What is Canola bales, and Green feed selling for in your area?

[RICHARDJ]

What is Canola, Green Feed and Pea bales selling for in your area.

[TOM4CWB]

Richard,

I thought I had all my Canola straw sold in the windrow for $25/t till today.

At lunch the fellow who agreed to buy it told me to put the chopper on, he wasn't interested any more...

What a deal...

The change in the amount of feed avaliable has unbelievably changed in the last week...

I usually expect to pay about sixteen dollars per ton for straw, which should cover the fertiliser cost of the removed straw.

THis year the value is likely $20 to 25/t as people would rather put the Canola straw back on the ground during drought...

Add the baling and transport to these prices, and this will give you the approx. worth of the straw.

Since it takes about 2 weeks to cure out Canola, and it likely has gone through a couple of rains, it is likely worth about straw value, unless you are really lucky...

Green feed is much the same...

If you can get it up in nice shape, without rain, it could be worth $75-100/t... if a bunch of rain fell on it, it really isn't worth much more than straw, and less if it is dusty...

If the green feed has real grain in it, as much written off crop has, then it needs to be asessed and have the extra energy/protien value analised to determine the value...

Heavy green feed bales that are dry (below 14%) indicate either dirt or grain in the bale, so ask if it was raked, if it was check for dirt.

These factors all go into determining the value of the feed, so good luck!

[cowman]

Tom: I have a freind who has been buying up straw and greenfeed like crazy for his large dairy operation. He says he is now getting a lot of crops from farmers who own cow/calf. He says a lot of them have feed for sale because they intend to get out of cattle. Is reality finally beginning to sink in? My local auction market manager told me, over a month ago, this would happen. He said when the calves go to market and the farmer realized that he couldn't feed the cow with the money he got for the calf, that then the real sell-off would begin. Is this what we are starting to see?
A lot of these farmers are in a position where they can get out. Yes, they'll take a beating on their cows, but they will make it up with the feed sales. I think the average age of your cow/calf man is close to 60, and they don't see why they should continue. I just don't think we've seen the full impact of this thing yet...maybe a few years down the road?

[TOM4CWB]

Cowman;

I really think it is starting to sink in that the price expectations for the forage for sale was too high, and as the market usually does, a shortage in a short time creates a surplus, as substitution fills the void left by the products that were short, or the weather changes and everyone harvests as much as they can to cash in on the profitable prices...

The whole grain complex has risen, and this is why the forage has risen... until the demand is reduced and a surplus reduces the price...

The large amount of Corn and Corn products that have come into Alberta has effectively filled the shortage, if we have lots of feed wheat, it will be simply used here, replacing corn that would have otherwise come into western Canada.

The COW CALF producer will be the hardest hit, as for years they did well while the feed was cheap and now their industry is being rationalised because of "expensive" feed.

The pork producers are now being hit as well, it is like a chain event, the lower value(caused by the cattle selloff/high feed costs) in one sector causes other sectors to become depressed as well...

THis is not a pretty sight... now we can see why countries ravaged by famine become so depressed and why war many times erupts...civil revolution...destruction of infrastructure...

People want to find someone to blame for the calamity... and make them pay...

[cowman]

Actually Tom last year was no great shakes to be in the cow/calf business, but I will agree that for a few years it was fairly decent! I guess when I say "fairly decent" I compare that to the grain business. NOT decent to the real world!
The grain business has been a wreck for a lot of years. 1995 was fairly good but the rest actually sucked!
And it really bothers me that our various governments haven't woken up to the fact that the grain farmer is the backbone for all other agriculture! Yes, we can make money if grain is cheap....but if there is no grain then there is no money! Beef, Hogs, chickens... all need grain! No grain, no value added, through beef, hogs, chickens...or for that matter bread or beer or cooking oil!
Subsidize the grain producer, if that is what it takes, because a WHOLE lot depends on him!