New App to Help Wisconsin Farmers Estimate Corn Prices
As Wisconsin farmers plan for this year's corn crop harvest, producers can now use a phone app to estimate what price they would receive for animal feed.
Two University of Wisconsin-Extension agents Greg Blonde and Ryan Sterry have developed the Corn Silage Pricing App, which uses data from national and local reports to estimate prices, Wisconsin Public Radio reported .
Farmers can either sell corn as a grain on the commodity market or turn the plant into silage for cattle feed.
Blonde said grain prices are typically set by the market, but farmers must calculate their own silage price. That process typically involves spreadsheets and formulas, which can be difficult to do away from a computer.
"There's no established market to be able to go to and say, 'I wonder what corn silage is trading for today on the futures exchange' like we can with corn and soybeans," Blonde said. "You're left with some mathematical gymnastics."
Sterry said the app gives farmers the portability needed to discuss prices anywhere.
"We're not trying to set the market for corn silage, we're trying to give a range and we're going to let the farmers take that as a starting point," Sterry said.
