Greenfeed Value

[nashty]

I am looking for a value to sell my oats as green feed instead of harvesting them. I would sell the oats standing, and my neighbor would swath and bale with his own equipment. Any thoughts on what I should charge per tonne for the green feed?

[grassfarmer]

I guess it'll depend what your local supply and demand is. We buy standing crop for silage and usually pay $14-$15 per ton based on 65% moisture content. You could work out a cost based on dry matter in the same way for greenfeed as long as the buyer weighed and moisture tested the crop he takes off. This is fair to both parties in my opinion.

[nicolaas]

Make a spread sheet. Include custom rates for seeding, cutting, baling, (combining), spraying, plus cost for fertilizer, chemical, seed, taxes, interest on land, crop insurance, etc. Add it all up. Throw in some profit (or pad the custom rates) When you want to cut, bring out your crop insurance adjuster...he will estimate your bu/acre potential. You can now estimate your breakeven $/bu, or your $/tonne. You may find that greenfeed is expensive cattle feed(depending on the year), and with high grain prices combining is the way to go. It is better to buy someone elses hay at below the cost of production then to shell out cash to grow your own green feed when yeilds are low.