Custom Havest rates

Every time that I get fed up with trying to fix some of my old equipment , and get cheesed off at the cost of parts , I start to think that
maybe I would be better off hiring a custom guy. Learned that I had better just keep fixing . Even though it takes me longer to harvest
myself , and at times can be frustrating, I can still afford me. Custom combining of soy beans here this year , $50.00 per acre, put a buggy
in the field with it , another $10.00, plus trucking to the elevator. Chopping corn silage , $500.00 per acre comes with three trucks and
drivers. I won't spend $500.00 on fuel chopping my own 35 acres of corn. It would cost near $3,500.00 to have the same corn harvested custom.
Sure it would get done quicker, and I do have a few bucks tied up in long paid for equipment , but I just don't see the value in hiring, Hard
pressed to find anyone to make bales for less than $8.00 per bale, round or square,and we made over 2000 bales this year.
I am not finding fault with the custom guys , new equipment cost big $$$$ . The problem is after all the cost are added in , there is
really nothing left. Three custom operators that I know say this will be the last year for combining at the $50.00 price. Sure makes those
old combines look more valuable, if you can find parts , and keep them going. Any thoughts ?

My brother in law charges $12 to bale and net wrap my straw. I load, haul and sell for $25. Not much profit.

Wow I need to go up there for harvesting. Guys around here are down to 25 an acre with new big machines. I am guessing they are trying to figure out a way to make the payment.

According to the Iowa State custom rate chart bean combining in Iowa is at an average of $34. Grain cart is $6.

Wow! There's a small dairy near me that plants about 60 acres of corn for silage, and has a custom guy come in and do it - he does it all in a day. I didn't realize it cost that much though.
I suppose when you're doing custom work you need new equipment - if somebody lays down 100 acres of hay for you to bale, and you have machinery troubles, it would be a problem
Pete

A lot of custom guys here in Ohio. I have no idea how much they charge.
Several of those still doing their own work do so because when you need yours done so do all the others and hard to get an appointment to get done. I bet they will go to the long time customers and those with larger fields first before they get around to doing a new customer.

I paid $35 per acre for bean cutting including fuel and a grain cart driver. New Ih machine with 35 ft drapper head. They did a great job. The dust is starting to bother me more each year so we decided to hire the beans cut. Tom

The problem I see at least locally is the custom operator more often than not gets around late to do yours. If they are a Mennonite then you will be put off until all the Mennonite customers have been serviced. You have to push your own pencil to truly know what the trade off is in terms of timely harvest versus money tied up in equipment. If you knew that you were going to milk cows for a while you could probably afford to go up to a used NH 790 with processor for under 10,000 dollars.

Custom guys around here charge by the acre and the farmer buys the fuel

Seems to be a bit higher than here....pretty sure you can get soys done for around 40 bucks an acre. I always figure the cost for owning a combine around 10 to 15 an acre when penciling out the next purchase. Used to custom cut corn silage......one tractor harvester, 2 wagons and a blower, no fuel, for 50 an acre, about 7 years ago last time I did custom. Never figured there was any money in it, mostly working back and forth with my brother. Your per bale figure is close to here for a 4 by 5 round. Ben

$38 here and that includes hauling on soybeans. i could never afford to buy harvest equipment back. i started having custom done in 1998 and have never looked back! I'm on top the list for my custom guy. if you book in advance, you can get your crops done on time. if u call in the middle of harvest and want them tomorrow, good luck!

We charge $40 an acre for corn or beans includes combine, auger wagon and 2 semis with 1 driver. An extra $10 for the chopper headin corn. NC IA.

Joe

Hydro, that's about what I pay my custom harvester. He provides the combine, cart, trucks and the drivers with me being one of the drivers when needed. I pay a varying amount per bushel for the trucking depending on the length of the haul. I also work for them when they harvest their own crops. We have had a good arrangement that has been working well for both of us for close to 20 years now. This way I don't have the hassle of finding seasonal help or maintaining equipment. I owned a combine for 20 years and I know every inch of combines and how they work. I also know how much it costs to maintain a combine. The expenses are becoming astronomical. One tire on a bigger combine can cost $6000. That's why I don't own one. My harvester comes when I need him and i know I'm very lucky in that aspect.

