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S Illinois | Just looking at the data and limiting it to 17-20 then yes it’s out of place, but when expanded to include more prior years, the silage/grain acres breakdown shift in 17 and especially 2018 look out of place. So the question then becomes what changed so that silage acres went up almost 50%. That’s seems odd.
A couple plausible options come to mind. Price is one. Does corn price play a part. Are higher prices and guarantees causing a shift in what is harvest for grain so that when grain is cheap, silage is a better net and the opposite being true when corn prices are higher.
The other is weather whether it be planting or harvest of corn or the availability of forage or alternative feed sources. Was it 2017 or 2018 where there was lots of flooding in WI? Was at Lake Geneva one of those summers when there was like a 7” or 8” rain and extreme flooding and that park just down from the spillway was underwater. Would imagine with the moisture that summer, putting up quality forage was difficult and could lead to a push to make up the lack of feed. | |
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Example of USDA looking at data and not seeing something isn't right here
