Anyone noticing major feed price increases recently?

Bob, you do know that 50# is around a bushel right?

One bushel is 56 lbs.

But then again, that's not cracked, prepacked "feed corn" which IS running around 6.50 a 50lb bag.

If you are getting it at 3.50 - 3.75 you are buying it for almost what the farmers are selling it (whole, not cracked) for, which as i posted elsewhere is 3.33 a bushel around here.

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Bob, getting corn cracked is cheap. Buy a load of corn from a farmer and take it to a mill to have it cracked. You will save a ton.

I just got 15 bags and nothing has gone up.

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corn prices are .063¢ a pound I just had 500# mixed up as horse feed and that was for cracked corn and .062¢ for oats a pound. so that isn't bad at all in this area. I had my own receipt for horse feed mixed up and that is what I paid. I was very happy with a price compared to buying Pre Mixed feeds at anywhere form 15 to 25 dollars for a Hundred pounds~! 2---- 50 pound bags of stuff like Omalene and off brand feed at 7.50 for 50 pound bag
Way better to get feed mixed up oneself. As I am feeding a steer mostly this time will be Grain Fed and not grass and hay.. But mostly that grain mix I have made up.

I can crack my own. My statement is just that they are right about the price being 6.50 for a 50# bag here...

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I just enjoy farm topics, so please don't mind if I rattle on on this topic....

You feedman has things mixed up. He has a point, but his facts are a bit off:

Corn is turned into ethanol, which is an additive for gasoline.

Soybeans are crushed to get oil, which is processed into an attived for diesel fuel.

One would get little bio-diesel from corn. It is being processed into ethanol, not bio-diesel.

Making ethanol from corn leaves 14-17lbs of DDG, which is a real good animal feed. Crushing the soybeans leaves more than 1/2 a bu of soybean meal, which is also a good animal feed. So all is not lost with these processes, actually cheap feed _can_ be the result of it once everyone understands it. With the 20+ ethanol plants and 2 soy bio-diesel around me, frankly their biggest fear is trying to get rid of all the feed they are producing in addition to the ethanol. With the crackdown the govt is doing on the livestock industry (NAIS, manure management, COOL, dust abatement, hay registration, etc.) they fear they will lose market areas.

A lot of non-farm folks are investing money into corn futures based on what your feedman is saying. Myself, I believe the demand/supply thing is kinda short term, and prices within 12 months will be back to sub-standard on corn again. That is only my opinion tho.

--->Paul

I'm sure you understand that it really depends were you live. I pay even more than that for cracked corn. But hay is very cheap here. I payed 2.00 for good grass hay 55-60 lbs bales (really green and very fine texture.) I can the round bales for 10 bucks; 15 for the really big ones 1200lbs.

So when I here some people say what they are paying for hay I cringe. It really depends on where you live as to what some commodities cost.

I agree it depends on where you live as how much you pay for something. As I also only pay 2 dollars for a good bale of grass hay grass mixed 2.25.
And as far as that 6.50 for 50 Pounds of corn. I will be less then have half that at $3.10 for that same 50 pounds.
And no this is not up hardly at all from last year because I have friends that buy 50# sacks to feed deer and that is very close to what they bought the corn for last year. Many places around me sell sacks of corn to feed deer as deer hunting starts Next Weekend so they go out and spread corn close to where the deer stands or blinds are.

I compared prices at numerous feed stores in my area and the cheapest I can find is even more than that.

And I'm paying $11/bale for alfalfa.

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Dang, the round ones of grass hay here are over $100.

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gee in my area Round hay bales of grass and or Alfalfa mixed are 25 to 35 depending on the wt. of course.
And in Iowa my friends are getting real good fine grass round bales for 25 Delivered and set in several different places for them too, and those buggers are 1500# ones too~!!! Maybe even somewhat heavier, as those are BIG~! Way bigger then what I can get in my area.

That's like the prices we had a couple years ago. But we're in very severe drouth. Most ranchers have sold off most of their cattle because they can't afford to feed them. A couple years ago everywhere you went cattle were all over the place. Now you hardly ever see any.

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I would recomend that anyone buying feed in areas where they raise corn buy directly from a farmer. These same mills that are selling corn for $6+ a bushel are buying it from local farmers for $3. Luckily I have a great mill. Layer feed is $10.95 per hundred. Game bird starter is less than $8. If you need a place to store it, use 55 gallon drums or an old stock tank.

I wish I had a direct source!! I don't even know the nearest place they grow corn, but it ain't around here. And if they did grow it around here, it would have dried up and blowed away the last couple of years.

Gamebird starter here is $12.50

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This is true, but dried distillers grain and soybean meal are primarily protein. Normally the more expensive part of a feed mix, but this time around it is beginning to look like the carbohydrate portion is what is going to be the more expensive. Typical poultry rations are between 16%-20% protein and most of the rest being carbs. Most other livestock mixes are fairly close. Carbs are what seem to be getting expensive.

.....Alan.

What about wheat or milo?

Perhaps the "going rate" in Minnesota is different then other parts of the country? I know it's more than $3.50 around here, probably closer to $6.50.

I don't know where they grow milo either. This is a wheat growing region, but there was a total crop failure this year. It never rained. The wheat got a few inches tall and then stopped growing. The wheat fields looked so strange. Usually they're so lush and green with cattle grazing, but this time you could see the bare dirt just driving by the fields, it was so sparse. The farmers finally just baled it.

They've started planting for this winter's crop, hopefully it will rain this time around.

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I guess thats the advantage to living on the tattered northern edge of the corn belt........We never get a great crop, but we always get some kind of crop...............lol