Cutting out the middlemen is a proven way to improve profitability and is fairly easy to do when it comes to farm to farm sales of crops such as high moisture corn and corn silage.  If you are considering selling or buying any type of crop, there are a few things to keep in mind as you get ready for the transaction. Of course, first you need to find a willing partner.  Talk to neighbors.  Let extension agents, nutritionists, crop insurance personnel, feed mills, agronomists, etc… know that you have crops which you would be willing to sell to get the word out.  There are also opportunities to do newspaper ads, use commercial internet sites, or the state-wide farmertofarmer.extension.wisc.edu web site.

Figure out sales contract points ahead of time. Making a handshake deal and saying ‘We’ll figure it out.’ might work for some situations, but it also creates opportunity for problems.  Make up a (simple) written contract. Include how it is being sold, price per unit, who is doing what regarding harvest operations, date ranges, payment methodology, etc… You don’t need to hire a lawyer to get this done, but getting a second opinion from someone (Extension, agronomist, nutritionist) is probably worth it. Pricing starts with current hay/straw prices and current grain prices, but there are other quality/quantity factors that you need to consider.  Call Scott Reuss at 715-701-0966 if you need assistance with contract wording or yield estimates.  Having scales and getting accurate weights is optimum, but per acre prices can be figured out.

Settling on a price is not always the hardest part of working out a sale, but it can be the stickiest portion sometimes.  Selling high moisture corn is pretty straight forward, as the value of the product is very easily compared to the value of dry corn.  The spreadsheet shows how to account for actual moisture and agreed-upon grain price to give you the price per ton of as-harvested corn.  If you have questions on using the spreadsheets, email scott.reuss@wisc.edu

Corn Silage pricing can be a bit trickier, as there are many different methods that can justifiably be used to put an economic value to a ton of corn silage.  Some say that it is 10 to 12 times the current price of a bushel of dry grain. Other farms have gone to starch analysis after the silage is harvested to set the final price based on calculation of grain equivalency.  Any method that leads to an agreed-upon value through which both farms ‘win’ is a good thing, in my book.  That said, the silage pricing excel spreadsheet gives price estimates based on 7.5 bushels of grain equivalency and adding in the fertilizer replacement value of the stover.

NOTE: These prices are based on the seller doing the harvesting, if buyer is harvesting those costs need to be deducted from the prices herein.
Silage pricing chart 2024
HMC pricing – 2024