Yields Critical to ‘Grow or Buy' Decision

Nov 07, 2019 at 08:23 AM CST + 1
Crop yields are critical to determining whether it’s cheaper to buy feed or grow your own. If you can’t get high yields, it may be cheaper to buy feed. Twenty-five Pennsylvania dairy farmers participated in a cost-of-production study in 2016 and 2017 to look at the issue. Three fourths of these farmers double cropped small grains with corn silage to both minimize field nutrient losses and grow additional forage. Penn State farm management analysts then took yield and financial information from these farms and divided them into high, medium and low profit groups. The high profit groups saw positive returns both years of the study, the medium profit group saw a profit in one year and the low profit group actually had negative returns both years.

Nov 07, 2019 at 08:23 AM CST

+ 1

Crop yields are critical to determining whether it’s cheaper to buy feed or grow your own. If you can’t get high yields, it may be cheaper to buy feed. Twenty-five Pennsylvania dairy farmers participated in a cost-of-production study in 2016 and 2017 to look at the issue. Three fourths of these farmers double cropped small grains with corn silage to both minimize field nutrient losses and grow additional forage. Penn State farm management analysts then took yield and financial information from these farms and divided them into high, medium and low profit groups. The high profit groups saw positive returns both years of the study, the medium profit group saw a profit in one year and the low profit group actually had negative returns both years.