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SC Wisconsin | My uncle has a waste hauling business, pumping septic tanks and food processing waste from 4 local food facilities. He and dad built a 3 million gallon slurrystore at dads farm and it gets pumped out 4 or 5 times per year. It goes on dads ground and some of mine, its really high in N so makes for cheap inputs. There is no cost to me or dad as far as pumping or product, we supply the place to dispose of it. Other than having to wait a week to plant to let it dry out sometimes it works really well and yields are excellent.. The pumping business itself has grown like crazy the last couple years so my uncle bought another 250 acres a few miles away and they are putting the finishing touches on a 6 million gallon concrete pit. Well that pit isn't even done yet and he has another couple food processing plants that want him to take their waste. Currently bringing in about 100k gallons per day, 7 days a week. With 9 million gallons of storage, that's only 90 days from empty to plumb full.. That's the backstory.
Here's my question-the land he recently purchased to inject this stuff on is still being cash cropped by the previous tenants. They don't do silage, and my uncle would like to have about 80 acres in silage so they have somewhere to pump in the early fall before corn and beans come off everything else. I currently feed shell corn and pellets to my holsteins, and hay to my cow/calf herd. He asked if i would be interested in renting the 80 of silage ground and do a rye/corn silage rotation. I only have 20 some cows, but I want to expand there as well as keep feeding out the calves and possibly start buying some too. We haven't talked dollars rent yet, but I know the current tenant pays 250 an acre which I would say is average for our area. I havent put a pencil to it yet, but I would think it would pencil well as I wouldn't have to buy any or very little N and I think rent would be adjusted down a little. The ground is about 4 miles from my place. So if you had the opportunity to do something like this, what would you do? I dont need 2000 tons of corn silage plus the rye, but I would grow into it if needed by buying more cows or feeding more calves. Pasture is limited around here so feeding cheaper corn silage in lots might pencil better than trying to buy or rent pasture.
Are there any other crops you might consider working better in this system? I did consider sudan and rye rotation as well but since he wants to remove as much N as possible I think corn silage would work better. Any other concerns or questions i should bring up?? He asked me about it today, i told him i needed to do some research(ask on agtalk) and we will get together some time next week on it.. Give me your guys thoughts.
Edited by jcolli140 2/17/2021 12:13
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Cheap feed opportunity? Or is it a bad idea?
