Concentrate Price: Feed Price Ratio – Charles Holt (Lincoln)

While arable farmers may be delighted at the rise in price of the crops they have produced this year, the inevitable knock-on effect on livestock producers is an increase in feed prices.  An average dairy concentrate price was £250/T in April, about £10/T up on 2020.  In May it rose to £260 – 270/T, and in July it reached £277/T.  Prices are around £40/T more than last year.  At a typical 0.3kg/l feed rate, this is an extra 1.2 pence per litre of milk produced.

This is clearly bad news, as while some have made better silage so will be able to reduce concentrate usage, others have had widely variable silage quality and quantity results, so will be more exposed by this sort of cost increase.  Organic milk producers will be seeing an even bigger rise, of around £70/T for their concentrates this winter.  Good planning will be essential to maximise use of surplus conserved forage for this particular storm to be weathered.

Contact Charles at charlesholt@fcgagric.com or your local FCG Office for planning your winter-feeding regime linked to forage use, not just production.