Straw in the wind as price rises but light crop hits profits

Alistair Hodnett, director of Forfar-based fodder merchants John Guthrie Ltd, said yesterday that he was seeing many barley fields producing only about half a tonne per acre of straw compared with a more normal yield of two and three times that.

"A lot of straw is only about ten inches high and you go a long way in a baler before you get a big bale."

If that was the downside, the opposite is true of price, where Hodnett considers the present level of "in the middle 60s" will hold. "I do not see any fodder becoming any cheaper."

Part of the demand for straw is fuelled from the traditional sales to livestock farmers in the west side of the country where it will cost around about 100 per tonne when transport costs are added to the ex field value.

Nowadays a fair percentage of the east coast straw goes on carrot crop protection through the winter. In order to protect carrots from frost up to 40 big round bales are needed per acre. At a bale cost of about 25 that adds considerably to the crop expenses.

Hodnett said he had only just started baling wheat straw but believed yields were closer to average. Normally wheat straw is discounted quite heavily compared with softer barley straw but this is not the case this year with only about 5 per tonne between the two.

In fact such has been the demand for straw that, unusually, a big acreage of oil seed rape has been baled with prices for this more brittle straw rising to 40 per tonne.

Although some farmers have taken off their straw choppers from the combines, others have resisted this move as the cost of potash is also rising and the sale of straw also sells some of the available potash.

Some who have traditionally chopped straw may also be caught out with the very rushed baling of straw immediately behind the combine.

In extremely dry weather this produces no problems but straw baled on some of the dampish days last week might be slightly "matted" when the bales are opened up