This time of year is usually not the busiest period in the forage trade. This year is no exception. With the corn harvest completed and the grazing season at the end, the roughage has come to an end. This does not mean that no information is given about food.
The market for by-products remains fairly stable. That may be different these weeks with the supply of campaign products such as pressed pulp and potato press fiber at a peak. This week, the vast majority of by-products easily find their way to livestock farmers. The fact that the yields of beets and starch potatoes have sometimes been better has of course also had something to do with this. Some producers, such as beer brewers or potato processors, are adjusting maintenance stops, which means that the market is certainly not oversupplied, to put it mildly. The DCA Indicative Price for spent grain remains the same as last week at €4,10 per percent dry matter.
Feed potatoes are difficult to obtain. There is enough messing around to get French fries potatoes out of the ground. As long as it still looks a bit like a potato, it goes to the processing industry. If it is no longer possible to make fries from it, it still goes to the flakes, whether or not via the laundry. "You can't do anything for feed with potatoes that you can already smell when you drive into the yard and that almost run out of the car when loading," says a trader. The DCA Indicative Price for feed potatoes has increased to €60 per tonne.
There is quite a bit of trade in straw for this time of year. Some traders still have to complete some deliveries for balls of straw or for covering on carrots. Deterred by poor quality and high prices, some livestock farmers bought straw on the poor side last summer. It doesn't look like straw prices will drop. Some forage traders notice that there is more information about straw and that this also results in trade. The DCA Indicative Price is €135 per tonne for both wheat and barley straw.
Quality makes the difference
Interest remains in good silage from the first or second cut. However, the supply of really good grass remains meager. What is offered often concerns late autumn grass and there is little or no interest in that. Perhaps that will come towards the end of winter when it becomes clear whether we will have an early or late spring and some livestock farmers will be short on feed. The DCA Indicative Price for good silage this week amounts to €60 per tonne.
There is hardly any trade in silage maize and grass seed hay. The corn harvest has only just ended and most livestock farmers have enough for the time being. The DCA Indicative Price remains unchanged at €85 per tonne. With grass seed hay, supply is the limiting factor. Due to the changeable weather, a lot less grass seed hay has been pressed and this of course remains noticeable in the forage trade. The DCA Indicative Price for grass seed hay is €170, regardless of variety.