Opinion ID: 1857446
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Silage Spoilage

Text: Evergreen claimed that it had approximately 7,500 tons of silage on hand in the fall of 1987. According to Julius Osten, approximately 10 percent of this silage spoiled because there were not enough cattle in the feedlot to consume the silage as a result of First National's denial of the loan. Osten stated that the customary valuation of silage is 10 times the price of corn per hundredweight of silage. Murra testified that this calculation was a customary method of silage valuation in the cattle industry, but did not testify regarding Evergreen's damages. Julius Osten testified that there were not enough cattle to consume the silage and that, therefore, a foot and a half, maybe two foot, of the silage pile spoiled. Osten testified he determined the amount of silage that had spoiled by simply looking at the pile, which consisted of approximately 7,500 tons. Osten figured the value of the silage based on the price per bushel of corn at $2.50 times 10, or $25 per ton. In the fall and winter of 1987 and in the spring and summer of 1988, Evergreen had at least 3,000 head of cattle to feed. Julius Osten's opinion about how much silage spoiled and why it spoiled was a guess and nothing more. How much silage spoiled and why it spoiled were not established with any degree of certainty, and the jury would again be required to indulge in speculation and conjecture. The evidence was insufficient to establish this claim for damages.