RiverSide Cattle
Active member
With the fertilizer price increasing it has got me thinking, ad I wanted to bounce my thoughts off you and get your ideas:
Hay Production: Using timothy grass or mixed grass hay fields because they use the most fertilizer:
average yield is 2.5 to 3 tons per acre.
costs: (all per acre then per ton using 2.5 tons per acre yield)
rent: $50per acre / 20 per ton
Fert: for 40-0-6 $700 a ton applied at 150 lbs per acre: $52.5 per acre / $21 per ton
custom haying: (what I charge to cut, rake, bale, and pickup small squares) $150 per acre / $60 per ton
weed control: 15 per acre / 6 per ton
Value of hay: total costs: $267.50 per acre / $107 per ton
Note: this is for small squares stacked within 1 mile of the field: Round bales would be a little less more like 97 a ton depening on how far they need to be moved to be stacked.
My point in all of this is even at $700 a ton fert is still only around 20% of production costs. It isn't increasing much more than the cost of rent, fuel, labor, equipment or even the value of the hay to be sold. My assumption is that it is increasing more for pasture because the vaule of the harvester (cattle) isn't keeping pace. However, around here we feed hay more than pasture so hay is where our biggest cost is. Also I sell more hay than I feed so it is a large portion of my income:
5 years ago fert was $350 a ton and hay production costs were around $60 a ton making cost around 17.5%
So here is my point: I will still be fertilizing as much as I always do and hope the rest of my competition doesn't so supply will be down and the price of hay that I sell will stay high enough to put some beans and rice on my table Because ultimately the price is set by the demand vs the supply.
Note: hay is costing $140 a ton right if you can find it. Last year I sold all I had out of the field for $110 a ton could have gotten more but didn't think so at the time.
Now onto pasture: The opposite is true: Production cost (fertilizer) is increasing and our product (beef) vaule is steady to decreasing: So if you, like I do, feed hay we will watch the price of our production climb and our profit decrease:
What would you do???? Fertilize or not??? (the pastures that is) Or reduce cattle numbers and sell more hay?
RSC
Hay Production: Using timothy grass or mixed grass hay fields because they use the most fertilizer:
average yield is 2.5 to 3 tons per acre.
costs: (all per acre then per ton using 2.5 tons per acre yield)
rent: $50per acre / 20 per ton
Fert: for 40-0-6 $700 a ton applied at 150 lbs per acre: $52.5 per acre / $21 per ton
custom haying: (what I charge to cut, rake, bale, and pickup small squares) $150 per acre / $60 per ton
weed control: 15 per acre / 6 per ton
Value of hay: total costs: $267.50 per acre / $107 per ton
Note: this is for small squares stacked within 1 mile of the field: Round bales would be a little less more like 97 a ton depening on how far they need to be moved to be stacked.
My point in all of this is even at $700 a ton fert is still only around 20% of production costs. It isn't increasing much more than the cost of rent, fuel, labor, equipment or even the value of the hay to be sold. My assumption is that it is increasing more for pasture because the vaule of the harvester (cattle) isn't keeping pace. However, around here we feed hay more than pasture so hay is where our biggest cost is. Also I sell more hay than I feed so it is a large portion of my income:
5 years ago fert was $350 a ton and hay production costs were around $60 a ton making cost around 17.5%
So here is my point: I will still be fertilizing as much as I always do and hope the rest of my competition doesn't so supply will be down and the price of hay that I sell will stay high enough to put some beans and rice on my table Because ultimately the price is set by the demand vs the supply.
Note: hay is costing $140 a ton right if you can find it. Last year I sold all I had out of the field for $110 a ton could have gotten more but didn't think so at the time.
Now onto pasture: The opposite is true: Production cost (fertilizer) is increasing and our product (beef) vaule is steady to decreasing: So if you, like I do, feed hay we will watch the price of our production climb and our profit decrease:
What would you do???? Fertilize or not??? (the pastures that is) Or reduce cattle numbers and sell more hay?
RSC