New COP Network benchmarks reveal what drives forage production costs in Canadian cow-calf operations, from hay and silage to greenfeed, and where producers can improve efficiency.
Forage is the backbone of every cow-calf operation — but how much does it really cost to grow? While feed is often viewed as a “homegrown” input, the reality is that forage production can make or break cost competitiveness, especially as input costs continue to rise.
Data from the Canadian Cow-calf Cost of Production Network show wide differences in the cost of producing forages such as hay, corn silage, corn for grazing, cereal silage, and greenfeed. But the real insight isn’t just what those costs are, it’s why they differ from farm to farm.
Forage costs vary, management matters
This analysis includes data from 59 COP Network benchmark farms from 2020 to 2024, covering five major forage types — hay, corn silage, corn for grazing, cereal silage, and greenfeed.
Hay remains the dominant forage on Canadian cow-calf operations (with 50 samples), but it’s not always the cheapest. Benchmark results show that nearly half of hay producers had estimated costs above Alberta’s 2024 market price of $220 per tonne reported by the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC), suggesting that in some years, buying hay could be more economical than growing it.
Over the five-year period (2020 to 2024), producers in western provinces faced larger swings due to droughts in 2021 and 2023, while eastern producers saw steady cost increases year over year.
The key cost driver for hay is not seed or fertilizer, but overhead and opportunity costs — such as machinery ownership, land value, and unpaid labour — which together make up nearly half of total cost. Managing these non-cash costs is often where the biggest savings lie.
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