Straw may become cheaper

Feldspar · Jul 19, 2018

Renaultman said:
If you get 2 bales per acre it's crap if you get 20 it's good

That's about the level of my knowledge!

When people talk about rotary combines smashing up straw, if you're selling per bale going to a power station, does the person buying want the straw smashed up so they get a greater density? Equally, how worthwhile is it to the farmer to make sure their combine isn't smashing up straw? I.e. how many more bales can you get out of a given crop if you don't smash it up?

Chae1 · Jul 19, 2018

3000 acres of straw just appeared on TFF classifieds! Hope your right Willy.

Feldspar · Jul 19, 2018

Should I look further than just selling straw in the swath? Is it worth paying a contractor to bale it and then trying to sell it myself? Apologies for rookie questions. Have 800ac of oats, wheat and spring barley that I could bale.

Derrick Hughes · Jul 19, 2018

Feldspar said:
Should I look further than just selling straw in the swath? Is it worth paying a contractor to bale it and then trying to sell it myself? Apologies for rookie questions. Have 800ac of oats, wheat and spring barley that I could bale.

what are you being offered in the swath

Renaultman · Jul 19, 2018

Feldspar said:
Should I look further than just selling straw in the swath? Is it worth paying a contractor to bale it and then trying to sell it myself? Apologies for rookie questions. Have 800ac of oats, wheat and spring barley that I could bale.

The easy option is to sell it in the swath, organising balers, handling and storage etc can be a PIA Not sure how you are set up though so can't comment. There was an interesting thread about this that I think @Clive started not long ago.

Feldspar · Jul 19, 2018

Forage Trader said:
what are you being offered in the swath

£13.5 per bale. And most embarrassingly I'm now having a crisis of confidence over what size of bale that's for. I think they were Hesstons (standard Ely power station size if that helps!), but need to check.

puntabrava · Jul 19, 2018

Feldspar said:
Should I look further than just selling straw in the swath? Is it worth paying a contractor to bale it and then trying to sell it myself? Apologies for rookie questions. Have 800ac of oats, wheat and spring barley that I could bale.

All sounds far too stressful to be bothered with for you, I will offer you a weeks stay at the hotel Tramontano, Sorrento with a sea view overlooking the bay of Naples to chill out pre drilling and take the 800 acre nightmare off your paws.

Feldspar · Jul 19, 2018

Renaultman said:
The easy option is to sell it in the swath, organising balers, handling and storage etc can be a PIA Not sure how you are set up though so can't comment. There was an interesting thread about this that I think @Clive started not long ago.

Thanks. Normally don't pay any attention to baling because we wanted the residue, didn't want lots of traffic when direct drilling etc. Now we have nice dry fields that will take traffic and plan to do more cultivation this year (if it ever rains), it is now more of an option. Do worry about balers bring in weed seeds to our cleaner fields.

Derrick Hughes · Jul 19, 2018

Feldspar said:
£13.5 per bale. And most embarrassingly I'm now having a crisis of confidence over what size of bale that's for. I think they were Hesstons (standard Ely power station size if that helps!), but need to check.

Its a risky business baling to stack on headlands, you have no guarantee anyone will take it , if you have sheds thats another matter

DRC · Jul 19, 2018

Some of these swaths of wheat will break up to nothing if it stays dry. Will be very brittle stuff. So buying by the acre in swath will be a big gamble . Weigh a bale or two and sell by the ton. Fair to everyone.

Feldspar · Jul 19, 2018

Forage Trader said:
Its a risky business baling to stack on headlands, you have no guarantee anyone will take it , if you have sheds thats another matter

Not enough shed space for any sizeable quantity. Had 300ac of barley straw done already as a trial and that stack is pretty large. Although I understand 800 bales is not actually that good a result.

Goodbeef · Jul 19, 2018

Sooner or later folk buying straw will realise there just isn’t going to be the quantity there! Yields will be all over the place because of the last 12 months weather and a lot of cereal crops are being made into wholecrop because of a lack of forage.

Flat 10 · Jul 19, 2018

Feldspar said:
Been offered £13.50 per bale by Rands for wheat straw in the row. How do I work out if this is a reasonable price or not?

It’s reasonable

Flat 10 · Jul 19, 2018

Feldspar said:
£13.5 per bale. And most embarrassingly I'm now having a crisis of confidence over what size of bale that's for. I think they were Hesstons (standard Ely power station size if that helps!), but need to check.

They will be hesstons. Advert on here somewhere and a chap in cambs was offering 15 for a 4x3 bale which is going some

John Slejpner · Jul 19, 2018

We (straw game rookies) need a "bale academy".

Hesstons, 4x3, quads etc...all i know is a pitchfork is useless with any of them.
(A longtime ago when i was a teen i was expert in hay that came out of "the baler" - a Welger AP45 - no other machine counted as a baler)

DeeGee · Jul 19, 2018

puntabrava said:
All sounds far too stressful to be bothered with for you, I will offer you a weeks stay at the hotel Tramontano, Sorrento with a sea view overlooking the bay of Naples to chill out pre drilling and take the 800 acre nightmare off your paws.

Such philanthropy is a credit to you, if only more of us were so generous.

Badshot · Jul 19, 2018

£13.50 is nowhere near enough for me to get interested in having straw baled. I'd sooner have the nutrients and om recycling back to the soil.
Makes it barely £25/t. And folk wonder why we don't bother baling.

DeeGee · Jul 19, 2018

John Slejpner said:
We (straw game rookies) need a "bale academy".

Hesstons, 4x3, quads etc...all i know is a pitchfork is useless with any of them.
(A longtime ago when i was a teen i was expert in hay that came out of "the baler" - a Welger AP45 - no other machine counted as a baler)

Too right, far too many bale sizes nowadays, just like light bulbs.

Used to be all small bales when we were young and when woolly mammoths used to fetch upwards of ten bob a hundredweight at Mold store sales. Light bulbs were all 60W or 100W or maybe 150W if you were really posh.

Nowadays it takes you several hours of searching acres of displays to find something that will illuminate a new reading lamp without the risk of fusing the National Grid. As for mammoths, trade has died off, haven’t seen any at all in Mold since last year.

d williams · Jul 20, 2018

Feldspar said:
Been offered £13.50 per bale by Rands for wheat straw in the row. How do I work out if this is a reasonable price or not?

Depends on the bales.?

DeeGee · Jul 20, 2018

Feldspar said:
Been offered £13.50 per bale by Rands for wheat straw in the row. How do I work out if this is a reasonable price or not?

Sounds okay, at about 100 bales per acre from a Welger 630 it’s not a bad return. Tell them you’ll think about it, but that you have several other people who are interested. They may stretch to £15 to be sure of getting it.

Straw may become cheaper

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Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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