Current economics may have you ponder whether it’s worth selling the straw to generate extra income from your wheat acreage. To put a value on something, we generally look at the marketplace and let supply and demand determine the value of the goods in question. To determine the value of straw, we can look at local or regional hay auctions to get an idea of what livestock producers are willing to pay. However, we could also look at it from a different angle. Opportunity costs are defined as the costs of using a resource based on what it could have earned if used for the next best alternative. One way to determine the value of straw left in the field is to look at the nutrients that are available in the straw. There are several online tools available to estimate the amounts of N, P, and K that will be removed if the straw is bailed. Removing straw does not necessarily mean that you will mine your soils. Only if the amount of nutrient removed is greater than the amount of nutrients