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Chopping day - corn silage photos

Wow, production costs must be cheap in south dakota. $222 per acre? I would have that in just seed, fertilizer, chemicals, and machine costs. And with $7.00 corn that makes corn silage absolutely outrageous!
Plant, Spray, Harvest Costs per acre= 60
Seed= 60
Fertilizer= 120
Chemicals= 35
Total = 275
Plus insurance if you have it, and land costs.
100 to 150 bushel corn @ $7 a bushel = 700 to 1050 per acre

Unless running a custom feedlot and somebody else paying the bills, i dont understood how corn silage is cheap feed??????[/code]
 
Par for the course, I believe he is glossing over the real costs and just stating his seed and chemical costs. Add on land costs (typical cash rent), machinery expense to put the crop in and chopping, hauling and packing costs, as well as feeding costs, and I agree, corn silage is probably one of the most expensive feeds to put into beef animals. Although 10 ton silage is a pretty low grain corn yield, turning that grain into cash and grazing or baling the corn stalks seems to be the best opportunity for beef and if protein or energy is needed, haul the feed back in as wet distillers feed. If shrink and spoilage can be contained to 10% in a bale bunker, you'll be doing real good. I suspect none of this matters, as BRG's enterprise is seedstock beef animals, and his main concern is feeding and multiplying them. He has to keep them fed and this looks like a pretty good way to make it happen. I'm a mixed grain/beef operation, so likely think a lot differently, but I doubt BRG is interested in messing with combines and hauling grain. How does 3.5 ton DM yield on silage compare to what alfalfa would do as dry hay?

eatbeef said:
Wow, production costs must be cheap in south dakota. $222 per acre? I would have that in just seed, fertilizer, chemicals, and machine costs. And with $7.00 corn that makes corn silage absolutely outrageous!
Plant, Spray, Harvest Costs per acre= 60
Seed= 60
Fertilizer= 120
Chemicals= 35
Total = 275
Plus insurance if you have it, and land costs.
100 to 150 bushel corn @ $7 a bushel = 700 to 1050 per acre

Unless running a custom feedlot and somebody else paying the bills, i dont understood how corn silage is cheap feed??????[/code]
Click to expand...
 
silage is great to make some lower quality hay more appealing to calves. In our area most hay that is put up is far from dairy quality. It hasn't been to many years ago that thistle and weed bales were considered a blessing.
 
I've got a 120 acres of silage corn

$1100 fuel for tillage and planting

$1000 seed cost (outdated damaged corn seed bargain price $20 a bag conventional seed)

$1800 in chemical

Land rent 1st 35 acres free,2nd 35 acre parcel $350 3rd 50 acre parcel I own but figure $1000 rent which is par for the area.

Fertilizer 2 ton on one field $1100

2nd field new breaking plowed ground none

3rd field six months of cow manure spread by the cows

Chopping cost fuel and parts $2200

$1000 labor cost to help chop

Total out of my pocket is $9550 for the crop add some wear and tear cost on equipment and round it up to $12,000 so were at $100 an acre on this years crop. It will go 10 ton to the acre even at 3 ton dry matter per acre its pretty cheap feed.$33.33 per ton

I will have a solid 14 long days tied up in planting and harvest plus another 4 or 5 days helping others in a trade labor deal.Got a quote of $9500 to have a custom crew come in and I passed on the idea.

As far as plastic goes I'd take the money and plant 3 extra acres for the top rot feed before I'd ever use plastic again. If its early spread oats all over the pile they'll be 6 inces high by november and seam to help some. The biggest thing is get the pile packed very very well.

Ranchers can get corn planted very reasonable compared to farmers were cheap their not so much.
 
