Fair Silage Corn Value

[Stocker Steve]

We have a lot of poor corn in my area this year due to drought. It is short and most of it has small partially filled nubins for ears.

What is a fair way to estimate the value per ton before it is chopped when there is little or no grain content?

 

[Herefordcross]

If people have crop insurance on the corn for grain at a decent bushel level then they're giving it away here. They'll let you chop all you want for free all you have to do is leave two rows down the middle for the ins. company to look at to estimate the bushels that would have been there. But, to answer your question it really needs to be tested, if I were buying it, it would really depend on what it looked like.

 

[mnmtranching]

SS, Good question. I have the same thing going. I'm going to start chopping Mon, no crop insurance, and we are in a disaster area and what about LDP?

I would love to have 150 bu corn to chop. Well everything I got is going into silage I hope the cows make it through the winter.

mnmt

 

[mitchwi]

I do not know how they came up with the figure, but on the (extrememly) local radio farm program weekend before last, they quoted corn silage like you are describing at $7 to $12 per ton here.

Michele

 

[shorty]

The best way to find the value of the silage is to chop some and have it tested. A few years ago we had a bad drought and corn didn't have much corn on, but the stalks were also shorter than normal so when it was chopped it actually showed a fair amount of corn. it tested pretty good . We were paid for the grain loss by insurance and we were able to chop everything .

 

[Engler]

One thing to look out for on stressed corn for silage is nitrate level. As far as value we always figure 10x the price of a bu of corn per ton.

 

[VAStocker]

One thing to look out for on stressed corn for silage is nitrate level. As far as value we always figure 10x the price of a bu of corn per ton.

This is very true I had a neighbor thought he was getting a deal on cheap corn that had not amounted to very much for silage and lost some cows to the high nitrate level.