most leaves are still on and green. The seed was near ripe and would have ran 25 bus per acre, if I could have harvested it. It is now wet wet and even if the straw dries I don't think it will ever be dry enough to harvest. The driest it (grain) ever got was off moisture tester. Not sure if ever was totaly ripe.
I am trying to decide if I should let someone bale it. If I did, how would I set a price? I don't know much about feed quality of green feed with grian in or how to adjust price for dampness.
Last time I left grain out over winter deer distroyed it and I have no reason not to believe this wouldn't happen again. I already have way to much tough grain and am not going to take any more.

I do have buyers but not being in the feed buissness I need your expertise.

TIA

[perfecho]

Straw out here is $25-$30, hay at apporx $100/bale....06/lb. Would go somewhere between the two, 50-60? Pending bale wieght.

[DogPatch]

First Question I would ask if buying is there any ergot? If there is I am afraid I wouldn't want it.

Otherwise, the $50 to 60/bale sounds fair. It will take some processing for that durum to be of any value as it would likely pass right through a cattle beast.

[perfecho]

Dog patch....interesting what you said about the grain passing through the animal...have had this discussion many times. And not that I know, but.....even though you see the kernel, I believe a lot of the nutrients are taken out. You don't see processed grain behind cattle...but you couldn't anyways, it's processed. Years ago when we used the Canadian Nutrient Requirement Guide, they added 10% value for rolling. Some feeders actually don't roll grain when the price is cheap, because it is more economical to add 10-15% more grain than to roll it.
What does everyone else think?

[per]

I have read the same information somewhere in the past. Something like the difference between 85% and 94% efficient. I never milled last year. If nothing else it was sure easier and saved lots of time, electricity and fuel.

[grassfarmer]

Feed value as dry baled product is largely academic as long as it's wet sitting out in the field. Hopefully you will get weather to get it baled up - if not you might need to graze it in the field.

[wmoebis]

Thanks guys!
I made a deal today it is being baled as I type.

Couple of conciderations the buyer had. 1 the amount of grain in each bale. He felt he would have to limit amount fed daily. Also it would have to go through prosesser and mixer to remove beards, chop rank straw and mix grain.

This is a large cattle operation that buys lots of feed and was impressed with quality. Moisture not a big issue at 22%

Buyer/ seller/ custom baler all happy!

Just shows one that there is times when even a grain producer needs a cow to pull him out when he's stuck.

[perfecho]

I always thought grain and cattle should go hand in hand. Time was when every farm had a feed lot and if grain prices went south, calves stayed home. Cows could go until Christmas on stubble, cleaning up sloughs, broken bales, etc. Tough grain could be fed, screenings fed, waste not.....
Then we were told to specialize...concentrate in one area and expand...late 70's and 80's.
A few years ago our ag minister, after BSe, said we should be diversified.
Grain farms got big, have to spray chemicals on every kernel to harvest efficently. Cattle lots are so big we need medication to trim our losses.

Have we procressed?

[DogPatch]

No We haven't progressed.

Diversification (Government expert style) doesn't work. To get to the economies of scale a person/persons can't afford to do it properly, and the biggest problem is time management.

The experts told us that we need 300 cows to deliver those triaxle quantities of calves. TO maximime the returns we are told...... more lbs. Too many producers went to Jan/Feb calving which is compleletly out of season for plants and cattle. HOWEVER it means that they aren't busy with calving and seeding in the spring.

At the same time we're told that you need 2000 acres plus to justify the combine, the airseeder, the HC Sprayer etc etc. More acres to pay for the machinery. Weather screws you during haying/spraying season, then at harvest you have to deal with cows getting out. Weather screws them again trying to get harvest off.

To make a long story short.......(Sorry I didn't do it sooner) A specialized farmer is likely going to be a happier farmer. If you like grain......... get on that combine and go. If you like livestock, then thats your thing.

If I had to do things over....... I would ignore the experts, and do what I like to do best, and its not necessarily what I did.

[perfecho]

Gotta love "economies of scale". It only works for the first ones in, for a short time. We have been duped, every time someone increases for "economies", the margins diminish, setting the bar lower.
I have always been "intrigued" that as farmers, if we can't make a living off of 100, we double it to see if that works!
Look where it has gotten us.

[kato]

"Straw out here is $25-$30, hay at apporx $100/bale....06/lb. Would go somewhere between the two, 50-60? Pending bale wieght."

perfecho..........Where are you???? Wanna buy some hay? LOL Straw here is about $12.00, and you can sell hay for about $30 or $40 a bale. If you can find someone to buy it...

[perfecho]

Just south of Edmonton.....2 years of pretty ugly drought!

[grassfarmer]

Great to see you have grain farmers prepared to subsidize ranchers Kato! That straw has a residual nutrient value of probably $15 a ton chopped and left on the field. Add baling at what? $7 a bale? certainly charging anything less than $20 a bale for straw is giving away money.
We have some heavy, minimal waste bales from last year bought for $25 delivered but it was tough sourcing them.
$100 a bale for hay? there was plenty asking but how many paid it i'm not so sure. There is a lot cheaper hay advertised now.

[kato]

It's not so much grain farmers subsidizing, as it is no one with any money to buy it. In some grain growing areas straw sells for as high as $7.00 a bale, before baling it. In other areas, burning has been banned for much of the time, and they just have way too much straw, so it's often free. It's the luck of the draw, where you live. Even if you paid $7.00 a bale for swaths in the field, you would not find anyone willing or able to pay more than $12.00 for it after baling.

If Alberta prices took hold in Manitoba, people would sell their cows first. There are areas in this province that are short of feed, yet the trucks do go west with it because no one here can pay for it. It's not pretty.

We're just thankful we've got enough feed, because if we had to go out and buy hay or straw we'd sell our cows too.

[kato]

Oh ya, I should mention, grain farmers here do not bale straw for sale. They don't normally even own balers. It's just cattle guys who come and buy it off the field who are doing this. They get it from grain guys who are looking for a bit of cash, or who have just too much straw to work in.