Ear Corn

I have three acres of ear corn I grow to sell to people that feed wild life.
What is a fair price for 75 pound bags of ear corn?
Rollie

Fair price would be market price whatever it happens to be.... Now, set back and see what kinda prices you get suggested......
Market price is for a farmer feeding his livestock..
Then comes the yuppies (one definition I liked of a yuppie was a guy that'll clean up and put on clean clothes before going out to eat), the horse people, and the hunters/bird & animal feeders/watchers.... To them, you gotta triple market price in order to fit in with some of the goodoleboys on here.....

I'd start at 20 or 25 dollars...

I wish I could. I found a add on Craigslist selling ear corn for 12 cents a lb.
That would make a 75 lb bag $9.00. I seen 10 lb bags in Lowes for $10.98.

I'm no farmer, and maybe my monkey math is wrong, but.....
according to the charts on the net, a bushel of ear corn weighs 70 pounds, rollie's bags are 75 pounds, everyone talking and bragging that corn is at 8+/- some change per bushel..
20-25 bucks for a bushel....What am I missin???????

(quoted from post at 17:33:36 10/20/12) I wish I could. I found a add on Craigslist selling ear corn for 12 cents a lb.
That would make a 75 lb bag $9.00. I seen 10 lb bags in Lowes for $10.98.

Click to expand...

Better get to know the guy selling for 9 bucks... seems like someone you could trust....

He wants to sell to 'urbanites' for squirrel feed.

Well a bushel of ear is 70 lbs so your 75 lbs ones are a little over a bushel. Corn price is right at $7.50. So the corn is worth $8-9 dollars. What does the bag/sack cost you??? Lets say $2. Then bagging it is worth something, say $5. So you should try to get $16-18 for a single bag purchase. If someone takes quite a few then you could discount it some.

(quoted from post at 17:41:36 10/20/12) He wants to sell to 'urbanites' for squirrel feed.

Click to expand...

If you mean that, and I'm afraid you do, guess I had you all wrong.....

Down here they sell a lot of ear corn to bait deer with. Going price around here is $8 to $10 a bag.
Ron

guess I'm in the wrong line of work..... You hay farmers is gonna be screwed when bubba figgers out he can grunt, sweat, and crawl over haywagons and lofts for 20 or so cents a bale or go to jd's place and stand in one place & fill bushel sacks for 5 bucks a sack :roll:

If' Lowes' is selling 10lb.bags for 10 bucks,then 25
for 75 lbs is fair.Ever see a 6"x5"x12" hay'bale' (for rabbits)
at your local urban 'feed store'??Hey, it was only a suggestion.I probably
wouldn't have the heart(or the guts) to charge that
much.....

It's cazy! Last year I sold Shelled corn for 3 bucks a 10 lb bag and ear corn for 2.75 a 10 lb bag. I did not really sell larger bags. I have a lady that feeds 7 to 10 deer and a guy who feeds 27 wild turkey but a lot of the corn goes to the squirrels in town.

(quoted from post at 21:01:44 10/20/12) It's cazy! Last year I sold Shelled corn for 3 bucks a 10 lb bag and ear corn for 2.75 a 10 lb bag. I did not really sell larger bags. I have a lady that feeds 7 to 10 deer and a guy who feeds 27 wild turkey but a lot of the corn goes to the squirrels in town.

Click to expand...

Check these straw bales out in your local Wally world. 12"x6"x6". $8.00

Bale

Ever hear of paying $2,50 for a 3 oz bag of popcorn or almost $5 for a 14 oz box of corn flakes.

I have a neighbor who has a few chickens and he went to a relative and complained the relarive charged him 30 cents more per bushel for shelled corn than the Chicago price.

I'll pay $200 a ton real money for all you want to
bring me.

50 pounds of cracked corn here is $10.00, whole corn off the
cob is $9.50!

here is a link to farm and fleets selling price for ear corn critter food. about a dozen ears, 6 and one half pounds, for only 7.99 (plus tax)
poke here

That is an estimate of the total handling cost. He is going to have to fill each sack and store it or retail it. I bet that the majority of his customers will be getting a single bag each.

How much would you charge to climb up in the hay loft and get a single bale down and then put it in the trunk of someones car???

That is why I told him he would/could discount that number if the person was buying more.

If you think that estimate was too high then go on line and see what the mass merchant stores are getting for a bag of 10 ears of corn. Usually $5 each. They sell them for squirrel and bird food.

Dave come on over and buy a 1000 bushel semi load of shelled corn that I can load in about 12-14 minutes out of my over head bin. You can get that for Chicago price plus 10 cents per bushel. Why over Chicago price. I can get 30 over for it delivery to ADM. I have two trucks going there every work day to haul feed out so my cost to delivery is cheaper than the guy just hauling one way.

You want a single sack full and you want it for the same price??? Well it will take me just about as long to fill that sack as it would a half of a semi. Corn and soybeans are a volume commodity not a single bushel type.

Maybe your employer should start to pay you by the minute. Then just call you in to work 10 minutes at a time. Lets make you have a good hourly rate, $30 or 50 cents per minute. So I am going to call you in to work in 10 minute intervals. You are making the same rate per hour so I would be paying you exactly the same as you are making if you worked a full 8-10 hour day. so you should be happy. Of course that to get your 40 hours it you are going to have to come in 240 times each week but hey I am being fair and paying you exactly the same amount of money.