BlackCattleRancher said:
Par for the course, I believe he is glossing over the real costs and just stating his seed and chemical costs. Add on land costs (typical cash rent), machinery expense to put the crop in and chopping, hauling and packing costs, as well as feeding costs, and I agree, corn silage is probably one of the most expensive feeds to put into beef animals. Although 10 ton silage is a pretty low grain corn yield, turning that grain into cash and grazing or baling the corn stalks seems to be the best opportunity for beef and if protein or energy is needed, haul the feed back in as wet distillers feed. If shrink and spoilage can be contained to 10% in a bale bunker, you'll be doing real good. I suspect none of this matters, as BRG's enterprise is seedstock beef animals, and his main concern is feeding and multiplying them. He has to keep them fed and this looks like a pretty good way to make it happen. I'm a mixed grain/beef operation, so likely think a lot differently, but I doubt BRG is interested in messing with combines and hauling grain. How does 3.5 ton DM yield on silage compare to what alfalfa would do as dry hay?

eatbeef said:
Wow, production costs must be cheap in south dakota. $222 per acre? I would have that in just seed, fertilizer, chemicals, and machine costs. And with $7.00 corn that makes corn silage absolutely outrageous!
Plant, Spray, Harvest Costs per acre= 60
Seed= 60
Fertilizer= 120
Chemicals= 35
Total = 275
Plus insurance if you have it, and land costs.
100 to 150 bushel corn @ $7 a bushel = 700 to 1050 per acre

Unless running a custom feedlot and somebody else paying the bills, i dont understood how corn silage is cheap feed??????[/code]
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

No sir - these costs are exact. Land, seed, fertilizer, spray, planting, hail insurance and harvest. But you have to understand something, our land is lease ground and it is $25/acre, we only planted 18,500 seeds to the acre so land and seed is cheap compared to farm country. Our ground doesn't hold the moisture and we don't get alot of it to begin with, so we don't fertilize as heavy as farm country either.

No glossing over any expenses here. :)

As far as comparing to hay, Our alfalfa/grass hay averaged about 1.25 ton to the acre this year, I suppose that is around 15% moisture or 85% DM.

Our ground isn't made for farming, but with $7 corn and higher hay and machinery costs we figured it was time we hired a little farming done as we purchase all the grain and lots of hay that we feed to the calves.
 
We just finished chopping a couple days ago and the topic got me to coming up with some figures. The field made about 22.5 tons/acre. Approximate cost per acre is $600 which includes everything. That makes the feed in my pile worh just under $27/ton. I had a fereral crop adjuster come do an appraisal and she said she figured it would have made 150 bu./acre. That made the corn worth $975/acre at $6.50 or the silage worh $1462/acre at $65/ton per acre if you were to sell it. Selling silage doesn't happen around here very often but the numbers are interesting.
 
eatbeef said:
Wow, production costs must be cheap in south dakota. $222 per acre? I would have that in just seed, fertilizer, chemicals, and machine costs. And with $7.00 corn that makes corn silage absolutely outrageous!
Plant, Spray, Harvest Costs per acre= 60
Seed= 60
Fertilizer= 120
Chemicals= 35
Total = 275
Plus insurance if you have it, and land costs.
100 to 150 bushel corn @ $7 a bushel = 700 to 1050 per acre

Unless running a custom feedlot and somebody else paying the bills, i dont understood how corn silage is cheap feed??????[/code]
Click to expand...

We can buy it here all day long for $40-$60 a ton. In my book that is cheap feed
 
Guess everybody has their own way of working a calculator. I am a rancher at heart but sometimes I do have to grit my teeth, sit on a tractor, and farm a little. With grain prices I really cant afford not to. I dont even own a planter likewise i dont plant corn, but i have a lot of friends that do. I own a drill and an old combine and raise milo, beans and wheat when the ground is not in alfalfa, sudan, oats, or triticale. You have to figure the actual costs, like in my case i have tons of alfalfa which i am sending south for 150 to 175 a ton. It may of only costs 50 a ton to raise the alfalfa but that dont mean that is what it is worth when figuring your costs. I cant afford to feed it if i can get that price out of it. I am buying distilliers and feed with my poorer hay and straw.
 
I beg to differ with you eatbeef. If you can sell hay for $150-$175 and it cost you $50 to put it up that is called profit. Supply and demand works everytime it's tried.

On that note I'm not sure how anyone can afford to pay what hay is going for once it gets down south. If they can afford to feed their stock through this drought, and still make a profit more power to them. It's a tough situation, as everyone I'm sure has been through it at one time or another.
 
On that note I'm not sure how anyone can afford to pay what hay is going for once it gets down south. If they can afford to feed their stock through this drought, and still make a profit more power to them. It's a tough situation, as everyone I'm sure has been through it at one time or another.[/quote]

AMEN
 

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