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Pricing Standing Corn Silage - Mobile App

Greg Blonde

Summary

A third to three-quarters of the feed consumed by more than 1.2 million dairy cows in WI comes from corn silage, and it’s not unusual to find corn silage as the only source of feed for many WI beef cattle. It’s a unique and important feed providing a significant source of energy and fiber for dairy and beef cattle across the state and nation. Nearly a quarter of all four million acres of corn planted in WI were harvested as silage with an estimated market value between a quarter and a half billion dollars. However, like hay, there’s no established commodity market for corn silage like there is for corn or soybeans. Pricing standing corn silage is even more difficult than pricing standing hay, because the grower often has the option of letting the corn crop mature and selling it for grain, but additional cost must be considered as well.

To help evaluate options and determine a fair price when buying or selling standing corn for silage, a mobile app was developed for both Android and Apple (iOS) mobile devices for both field and office use. Features include:

• Silage yield estimator based on corn grain yield potential.
• Ceiling price for buyer based on forage & grain value, silage yield, less silage harvest and storage loss.
• Floor price for grower based on grain value and yield, grain harvest/drying cost, and added fertility removal from whole plant corn silage.
• Quick link button to local elevator corn grain bid prices and current hay market reports.
• Help buttons to estimate silage or grain yield.
• Current WI Custom Rate Guide for silage and grain harvest costs.
• Calculates both wet and dry matter price per ton, as well as price per acre for buyer and seller.
• “Share” button to email inputs and results.
• Free on Google Play and Apple store (1,000+ users since 2016).

Details

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