Abstract
The highest quality silage is produced from corn (corn silage), which is also the most common livestock feed. The lack of corn silage in livestock production can be compensated only by concentrated feed, which is usually more expensive, but this is a wellapplied practice in B&H. Therefore, the main aim of this paper was to determine the economic viability of corn silage production in B&H for the period 2014-2019. Primary data for this research were collected based on a semi-structured interview with representatives of the farm "Farma Spreča" Kalesija with a total harvested area of 500 ha. Results indicate that with total harvested area increases 61.29 %, yield increases only 6.26 %, while efficiency decreased by 6.38 % implying problems related to productivity. Based on that, corn silage production in B&H shows positive financial performances, but low yield even with a strong increase in harvested areas indicates the need for further technological and technical improvement.
Highlights
Farmers/growers, along with other actors, are exposed to new challenges brought upon by globalization, market volatility, complexity, and scrutiny (Stiring et al, 2013)
Corn silage production is currently carried out on 35.000 hectares, with a total production of 781.000 tons (BHAS; 2021), or an average yield of 22 t/ha, which is significantly lower than the yield in some countries
Instead of the expected increase in total production, which should be accompanied by an increase in total harvested areas, in this period, there is a decline in productivity of silage corn average production, especially in 2017 and 2018
Summary
Farmers/growers, along with other actors, are exposed to new challenges brought upon by globalization, market volatility, complexity, and scrutiny (Stiring et al, 2013). Farmers tend to seek solutions to minimize the aforementioned risks, and one way to achieve that is with the production of their inputs such as feed for livestock production. The most popular livestock feed worldwide is corn silage. Major corn producers worldwide are the USA, followed by China, Brazil, and EU-27 countries (Figure 1). This particular crop is popular (and gaining on popularity) because of its wide range of benefits such as low harvesting cost, minimum production risks, high yields, high energy intake for livestock, increase lactation length, stocking rate digestibility, palatability, storage ability, etc. This particular crop is popular (and gaining on popularity) because of its wide range of benefits such as low harvesting cost, minimum production risks, high yields, high energy intake for livestock, increase lactation length, stocking rate digestibility, palatability, storage ability, etc. (Allen et al, 2003; Schroede, 2004; Ferraretto et al, 2018)
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