There are no major shifts in the roughage market yet. Prices remain stable at a relatively high level. In large parts of the country, livestock farmers still seem to have sufficient feed. Due to the high prices, they only want to make up for a shortage if it actually turns out that there is insufficient feed until the grazing season.
According to most traders, the mood in the forage trade is wait-and-see, but certainly not bad. Livestock farmers expect the grazing season to start quickly, especially with the current nice weather. There is a limited supply of roughage and demand is slightly higher. The high prices mean that livestock farmers buy smaller quantities of feed than in other years. In most cases, an extra load is not included.
Good silage grass remains in demand
Silage grass is currently being offered more often. Livestock farmers who have enough silage want to benefit from the high prices on the feed market. However, many holes are of lower quality, wetter autumn grass. That's a harder sell. The suppliers have (too) high prices in mind for this lower quality. Good silage grass remains in demand. For good quality silage grass, an average of €70 per tonne is charged free of charge.
The supply of corn remains fairly stable. Due to the high prices, there is not much trading. Livestock farmers who are currently in short supply have to and do buy, but there is sometimes more trade happening around this time. The price remains stable this week at €70 per tonne.
Feed potatoes remain stable this week at €42,50 per tonne. Traders do note that there is only a limited supply. In other years there were often more feed potatoes available. Beer spent grain remains as popular and the price remains at €2,90 per percent dry matter.
Little straw available
A reasonably good person likes to stay on straw. The supply is slowly starting to dry up. Most forage traders can still supply through their own stock or through permanent contacts in, for example, Germany and France. Wheat straw sells for an average of €145 per tonne. Barley straw is approximately €5 per ton cheaper from most traders.
Meadow hay also remains in demand and, like straw, there is not much supply. There is a large variation in the price. Good quality hay costs an average of €200 per tonne. Less good hay is easily a few tens of euros cheaper per tonne. There is not much trade in grass seed hay at the moment. The price remains the same as last week at €150 per tonne.