greenfeed value vs hay

[Ron]

I got 50-90% hail on my barley, peas and cps wheat. The cereals are in the early dough to soft dough stage. about 20% of the heads are gone but 50-70% are broken over. I think if I cut it in the next couple of days I can save those heads and get some decent greenfeed out of it. (It was a 80-95 bu cps and 70-80 bu barley). Some neighbors have sold their salvage as standing silage for 10$/t. I am wondering how greenfeed prices would relate to hay and will people feed cps greenfeed? Thanks

[charliep]

Ron

where are you located at? I assume that is $10/wet ton?

Charlie P.

[melvill]

Ron, I can answer your question from a market price perspective. It would be wise for you to talk to a beef nutritionist/silage specialist to get an estimate of the quality of your hailed crop as silage. The most important thing from a silage perspective is that it not get too dry. If that happens it won't pack properly and then it will spoil. Trust me, I've seen huge pit silos with tons and tons and tons spoiled from being put up too dry.

I don't know where you are located but the major feedlots in southern Alberta buy silage STANDING based on the prices of Western Barley Futures. Most of them use a standard formula to arrive at a price. Here is the formula:

(Oct. Western Barley futures) - (Basis) all divided by 3.7 = silage in $ per tonne at 64% moisture or less $8.80/t swathing, cutting and hauling 3 miles or less. Usually the value for Oct. Western Barley futures is the Friday close on the day that the silage is cut. The tricky part is basis. One major feedlot in southern Alberta started out last fall offering a basis of $10 under. This spring they offered $5 under. This summer they ended up buying all of their silage at $5 over to get enough. Your local basis will depend on where you are located and how much demand there is for silage or roughage locally. That means for silage cut the week ending August 10 the price (standing) was (149.50 5)/3.7 = $41.75 - 8.80 = $32.95/t @ 64% moisture. A week earlier it would have been (141.50 5)/3.7 = $39.60 - 8.80 = $30.80/t.

If your product is good as silage it'll probably make good greenfeed but it would be priced at about 10% moisture. A local beef specialists can convert the value to 10% moisture for you.

I would suggest you post your question about feeding value on the Beef Production forum on Agri-ville if you can't contact a beef specialist.

[Ron]

I am located near lacombe, just north of red deer.

[jmillang]

I'll respond from a beef specialist perspective. Typically, greenfeed sells for 2/3 the price of mixed hay. I have heard stories that hay is trading at 4.5 cents per pound up to 5 cents per pound. Turning that into tonnes, is 90 to 110 per tonne. If we then look to greenfeed @ 2/3 your looking at 60 to 75 per tonne.

market conditions for feed are very site specific, with lots of hail around, then greenfeed gets cheaper, the catch with silage is that it is not very moblile so buyers tend to be with in 10 miles or so.

As far as palability goes for all the crops, peas makes the best silage, cows don't care much for greenfeed peas. as far as CPS wheat goes we have some issues with palatabilty but these can be over come with some management.

With feed being short in most of the province, its definately a sellers market.