Buying silage

someone could probably put up the costs that go into a decent round bale of silage, but that does not seem too far out of the way. they have to make a profit on their work too !!

How much does your own cost you to make it?

That plus delivery should be the absolute minimum he'd sell it for.

If you don't make any, then there's numerous threads here with cost breakdowns.

Can ye advise what I should be charging for growing grass that got slurry & 3 bags can... Buyer will pay for everything from including cutting... Just need work out land charge, slurry and fert...

Was thinking roughly 18 euro bale.. Ballpark?

Has demand not got as big of an influence on the price of a product as the cost of manufacture?

In the case of silage outside dairy areas I'd be thinking supply is greater than demand making it another farm product that is sold bellow cost with the SFP (or other income in case of hobby farmer) covering the shortfall.

For good silage that's a fair price, my own is costed at 34 stacked in the yard but that's at 2.5 bags to the acre.

'every man has to live'

Any chance you could have chat with the processors/retailers/consumers I supply beef .

What most of ye haven't allowing for in yeer cost calculation is the European payment you are recieving to bellow cost produce on that acre.

I produce my own because of the per HA payment I receive and nitrates constraints I'm already struggling with. If they didn't exist I would be buying 100% of my requirements.

Sellers out number buyers locally because of reducing livestock numbers over last 20 years. I have heard more silage traded locally at 25 than 30 over last few years without haulage.

I have also heard of haulage costing from 2-10 euro and usually wonder how they can run tractor and trailer without government aid for the price.

I was offered 'good' silage today for €40 per bale delivered. Didn't take up the offer. Would have paid €35 if offered.

It's not costing that to make. Can't see how prices of feed has gone up from last year. Apart from land rental, where's the extra costs?

Are you stacking in the yard at that price?

Fuel? Are ya serious? Fuel is way down on 12 months ago. Contractor maybe up 50c/bale but even that is hard to justify. Plastic back a notch too. I suppose scarcity of crop could be a factor alright. Around my area crops are good though

Fertiliser would be dearer this year for the 1st cut ,35 euro would be well under the production cost

Great when you have the use of the land for nought

,I wouldn't mind getting the use of a few free acres myself!!!

not to mind you are mining your ground of p and k when selling silage but don't mind me once you are happy selling for 34 euro

I knew someone would mention it but my calculations are based on fuel I bought last year and plastic too. I'm like most smaller farmers we buy about 1000 lt which do us a year or so. Plastic was going through the roof last and I had none on stock ...so the effects of the war and prices are still being felt.

Crops are way down in the south east.

I know I've to add more P&K which will be done next year all going well and will be added to things next year. I'll spread MOP or 0-7-30 along with slurry/dung.

I wouldn't be at this craic if it wasn't paying. And I'm not riding the lads I sell to. If I'm able to make it relatively cheap then I can sell it the same and everyone is happy. What's the problem? I'd sell to ye too if ye wanted :-)

I'll probably be laughed at but..........

I wonder how anyone makes any money with the production costs quoted in this thread, I doubt much of the silage for sale has anywhere near these sort of inputs, it just wouldn't make sense. I haven't made any silage yet this year but baled 160 bales of hay this week, its after costing about €5 a bale to mow thead row and bale (with my own equipment, including diesel, net, 2 haybob tubes and 2 tines).

No artificial fertilizer applied ever, just FYM and Slurry (Soil samples show P and K indexes between 2 - 4). Not going to worry too much about mining as land will be developed in the next decade or 2, but will target the fields with lower indexes with a bit more FYM just the same. Probably another €3-4 euro a bale in spreading costs, but it's also a cost of keeping cattle anyway and must be spread even if no bales are produced. Could possibly factor in the cost of buying straw, which I buy on the flat from a neighbouring farm, costing about €15 a bale by the time it's in my yard, but I produce 5 times as much fodder so another €3 a bale of hay/silage (this is also a cost of housing cattle).

So costing €12 with organic fertilizer spread and bedding/spreading costs covered (about €15 when plastic applied for silage).

There is some rented land but, the SFP covers it with surplus + the top up schemes, so the land is in profit before touching it.

Probably not going to achieve the heaviest crops but there is scope for profit per bale even with wear/tear and depreciation + time etc added. Baler/wrapper are 25 years old so depreciation is no longer a factor, bought a fresher tractor end of last year but had the old one 20+ years.

Most men simply are not in a position time wise or knowledge wise to run 25 year old mowers/baler/wrappers.

I'm heavily involved with a neighbour at silage every year using equipment like such.

There is a fully equipped workshop with 2 mechanics & a combined experience of about 70 years as agricultural engineers.

Even at that, we've often been beaten by breakdowns & had to use local the local contractor to finish fields.

Your silage production costs are at the lowest 1% of the country I'd say

One thing I should state on my setup is that I'm really dependent on good crops coming off the field or, obviously, the price of production per bale will be higher. I expect by the end of the year when I'm finished my costs will be higher as second cut will yield less, albeit with less inputs in terms of fertiliser. We'll revisit come September and see how things worked out

Hardly a stupid argument when we are discussing putting so much chemical fertilizer into land that bales produced barely break even or are even going to end up loss making due to oversupply. One thing to put so much effort into making high yielding quality feed for your own stock, but madness to apply the same inputs to bales for sale. One doesn't need to be completely organic either, but spending almost €40 a bale to produce is never going to make sales profitable, my argument is I doubt very much that the majority of fodder for sale has seen anywhere near these kinds of inputs.

I disagree with your 6 months to grow a decent meadow around here anyway.

I actually have covered / acknowledged most of the rest if you read my posts, except my own time, (I don't think others had costed their own time in their figures above) and the cost of reduced production, which is an interesting one, it seems some lads will do anything to keep production up even at the expense of some proffit. Is it better to over produce grass to the point you have to keep cutting it and selling it at a loss?

I've also said a few times there are many other farm types between my low input system and the other high input systems discussed in this thread, there is plenty out there producing fodder without it costing €35-40 a bale or there simply wouldn't be so much fodder for sale every year.

Not true.. took 7.5 bales to ac off organic meadow 31st may. Got slurry only 10 Apr.

Up to 10 apr. Was late due to weather. . If i had any crop growing up into august organic or not it would be lodged and starting to grow again. It got 2000g slurry In jan and 2500g again to the ac in April. Reseeded in 2009 nice bit white clover still in it.