costs of producing silage per acre

darragh_haven

I'm looking to cost producing silage per acre. I'll put a few parameters on the question. Assume average age of ground 3 to 4 years since last reseeding. Growing 50 acres. No slurry being used. Looking to produce 12 To 15 ton per acre first cut. Harvest date 18th to 22nd may. Ground grazed by 15th of march, closed for silage then.
I need to know the quantity of fertilizer, cost of said fertilizer, cost of spreading using own tractor and spreader
Harvest cost are just using local contractor.
Is there underlying cost that I am omitting? I'll add 50 Euro per acre if I need to rent additional ground (a third of the annual cost of rental)
I'd appreciate any information

merryberry

silage usually needs 100 units N/ ac so on 50ac thats 5000 units of N. Thats about 9 tonnes of CAN (27.5%) @ ~€320/ t or €2880 on N fertiliser assuming no slurry. soil sample to determine the levels of P, K & lime req.

No sure how to calc the cost of spreading with your own machinery. suppose it depends on the tractor. Bulk spread by contractor @ €35-38/t???

is it bales or pit. latter would add cost of plastic and spoilage.

rancher

merryberry wrote: »

silage usually needs 100 units N/ ac so on 50ac thats 5000 units of N. Thats about 9 tonnes of CAN (27.5%) @ ~€320/ t or €2880 on N fertiliser assuming no slurry. soil sample to determine the levels of P, K & lime req.

No sure how to calc the cost of spreading with your own machinery. suppose it depends on the tractor. Bulk spread by contractor @ €35-38/t???

is it bales or pit. latter would add cost of plastic and spoilage.

good crop of silage will take 30units P and 120 units of K per acre out of the soil, so you'll need 10 tonnes 0.7.30 to maintain fertility on 50 acres. You can usually get it delivered bulk and spread for the same price as delivered in bags

merryberry

darragh_haven wrote: »

I need to know the quantity of fertilizer, cost of said fertilizer, cost of spreading using own tractor and spreader

Darragh,

interesting article in the machinery section of this weeks Farmers Journal. The article covers cost of running running tractor for the year. You might be able to deduce the cost of spreading fertilier with own tractor based on figures provided.

flatout11

it depends on the yeild and input/machienry costs anywhere fro 12 to 20 c/kg dry matter
it really depends if you have a lot of free/cheap fertilizer (eg pig slurry) you could do it cheaper

darragh_haven

flatout11 wrote: »

it depends on the yeild and input/machienry costs anywhere fro 12 to 20 c/kg dry matter
it really depends if you have a lot of free/cheap fertilizer (eg pig slurry) you could do it cheaper

Thanks flat out. Dry matter is the productive part of the grass, so i think all future calculations shoud relate to DM:)

Farmer Pudsey

The amount of fertlizer you apply depends on the number of days to harvest in ideal growing conditions an acre of grass will use 2 units of nitrogen if it is newly reseeded in you sitution you have 65 days but 15 are in March if you apply 120 units you will need very good growing conditions to use it all in that amount of time if you apply slurry you have to be careful about the amount available as it could be as high as 20-25 units /1000 gallons in the right conditions (misty/drizzle day) back to 5 units on a dry windy day.
If you can get 4000 gallons of slurry to the acre in the right conditions (70-80 units of N) a bag of urea with it will suffice.You will ge the equivlent of about 7-8 tonne of silage at about 30% dry matter if it is wilted in good conditions for 2 days or 15 tonne at 15% dry matter if it is not wilted at all just dumped into pit after being cut.

darragh_haven

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

The amount of fertlizer you apply depends on the number of days to harvest in ideal growing conditions an acre of grass will use 2 units of nitrogen if it is newly reseeded in you sitution you have 65 days but 15 are in March if you apply 120 units you will need very good growing conditions to use it all in that amount of time if you apply slurry you have to be careful about the amount available as it could be as high as 20-25 units /1000 gallons in the right conditions (misty/drizzle day) back to 5 units on a dry windy day.
If you can get 4000 gallons of slurry to the acre in the right conditions (70-80 units of N) a bag of urea with it will suffice.You will ge the equivlent of about 7-8 tonne of silage at about 30% dry matter if it is wilted in good conditions for 2 days or 15 tonne at 15% dry matter if it is not wilted at all just dumped into pit after being cut.

Thanks for that info pudsey. I was surprised by the 7 to 8 ton per acre @30% dm. I thought you'd be looking at closer to 10 ton per acre. Am I way off the mark?