By-products remain in demand on the roughage market

The demand for by-products and residual products remains good. Potato press fiber is readily available. Some traders report that they could use even more of potato steam peels and chips than is currently available. Feed potatoes are hardly available. The DCA Indicative Price remains at €40 per tonne.

Beer spent grain also remains popular. Several traders report healthy demand for this product. The price of spent grain remains the same as last week at €2,75 per percent dry matter.

Average straw harvest
The straw harvest is coming to an end. The last straw is still being collected under fairly good conditions. This will gradually make it clear how much straw is available. The top yields expected at the start of the season have not been achieved. Too much straw has been chopped for that. But the returns are not really disappointing either. Farmers with straw in their sheds have confidence in the market and hope that the price will increase during the course of the season.

The DCA Indicative Price for wheat straw this week amounts to €120 per tonne. That is €5 higher than last week. Barley straw is also priced at €120 per tonne. The supply of barley straw is on the meager side and some traders even charge more for barley straw than for wheat straw.

Little nice grass seed hay
Good grass seed hay is difficult to obtain even though there is demand for it. Several traders have chopped grass seed hay that has been lying too long. The mediocre hay that is pressed is mainly sold as bedding. For good red fescue, the DCA Indication Price is €150 per tonne. The price for perennial ryegrass is €130 per tonne. Reed fescue and Veldbeemd are in between at €140 per tonne.

The meadow hay trade is quiet. With the current good weather, some hay is expected in the coming days. Demand remains stable and mainly comes from horse farming. The DCA Indicative Price remains at €180 per tonne.

Lots of grass silage, but feeding is also difficult
Silage grass is rarely offered for sale. Traders hear from livestock farmers that the grass in the new pits is growing quite fast. Partly because the nutritional value is somewhat disappointing and partly because due to the relatively high prices of alternatives, quite a lot of silage grass is included in the ration. 'You can always sell, but first let's see if we can manage our stock a bit,' is what many livestock farmers seem to think. Good silage grass remains fairly easy to sell, but when grass is offered it is often of lower quality. The DCA Indicative Price remains the same as last week at €60 per tonne.

The silage maize trade mainly consists of smaller consignments to bridge the weeks until the harvest of the new maize. The DCA Indicative Price for silage maize remains at €70 per tonne. Some insiders expect that the price for corn from the new harvest will not be much lower. Corn is in good condition in large parts of the Netherlands, but prices of other feed materials are high. The expectation is that the corn price will continue to support this in the new season.