You would be screaming mad about a work plan like that. Any farmer with thousands of bushels of crop looks at selling it a single 75 LBS bag the same way you would working in 10 minute intervals.

you never miss a chance to flaunt yourself do ya???????? Rollie's got 3 acres and asked a question.....Doubt he gives a ratsass about your thousands of bushels and how many trucks you got going or how fast you can load them... Neither do I.. He asked the question and got a few answers between fair and an admitted gouging. You started out with a reasonable skit til you threw that 5 buck sack fillin in there... Think he has the answers he wanted by now.. Wish you'd get another lawn mower and try to fix it. You's a lot more bearable when you ain't lovin and praisin yourself..... Bout time for me to take my crankyass home to bed now. Have a good day.

Dave I did not catch he only had 3 acres but it does not make much difference. He still easily can have 400-500 bushels of corn to sell. If he does all of it in sacks that is going to be as much work as harvesting/ selling ten times that as shelled corn.

Dave I was not saying I have that much corn. As little as 5-6 acres of corn in a good year can easily produce a thousand bushels of corn. 200 plus bushel yield are getting common in normal years. So guys even with just 30 acres can easily have 6000 bushels to sell.

The cost are going sky high as well. The better varieties of seed corn are costing $100 plus per acres. We figured the inputs cost this year will be in the $500-600 per acre range plus the cash rents/land payments on top of that. Easily could be $1000 per acre total. So even with a good yield the break even costs are sky high.

Get some sleep we can argue another day. It seems we always do. LMAO. My brothers/sisters and I argue all of the time. It is just kind of a sporting thing with us. We usually do it fun. I like a spirited debate.

Around here, ear corn is going for about 10 dollars for a "50 pound" sized sack. Deer season is in full swing and the hunters are buying a lot of it to pile on the ground to bait deer. I often wonder how many thousand dollars will be spent in this county on deer corn between September when bow season starts and the first of January when deer season ends. As plentiful as deer are in this area, it seems wasteful. It's not hard to find where they pass through every day. If a hunter who spends any time in the woods can't shoot a few deer without bait in this area, he needs to find another pastime. It's good that the guys growing the corn are getting the business, though.

shelled corn here can be bought at the feed mill for 12-14 bucks for 110 pounds (50kg) and direct from a few farmers for a couple bucks less if you bring your bag and their silo has a convenient dump..... Just saw in ebay that one of the local guys sacks it in neat sewn up paper bags (20kg) and puts them on at a buck, looks like he hasn't got less than 15 bucks and as much as 28..... plus shipping...

Guess folks like convenience :roll:

A feed store around here sells it in 100# bags. Customer backed his truck up to the dock and asked the employee carrying the bag if he could separate it into two 50# bags. Employee looked into the bed of a truck and said "If you can handle that keg of beer you can handle this bag of corn", tossed the bag into the truck and walked away. And no, his mane isn't Dave...

Bushel of shelled corn is 56 lbs

Royse, Are you from Marinette, WI?

Rollie, quit trying to over think this. You're not dealing on the market. You're offering a product that's packaged for retail and trying to determine a price. Don't let anyone badger you about your price based on CBOT pricing, it just doesn't apply.

If you're not going to make any extra for your effort, then load up a pickup load every week and head for Middleburg or Dewart and sell it bulk and be done with it.

We're both in the same general market, selling the same product to the same customers.


The guy on craigslist just might sell at exactly the price his customers will pay, but he's very likely to have completely different customers than you'll attract. Even so, he's probably $40.00 per ton over market at that price. If you want to base your price on market value, then here's a source of info. for your local markets.

http://agmarketnews.com/index.php/grain/weekly-grain-report/

If everything were priced on commodity markets, then we'd be able to buy a box of corn flakes or wheaties for a quarter. We can't they're processed and packaged for convenience. So is your corn.

I use the 23"X40" feed bags that my mill bags my hog feed in. They hold a hundred pounds of finished feed but only about 50 pounds of ear corn. I find my customers prefer the smaller bags for ease of handling since many are women, and retired folks who just can't handle the larger weights.

I've got folks that buy every year, most of them buy just enough to fill their metal garbage cans to keep the rats, mice, and squirrels out of their supply. I'm certainly not opposed to making a Saturday morning run and delivering within a decent distance if I can combine a few stops, or dropping off to customers on my way to or from work.

I'm not sure what small feed mills are in your area, but if they have a store, or there's an outlet for this kind of thing around you, stop in and take a look at their pricing. See what they're getting and adjust accordingly for any service you're providing above and beyond. My customers aren't overly loyal to me, they just want a location that's fairly convenient, a product that's decent, and pricing that won't break the bank. Some stores actually sell plastic bags with a half dozen ears in them, it's all about convenience. If you're at Weis' and need a dozen ears, you might grab them at any price.

My corn is grown primarily to sell to my hogs, which in turn I sell to my customers, but if I have the time, retail sales will beat either one hands down.

By the way, I get $200.00 a ton out of my crib for deer hunters, right down to $10.00 for a 50 Lb bag tied and ready to toss in your car.

I'd probably look at what an 88# bag of whole corn is selling for at the local feed store and set the price somewhere around there...
Most are just going to look at the price for a BAG of corn not the actual feed value in it or the weight... It's an ammusement for them anyhow. As long as you're price competitive I think you'll be fine and the price will be fair.
Just make sure you're making something on the deal for yourself.

Rod

A guy around here asked $250/ton for ear corn in semi-load lots. Was gone in a matter of a few days.

Just bought 7 bags of ear corn today. They were completely filled feed sacks like you would get from the feed store. Not sure of the weight, but I got them for $7 per bag.

(quoted from post at 09:03:02 10/21/12) Royse, Are you from Marinette, WI?

Click to expand...

No, I'm in Michigan.