Arable farmers urged not to chop straw this harvest

Arable farmers are being urged to bale straw this harvest as values rise and livestock producers look further afield to find scarce supplies.

For wheat straw in the swath, prices are generally £74-111/ha (£30-45/acre) in Wales and the western half of England and between £37 and £62/ha (£15 and £25/acre) in the east, with the higher end of the scale accounting for local demand where there is only a short haul.

Ex-farm prices for old crop wheat straw this week are between £2 and £10/t higher than a year ago, depending on region. But some fear arable farmers may be tempted to chop straw this year as they face ever-higher fertiliser costs for the 2009 crop.

Andrew Holman of the British Hay & Straw Merchants' Association said that in most years about half the national straw crop was baled. But due to export demand and the poor weather last harvest, there were almost no reserves this season and new-crop straw would be in great demand. "There are no reserve stocks - it's the same as with grain. And we expect more demand from abroad, because the pound has weakened against the euro.