Numbers VS Common Sense

[The Don]

I read an article that stated that the "average" silage would have 7.5 bushel of grain per ton of silage. If corn is worth $9.00 a bushel that would be $67.50 a ton for the grain. What am I not seeing here?

[DaneG]

All depends on as fed tons or dry matter tons!



https://www.ruralrootscanada.com/bcrc-silage-cost-of-production/

[The Don]

Can you explain that table and reference to me. I'm not following what you / they are saying.

[The Don]

I read that as they had to add 10 % to the yield of the silage to make it competitive with the hay.
They are using Manitoba Agriculture numbers for a reference. Manitoba Agriculture uses a 175 hp MFW tractor that they bought for $50 k. Where can I buy one of those that isn't 45 years old? And is reliable without costing a pile of cash to rebuild and maintain?
Look hard at the numbers they use. They are all low.
The 7.5 bu per ton number is valid for 65% moisture silage.
A silage crop should yield at least 90 bu / acre . When the grain yield drops below 90 bu the tonnage and quality of the silage drops substantially. Or so I understand.
The numbers that I looked at showed silage corn production at about $830 US / acre. American costs are all lower than Canadian. They are using $440 as a bench mark.
Whose numbers can you trust?
If 15 ton x 7.5 bu = 112.5 bu x $9.00 = $1,012.5 grain Would feeding that to a group of cows result in a higher income? would there be a profit?

[The Don]

Guess what...

It's a miracle!!!

[The Don]

Did anyone notice that the same table is different on different days?
When I posted the table on 9 December 2022 the number posted as, 2022 @ January 1 was 6440.
The same table posted 7 March 2023 showed the number posted as, 2022 @ January 1 as 6420.
Those tables are direct from Statscan.
I wonder what the actual / real number is.