Contact: Michael Ballweg, Extension Crops and Soils Agent; (920) 459-5904
Wisconsin farmers in various parts of the state experienced severe alfalfa losses this past winter resulting in forage shortages in combination with already low inventories. Additionally, a cooler and wetter than normal 2019 spring season caused delayed plantings for many Wisconsin farmers. As a result there may be an interest in selling or buying agricultural commodities from areas with surplus feed inventories to areas of the state in need of forages according to Mike Ballweg, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension Sheboygan County crops and soils agent.
The Farmer to Farmer Forage and Corn website – probably best thought of as an electronic neighborhood bulletin board – allows local farmers to get in touch with one another. The website facilitates the marketing of feed commodities where livestock producers in need of high moisture corn, corn silage, hay, or straw can easily contact sellers that have feed commodities for sale. For example, those late planted acres may serve the dairy and livestock industry well, utilizing late planted acres as silage or high moisture corn, while reducing costs for corn grain growers associated with drying, storage, transportation and marketing.
The Farmer to Farmer website facilitates making the connections. The site is developed and supported by UW-Madison Extension and can be found at: https://farmertofarmer.extension.wisc.edu/. The website is free of charge for both buyers and sellers. Users can search for, or list for sale, hay, haylage, straw, high moisture corn, corn silage or corn grain. Buyers can search for farmers in just one Wisconsin county or in any number of counties at once.
“This site has been an excellent way for buyers and sellers to get in-touch locally. Neighbors often within short distances have been able to buy and sell as a result of the website”, says Ballweg. “All transactions and negotiations are handled directly between buyers and sellers.”
People who wish to use this service but do not have access to the Internet can get access and assistance at their county Extension office.
