What the heck is going on??

Goose · May 6, 2012

The fellow who leases our farm ground is REALLY steamed!

I mentioned several weeks ago that the local Co-op sprayed the entire farm with the wrong chemical, and he had to plant it back into corn where he'd planned soybeans this year.

Now, yesterday he checked on a quarter section of wheat he has about 15 miles from here and saw it was all dying. The Co-op over there sprayed the wrong farm and killed the entire wheat crop.

Luckily, whatever they sprayed it with is compatible with soybeans, so all Jim could do was get his planter back out, buy seed at a current inflated price, and replant the whole works into soybeans.

I'd suggest that in the interest of self-preservation no one mention the word "Co-op" in his presence right now.

JMS/.MN · May 6, 2012

The Co-op is responsible for monetary damages for their mistakes. All replanting expense and crop delay.

fixerupper · May 6, 2012

Around here the Co-ops are getting away from owning sprayers and instead are paying custom operators to do the spraying for them. The custom operator could easily live 50 miles away. Gone are the days when the same guy from the Co-op sprays the same farms for years on end. At least in this neck of the woods it's that way. That's the reason why I put $25,000 into a sprayer of my own. It was some of the best money I've ever spent. I'm not saying I don't make mistakes, but I'm familiar with my fields, and I can do it when I want to, instead of waiting three days for the sprayer to come. Jim

ShadetreeRet · May 6, 2012

The Co-Op should have to pay for any damages and additional expenses and sounds like they need a personnel change as well.

fixerupper · May 6, 2012

Forgot to say, a few years ago a custom sprayer working for the Co-op killed all of my waterways in the bean fields with Roundup. He was spraying the beans and just flat didn't turn off the booms for the waterways. Then a year later I saw this sprayer operator's picture in the paper pertaining to some kind of award he got from the Co-op for spraying the most acres. I found out later they called this guy 'the 1000 acre guy', meaning he could spray 1000 acres a day. That's what prompted me to buy a sprayer. Jim

paul · May 6, 2012

Bigger is better.

One of the coops I use is building a 3 million grain rail terminal from the ground up, 40 miles north of their former home station.

They've added quite a few smaller coops to their rolls.

I'm supposed to contact some rep person to answer my needs and questions - basically they got so big they can't deal with me directly?

Still a pretty good coop, but - some of the growing pains show up from time to time. I see the trucks from 2 other coops driving by my place more and more....

Anyhow, they got a lot of ground to cover with their fertilizer and spraying rigs. Mistakes happen.

I'd be pretty irate too if I were your farmer friend, to get nailed 2x in one season by mistakes.

--->Paul

Anonymous-0 · May 6, 2012

Hope he has documentation, our coop has made mistakes but always has been liabel for cost and replacement reseed cost.

JDseller · May 6, 2012

Good help is hard to find. Help that can think is just about impossible to find. I hope he does not have a hassle with either COOP. I had a crop of oats killed three years ago. It was like pulling hen's teeth to get anything done with them. The real issue was that they did pay me to plant the field into soybeans but I had the oats planted for the bedding. I needed the straw. I had half of it contracted to several local dairy farms. They fought me all summer trying to keep from paying my addition cost of buying straw to fill my contracts.

They had all this fancy GPS stuff but can't get in the correct field???? The guy that sprayed my oats was done in by a map that had been flipped when the copy was made. The left and right was mirror imaged on him. I kind of felt bad for him. He lost his per acre premium on all of the acres he sprayed that spring. It was like 25-50 cents per acre. He said it was like 3-4K he lost.

I have since put locks and chains on the gates on all of the land I farm. They all do have fences so it helps keep the honest people out. Now if I could only find a way to keep the crooks out.

Anonymous-0 · May 7, 2012

That is worth some $$$$$'s. co-op or not.

tomNE · May 7, 2012

I know the coop that goose is talking about; they pay really low wages and have trouble getting and/or retaining good help. But then my local sprayer guy has the same problem. seasonal work makes it tuff. (i do use the coop that goose's renter uses but it's another branch.) they always claim they are fully insured; just stay on them!

Chris(IA) · May 7, 2012

Has the Co-op changed from what it was in the 1950's? A member of the CCA Co-op was an OWNER! If they're hiring idiots to operate sprayers, then that is the fault of the MEMBERS! Just like our Government, if we're going the cheapest route, then poor results are what we'll get.

Billy NY · May 7, 2012

Something like that could put you out of business, or really put a hurting on a farmer who is on tight margins, and no time to replant or what have you.

At the time of year they spray here, the season could easily be lost.

The farmer I was helping was hospitalized when the spray outfit set up at his farm, his son works 6 days a week, and I was the only one who knew what was planted where and when, though he had it written somewhere, I rode with the spray applicator in the fancy JD rig with GPS and made sure the correct fields were done, well one mistake, I forgot one field, but was not sure if it had been sprayed in a previous round, played it safe, they hit it soon after we figured it out. Most of the fields are surrounded by trees, or hedgerows, it is kind of hard to miss, as the crops are up, but if that happened to say the oat ground, with the straw contracted out to a large dairy, it would have left a huge hole in the cash flow no doubt, hope your friend gets it resolved, really bad mistake on their part, they ought to make up for it.

Huskers86 · May 7, 2012

I too have had troubles with coops spraying, (and others). a couple years ago I had them driving across the rows! They said that they would run over less crop that way since I don't plant with gps. I told them to shut off the auto steer and do it right. Guess what...they did a good job on the rest. Little things like that made me get my own again. Sometimes saving time doesn't equate to saving money. You yourself can most generally do the best job. I had some corn killed off one year and they outfit stood behind the mistake and did right by me.

NY 986 · May 7, 2012

I have to wonder if something else is at work here. There is a fellow I heard about locally that seems to have that happen somewhat frequently. The implication is maybe the guy's memory is not what it used to be when it comes to coordinating with the custom sprayer. I'm a small operator and if I made a mistake reporting a field to my custom applicator they would call me on it and not eat the loss. The fellow I heard about has somewhat deep pockets so the operator would be more inclined to press the insurance company rather than rattle that farmer.

LenND · May 7, 2012

That Coop owes that farmer a little money. I would think they owe him for the first crop plus expenses for reseeding it.

What the heck is going on??

Goose

Well-known Member

JMS/.MN

Well-known Member

fixerupper

Well-known Member

ShadetreeRet

Well-known Member

fixerupper

Well-known Member

paul

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

JDseller

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

tomNE

Member

Chris(IA)

Member

Billy NY

Well-known Member

Huskers86

Well-known Member

NY 986

Well-known Member

LenND

Well-known Member

Similar threads