Ouch!!! Fertilizer prices.........

[jwcinpk]

Funny, was talking to a guy from Arkansas the other day and he said 5x5 rolls there were still around $20.

Wonder about the price of alternative fertilizers such as chicken litter. It will be next year, but I will have 250 tons of litter to fertilize with or sell/trade.

 

[mark.r]

We are/have been paying 55.00 for 5x5 round bales over the winter. As for fertilizer, I just beat the rain. I put down 950lbs yesterday. That cost me 455.00. I can't imagine having to buy 3 tons. Plus I could shovel 3 tons out fo the back of my pickup.

 

[HayDR]

Funny, was talking to a guy from Arkansas the other day and he said 5x5 rolls there were still around $20.

Wonder about the price of alternative fertilizers such as chicken litter. It will be next year, but I will have 250 tons of litter to fertilize with or sell/trade.

Chicken litter is bringing $100 for 8 tons within a 20 mile delivery range. It is expected to go to $150 for 8 tons delivered.

 

[jwcinpk]

Chicken litter is bringing $100 for 8 tons within a 20 mile delivery range. It is expected to go to $150 for 8 tons delivered.

I told folks that it smelled like money. If I build my 2nd set I will have 500 tons of litter a year.
Now if I can just find someone to buy it or lease some more land.

 

[chh]

The same story on hay here in OK. Still a large surplus after all the rain last year. I finally got all my surplus sold. Right now you can buy hay cheaper than what the custom rate will be to have it baled this summer. Our wonderful Attorney General is slowly running the chicken houses out of our area. There is more demand for litter than supply.

 

[jimg]

There will be no more cheap hay in the Carolinas, KY, TN, GA & AL. Because of the drought there are not hay stocks left. Now production costs of hay has increased dramatically and demand will be at a premium you can expect 4x5 round bales to start in the $50 range for grass hay. Small square bales of grass hay will bring in the $8.00 range this summer. I have seen small square alfalfa bales sell for $20 each this winter. Fertilizer looks cheap at $660 a ton when 5x5 round bales are bring $100 each now.

Interesting predictions!!!!

Dont think the entire SE is going to be hit so hard w/ drought this yr at least according to the long range forecasts by the Climate Prediction Center. E TN looks OK so far, plenty of soil moisture + mostly above avg or equal chance rainfall for the next 120 days w/ above avg temps. Hope that pans out.

 

[Luremaker]

I was quoted $700 a tonne (2200lbs) for triple 19 2 weeks ago and was told it will be going up in late March.

Lot's of hay being trucked south of the border over the past few weeks. I have not seen so much hay being moved around in years. Brokers have ads in the newspapers wanting to buy large rounds and squares. Not sure what they are paying for bales right now.

 

[jwcinpk]

I know I lost a couple of leases this year because folks thought that since hay brought $50 a roll last year it will again this year. Their thinking was that since people were getting more for hay they should get more for their lease. They don't factor in that I was getting 150 rolls a year on a feild and last year only about 50. 50 rolls at $50 is $2500. Years past I got $20 a roll for 150 rolls or $3000. Their math must work different than mine. Fertilizer prices through the roof, fuel at $3.50 a gallon, twine at double what it was a few years ago, and now they want twice what I was paying for the lease. I gave $1000 a year for a good mixed grass pasture that is 38 acres. I spent atleast another $1000 on fertilizer for it. I put 52 tons of lime on it last year at $270 per 26 tons. Add fuel and twine to the mix and my time is worth nothing. I was getting rich! Good luck to some other sucker! I think I'll roll or buy enough to feed a few cows through the winter and square a few for horses and calves and save the $7 an hour I'd have to pay somebody else to work in the chickenhouses while I was out in the hay feild. Yep I'll hang out here in the air conditioning gathering eggs and saving $7 an hour and let some other fool get rich! Ah the plight of a farmer!

 

[jimg]

I wonder how corn & soybean prices are going to play into the hay market -- if at all. Ive heard that currently 'fallow' acreage is going to be converted. If that 'fallow' ground is making hay then even less will be available for deficit areas like mine. Then again w/ the cost of shipping that might not even play into the equation. Any ideas?

 

[mark.r]

I wonder how corn & soybean prices are going to play into the hay market -- if at all. Ive heard that currently 'fallow' acreage is going to be converted. If that 'fallow' ground is making hay then even less will be available for deficit areas like mine. Then again w/ the cost of shipping that might not even play into the equation. Any ideas?

Very good question. The guy we buy round bales from told me that he works about 1200 acres each year. I asked him specifically about square bales since that is my interests. I like his answer for my own selfish reason which was he only does about 5000/yr and that is only because he has a horse farm that buys them right off the wagon, otherwise he would do them. The round bales are done for his herd and then he sales what he doesn't use. These of his land is soil bean and corn since that brings in higher prices. Of course that was last year. Who knows what this year will bring.