With silage kicking off in earnest on farms over the past week a Farmers Journal Scotland survey has revealed that there is a big disparity in the prices that farmers are paying for contractors.

Prices in the Ayrshire regions have been reported around £50/ac to get pit silage made, excluding the cost of the diesel which is additional. Prices crept up further in parts of the northeast with prices of over £55/ac reported by farmers, excluding the price of fuel. This included mowing, chopping and the buck rake among other things.

Moving further down the country Fife and Lothians prices have been quoted at approximately £40/ac for pit silage, again excluding the price of fuel, with the mowing costing approximately £8/ac included in this. Prices as low £35/ac were also reported, if large areas were being ensiled.

Prices in the Dumfries area were lower again at approximately £30-£35/ac depending on the circumstances such as bulk of the grass and area to be ensiled.

Price of bales

Prices for mowing varied throughout the country from lows of approximately £7.50/ac up to highs of £13/ac, excluding diesel costs. The prices of making a bale of silage did not experience as large of a variation with prices around £6/bale for baling and wrapping. Prices quoted ranged between £6 and as high as £7.20/bale for the majority of farmers but there were some farmers who reported prices of as low as £5/bale.

As you move away from the southern parts of the country, where there is a higher concentration of dairy farmers, prices seem to generally rise, which is down to a combination of factors.

Farmers who are operating three- to four-cut systems will generally be cutting lighter crops and therefore can expect prices to be lower than farmers who are operating a one- or two-cut system – where crops are much heavier and take longer to work through.