Straw Prices

Rebelman said:
Not sure the lack of chopper on combine would definitely prevent you from applying. Can’t see why a person won’t be allowed to cut crop a bit higher, ted out rows and give it a run of a disc harrow to break it up and work it in. Personally I think scheme should really be called straw incorporation scheme. As long as straw is going back into the ground don’t think the method of doing it will matter but obviously we’ll find out for sure when the finer details are published. Also there’s the option of tractor mounted chopper.l
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Hopefully that will be the case because I would like to partake to experiment with the results of incorporation if nothing else.
I suppose any remaining old tractor straw choppers have jumped in value. They were scarce already.
 
I expect very little barley straw will be chopped. Growers will feel that values will rise as everyone else will chop.
Wheat & oat straw will be the majority of the chopped straw in my opinion.
 
Cork said:
As before, straw has shown itself to be as contentious as Trump.

(Some) Farmers hate to feel that they are paying other farmers enough to make a decent profit.
Yet, if Nitrogen fertiliser goes to €300/tn there isn’t half the talk about it because it isn’t a farmer selling it.

Meaness & begrudgery is a lot of it.
A farmer in Limerick once told me that the hot topic in his area every summer is guys boasting how cheap they bought the straw for.

A dairy farmer friend of mine was telling me that he couldn’t believe the nasty begrudery that he saw within a livestock farming organisation in 2018 when fodder & straw prices went high.

I’ve no sympathy. It’s called supply and demand. If you don’t like the price of something then don’t buy it.
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Absolutely spot on.....
 
Like anything I suppose you cant paint everyone with the same brush either, I have a lot of good repeat customers who will tell you plenty of time in advance what they need, collect it when it should be collected and never an issue collecting money. When straw is scarce I try not to rise it much, when its plentiful I wont drop it much and try to keep middle of the road price. There are also plenty of lads out there that I'm glad I have no dealings with. Straw has a direct cost in terms of nutrient removal, baling, handling etc but also it's a missed opportunity to return organic matter to the soil, so economics of removing straw need to reflect this.
 
So, getting back to figures and leaving emotion to one side.

If one is to chop the straw of say spring barley, you get €100/ac into your account without having to ask for it. You get €20/ac of nutrients. So €120/ac.
You have to chop it (let’s say €8/ac) and incorporate it (not everyone will but let’s say €15/ac). Net gain is €97, let’s say €100 allowing for gradual soil texture improvement.
You have no turning straw and fretting about baling weather, no baling compaction (these definitely have an additional value).

The same field might produce 9 rounds per acre. Let’s say a baling cost of €3.50? Probably more. Most likely give the straw a stir to dry it.

You’d need €15/bale off the field minimum to break even compared to chopping it.

The lack of compaction/hassle/stress would have a notable value and will vary with the year.

The sums will vary with the other crops and if the scheme is oversubscribed the payment rate is probably reduced but based on those sums it is certainly encouraging.

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That’s exactly how I was calculating it during the week. I was thinking tho at €15 break even price, how much extra would I want to go to the hassle of baling the straw and therefore I’m planning on telling my customers that straw will be €20 bale minimum....anything less and I will be planning on chopping.
 
Rebelman said:
That’s exactly how I was calculating it during the week. I was thinking tho at €15 break even price, how much extra would I want to go to the hassle of baling the straw and therefore I’m planning on telling my customers that straw will be €20 bale minimum....anything less and I will be planning on chopping.
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€20 was what I was thinking too.
 
Even if the scheme is oversubscribed, let’s say there’s twice as many acres and payment is halved, that’s still €50 acre PROFIT plus all the above benefits that Cork mentioned. Over 100 acres that’s €5000....not to be sniffed at.
 
Rebelman said:
That’s exactly how I was calculating it during the week. I was thinking tho at €15 break even price, how much extra would I want to go to the hassle of baling the straw and therefore I’m planning on telling my customers that straw will be €20 bale minimum....anything less and I will be planning on chopping.
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Same here. If you got caught with heavy rows of wet straw by the time it'd be dry a lot of the extra fiver would be gone and you'd be sorry it wasn't chopped. The only slight concern I'd have is it's only a 2 year scheme and I'd plan on trying as best I can to play ball with my Good customers so long as they do too.
 
I’m planning on trying to be as fair as I can with my customers too so the next time I see any of them I will be saying that my straw will be €20 minimum and if their not happy with it, there will be no hard feelings but I would just want to give them time to try to find an alternative supplier.
 
no name said:
Same here. If you got caught with heavy rows of wet straw by the time it'd be dry a lot of the extra fiver would be gone and you'd be sorry it wasn't chopped. The only slight concern I'd have is it's only a 2 year scheme and I'd plan on trying as best I can to play ball with my Good customers so long as they do too.
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My view is that one could chop a proportion of the straw. While still having some for the good customers.
 
Cork said:
Also, if someone is renting land on an annual basis, the nutritional value of the straw may not be taken into account as they don’t know if they’ll be working the land in the long term.
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That could also be an issue in the rental market....if I was renting my land I’d be a lot more inclined to give it to someone who was gonna chop the straw and not flog the ground.
 
Maps & forms could get fairly messy if headlands had to be put into separate plots especially if ur not across the desk from the planner this year. Would be good if you could nominate headlands on a field plot & a percentage of the field was given according to headland width. Planner once told me that the more you sub divide plots the more area you’re going to lose.
 
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