pricing corn silage

Fordfarmer · Oct 26, 2013

A neighbor is looking for 2 or 3 more loads of corn
to top off his silo. Normally wouldn't worry about
it, but he's short of hay, so wants all the silage
he can get. I have some a short drive from him that
I could chop, but neither of us is sure how to price
it. It would be my tractor, chopper and wagons, his
tractor (hauling/unloading) and blower.

IaGary · Oct 27, 2013

Do you know what the yield would be in grain?

Say it is 150 bushels to the acre, times $4.30 or so per bushel. Plus $30 an acre for fertilizer to replace what the stalks removed.

This comes to $675 per acre plus your equipment usage.

Gary

john in la · Oct 27, 2013

Gary;
Not being from a row crop background I have a question.

You said....
$675 per acre plus your equipment usage

While I can understand $645 for the corn.
And I can understand a extra $30 charge for fertilizer lost by removing the stalks from the field

What I can not understand is equipment usage charge.
Would he not be using his equipment or hiring outsiders to harvest the grain.
In other words equipment; fuel; his time; should be covered in the price per bushel.

In fact we could stretch it out and say he should deduct from the $675 things like drying charges and trucking to the elevator since the neighbor is doing all the hauling unloading and blowing.

So am I seeing this wrong or did you have these type of thinking when you put down a price of $4.30 per bushel for the corn grain.

IaGary · Oct 28, 2013

You may be right on the equipment charge cause he would have had to harvest the grain for himself as well. Didn't think it trough enough. But it cost more to chop than to combine per acre.

As far as the wet grain deduct that is a minor deduct unless the corn is still above 20%.

The stalk removal may be worth more than $30 as well.

Gary

Fordfarmer · Oct 28, 2013

That's kind of the route I was thinking as well, but then I'd have to guess how many acres I chopped off to the the 3 loads. Don't have much of an idea what the yield would be for shell corn though. Usually 120-140 bu. in a decent year. With our wet,cold spring and too dry summer, I'd be lucky to get 100 bu/ac. off that particular field.

Hoofer B · Oct 29, 2013

For 2 - 3 loads, charge him $75 per ton. Simple and easy.

Massey farmer · Oct 29, 2013

He would be crazy to pay that, maybe 2 ton for $70. $35-40/ton is the going price this year. Figure there is around 7 bushels of corn in a ton of silage. At $4/bu that's only $28 a ton so $35-$40 I think your doing well. Large farms around here are only paying $40 a ton max delivered to thier farm and dropped off at the bunk and you need to weigh in and out with every load. Good luck.

Iowa Jim · Oct 31, 2013

raw silage is usually priced at 10 times the price of corn grain, then any custom harvesting costs are added.

Fordfarmer · Nov 3, 2013

I'd forgotten to check here the last few days. Thanks for the ideas. At this point, the corn is so dry that I don't know if he's still interested. Wouldn't be many tons in a 14' box. Haven't heard from him for a week now.

pricing corn silage

Fordfarmer

Well-known Member

IaGary

Well-known Member

john in la

Well-known Member

IaGary

Well-known Member

Fordfarmer

Well-known Member

Hoofer B

Well-known Member

Massey farmer

Member

Iowa Jim

Member

Fordfarmer

Well-known Member

Similar threads