straw price

[dfarms11]

What is the value of straw in the field? There is a straw-ethanol plant being proposed in vegreville and they expect to pay on a rising grid. when oil is at $65/ barrel it is $17/tonne. When it is at $30/barrel it is about $12/ tonne. Is this really enough money for the value of the straw to the land?

[TOM4CWB]

dfarm11;

When oil was $30/barrel we calculated that wheat straw was worth at least $16/tonne in the windrow.

Further production can decrease in dry years, as moisture evaporated quicker, with out the straw being returned and protecting the soil.

[melvill]

I really have some concerns about selling all our straw to ethanol plants. On our farm, , which admittedly is very different from the black soil in the egreville area, we grew oats on a heavy-clay quarter for at least 30 years. We always took everything off in the form of greenfeed or straw for bedding. Now we're paying the price. Organic matter on that field has shrunk to almost no-existant levels. The result is that the soil is now cloddy and clumpy and it's almost impossible to make a decent seed bed. If we get a rain before the crop is up, the surface bakes so hard the crop can't get through. We're paying the price, now, for mining the soil all those years ago. To reclaim it we're seriously considering adding composted feedlot manure at about 4 or 5 tonnes to the acre - total cost including compost, shipping and spreading = at least $100/acre!