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West Chazy, New York | Selling silage is difficult; you have to have a buyer who can take it at harvest time or you have to store it yourself and weigh it out as it is fed. You can't take silage out of the silo except as you feed it, so there is no delivering six months worth of feed to a customer at one time. Silage is wonderful feed if you have your own livestock or are closely coordinated with a livestock operation. It is not as marketable as grain. If you have a bin of corn ready to sell you can call all the buyers within a reasonable trucking distance and decide who to sell to or let it in your bin. Corn is corn in most cases, and the price is easily calculated by test weight and grade. Silage is more variable and harder to set a price. You can line up trucks and run around the clock if the truckers want to and deliver all or as much of your corn as you and the buyer agree on. Silage has to be taken out every day in the amount that will be fed that day, and that includes Sunday mornings when there is a foot of snow on the ground and Friday when you want to take off for your anniversary. It does recover more nutrients, and can gross more dollars, but it limits your flexibility and requires another level of management to make it successful. | |
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Why is silage not more popular than dry grain?
