As we transition to spring within the coming months, we are going to naturally shift gears and start fascinated about and making ready for 2023 hay manufacturing. It’s troublesome to overstate how necessary it’s for us to have improved forage and hay manufacturing within the Southeast. We hope it will likely be totally different than final yr. In 2022, most Southern states skilled some extent of drought. Enter costs for agricultural chemical substances, gas, supplemental feed, and labor had been all at their highest in latest reminiscence. Because of this, hay manufacturing declined by 16%, 13%, and 20% in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Kentucky, respectively.
A part of planning for this yr’s hay crop is re-examining prices and breakeven costs. This text makes use of outcomes from the 2022 Arkansas Hay Verification Program to look at hay manufacturing prices in Arkansas. The Arkansas Hay Verification Program (AHVP) is a collaborative effort between Arkansas forage producers, county Extension brokers, and state Extension Specialists. Eight hay fields from seven farms participated within the 2022 AHVP and had been all situated within the Ozark district. The whole acreage collaborating in 2022 AHVP was 252.5 acres or 36.1 acres per discipline. Hay manufacturing from the 2022 AHVP totaled 826.2 tons or 3.27 tons per acre. The estimated worth of manufacturing from the 2022 AHVP totaled $127,239.42.
Desk 1 beneath studies abstract data for working prices, whole specified prices, and breakeven costs. Working prices usually embody herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides, gas, customized fee utility, and labor. Hay hauling was assumed to be a separate farm enterprise. Fastened prices embody depreciation, curiosity, and taxes and housing prices on tractors and tools. Whole specified prices equal working prices plus fastened prices. Breakeven costs are whole specified prices divided by per acre manufacturing.
Working prices averaged $375.14/acre with a spread of $192.96/acre – $577.50/acre. Amongst all gadgets, fertilizer represented the most important proportion of working prices. Farms within the 2022 AHVP averaged $244.43/acre on fertilizer (together with poultry litter), with a spread of $92.00/acre – $428.15/acre. Larger fertilizer bills had been positively correlated with per-acre hay yields. A unfavourable correlation was noticed between fertilizer bills and breakeven hay costs. Realized yield positive factors offset the upper prices from making use of fertilizer.
Breakeven costs are calculated by dividing whole specified prices by manufacturing per acre (tons/acre). Word breakeven refers back to the hay value the place income equals prices. The common breakeven value of hay amongst farms within the 2022 AHVP was $111.88/ton. Breakeven costs ranged from $82.72/ton to $160.99/ton. It is suggested that farms get correct estimates for bale weights and value hay on a per-ton foundation. Bales aren’t an ordinary unit of measurement and don’t precisely replicate the worth of manufacturing when priced on that foundation.
Word: These estimates replicate abstract knowledge from eight farms in Arkansas that won’t essentially replicate anyone farm’s scenario.
