Dead Man's Curve

[StrojanHerefords]

Around here grain hay is $100 a ton wholesale. It costs around $50 a ton to harvest and contains $70 of NPK. Anyone who has to harvest hay at those prices is putting themselves $20 a ton in the whole before planting costs and rent. If any farmer is in the position where they have to generate cashflow by mining the soil is behind the dead man's curve and its time to stop digging the grave any deeper.

 

[SBMF 2015]

In a non drought year with average demand I can buy hay cheaper than I can produce it. Which is great except that it leaves you at the mercy of the market.
The vast majority of farmers around here are row crop guys with a few cows. I am just the opposite. I raise crops to feed my cattle and just market the surplus.

 

[BFE]

In a non drought year with average demand I can buy hay cheaper than I can produce it. Which is great except that it leaves you at the mercy of the market.
The vast majority of farmers around here are row crop guys with a few cows. I am just the opposite. I raise crops to feed my cattle and just market the surplus.

I do both. I normally wet bale wheat/rye/triticale and then plant corn or beans behind. Buy some hay, have a couple small fescue patches I get a few from. Graze cornstalks.

 

[ClinchValley86]

Agreed!

I bale some on rented ground. Rent is cheap here though. No way I'm making it any cheaper than I can buy it, which is $40 per roll. But it is high quality hay. I'm pretty OCD when I'm making hay.

I am thinking hard about planting a cool season mix on some ground where the fescue has been grazed very hard this year. Don't know if it'll make much stockpile or not. We are getting rain now though.