Farm Services

[kl9]

Looking for input from farmers. I'm wondering if anyone has ever paid another farmer to harvest their crops for them and take them to an elevator on a per/acre basis. What about spray work during the season as well. Any approximate cost information would be great.
Thanks!

 

[West Branch]

My brother managed a custom harvesting crew for a few years. I believe the rates were from $30-$45 acre depending on what part of the country, the crop being harvested and what elevators they were hauling too. Their rates may have been on the higher side since they ran new equipment, but they got sh!t done. In July 2013 they harvested 16,000 acres of wheat in 13 days. They pushed hard from the beginning of May into November.

Sometimes you can find and old local farmer looking for some work that would probably be closer to $20 an acre.

Spraying can vary from around $8-$12 and acre based on some numbers I heard a year or two ago.

 

[foggy]

Gonna depend allot on WHAT crop is being harvested.....and WHAT spray is being put down. Lots of custom work being done all over North America. I would imagine your local co-op or neighbors might offer better advice than us Po-folk.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Here are the ranges of custom rates from the U of M.
http://faculty.apec.umn.edu/wlazarus/documents/machdata.pdf

Actual mileage may vary. Combining are here is around $25-35/acre for the most part. Hauling grain is usually done by the bushel per mile. They usually like to get around $4 per loaded mile. All kinds of guys/ coops spraying. Anywhere from $5-9 dollars per acre.

If you are asking someone to custom farm a piece of corn you might be looking at $80-120 acre depending on what you do for tillage. Usually less for beans.


Any more questions feel free to ask.

 

[foggy]

^ Great info on operating costs Buck. Well done report. Have never seen that before.

 

[West Branch]

A lot of states have similar reports. If you google custom farm rates and the name of the state you should be able to find other reports as well. Here is the Wisconsin report:
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Wisconsin/Publications/custom_rates_2013.pdf

 

[foggy]

Custom farm rates mean nothing if you only have a few acres you want done. Most guys won't show up unless you have 50 acres min.

Just what happens in my area.

So MO....you wudd'nt combine my 1/4 acre of beans for a buck - eighty five? :eek:

 

[kl9]

Thank you everyone for the responses. So if I wanted to find someone local to help me, where exactly should I go for that?

 

[wiscwhip]

The coops in the area would know. Possibly even the implement dealers. I see adds on CL once in a while as well. No matter who I was considering going with, I would ask for some names of references.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Thank you everyone for the responses. So if I wanted to find someone local to help me, where exactly should I go for that?

Why dont you give us a rough location, and an idea of what you are looking to get done specifically and what you hope to accomplish??? How many acres are involved?? All these things will be very important to the response I give you. I am off to haul manure while the ground is frozen yet.