On my side of the deal I make sure my field approaches are plenty wide and flat, the staging areas for the trucks are level and clean, I don't leave big rocks or posts or stumps or ruts or other surprises in the fields. Well there was that one time in the corner of a field when the corn head tried to eat a hidden corner post. I voluntarily paid for the damages because I planted too close to the post and didn't mark it.

When they pull out I have spreadsheet listing all the operations, acres, bushels and prices made out for them to look at We come up with an agreement,
I cut out a check for them, and it's a big check but when they leave, it's over, there is no combine to clean and no repair list to go over before next fall.

Not every farmer has as good of an arrangement with a custom harvester as I have but it has worked very well for me.

I'm lost again as usual. What is the chopper headin corn? Thanks, I'm old and slow.

A head on the combine that will chop stalks as well as remove the ear from the plant.

Ya I paid 430 per cutter head hour for the chopper and 90 per hour for each truck last year, on a positive note they took less fuel then what I would have used which amazed me. This year I am slowly doing it myself and my dad of course. The reason I hired it last year was a noise in the chopping tractor plus the knives in my Massey chopper were cracked and I could not buy new ones. So bought my neighbors 800 Gehl and had to rebuild it, along with narrow the head, wasn't much fun! The only thing so far I have noticed that pays to hire it done is the wrapper, he charges 3 dollars per bale, I supply the plastic, I couldn't buy a wrapper and do my own for that!

I'm with you Bruce! It would cost us $16000/yr to hire custom operators to do our chop silage. That's not including dump trucks or packing or silo filling. We spend a grand total of $23000 on the 790 chopper with processor ,the chopper was new in 04 always shedded and fairly well maintained and the high dump is maybe 20 yrs old and other than paint and 2 tires spent nothing on it this year. We really did notice a sudden 2 kg milk drop when we ran out of processed corn this spring from where we hired a custome operator to do 10 acres to try it. Milking 65 cows at 2kg/day is over $32000 per year alone,and the equipment will pay for itself in about a year and a half. They wouldn't take our 781 international chopper on trade that still works good so it's going to be stored for backup in grass time. We paid $16000 for our 550 Massey combine 15 years ago.We figured if we could do 600 acres counting fuel and good luck we'd be Scot free. Haven't spent much on it as of yet and we passed the 600 acre Mark years ago. There's decent reasonably priced used equipment out there just have to search and be patient.

I'm guessing the chopping number is $500 per HOUR and not ACRE? Heck the corn is only worth say $700 an acre.

Either way it is expensive.

Philip, you are, I believe, the first guy on here other than me that has acknowledged that a kernel processor is a good thing!

Lol it's a great thing! We ran it almost hitting tight and snugged the springs back in to Horning Specs. Did a perfect job,there were very very few kernels we could find that weren't at the very least cut if not broken in half and we pushed it hard. The T6 165 NewHolland didn't seem to even know it was there either. There's not too many guys in these parts not processing corn now ,some but quite few.

We started in '97 with a Fox 3000 we equipped with a processor... I posted pics last week in the harvester section. I agree completely with you. If you have a Horning unit, you might consider their newer Fiber tech rolls that are more aggressive- they work really well. You don't need it so tight to do a good job. They might also just sell you a new pulley or two that will differentiate the roller speeds a bit more. That will make it more agressive as well for a minimum of $$.

A couple years ago on here someone was looking for a newer pull type to do corn with, and just about everyone P@#$ed on the idea of getting a processor. Either they don't know how to measure their bulk tank, or never looked at the manure behind their cows (let alone do a fecal starch test).

Anyway, I'm glad you found success! There is another treat as well- no cob pieces left over that somebody won't eat!

That's a good idea! Thank you,the processor was added on new in 2010 and it's still really sharp (ask the guy who helped me dig it out when it plugged because the master link fell off the cross auger chain). Changing pulley speeds might be something to consider for next fall till the time comes to replace the rollers.

Youare correct connie minniem the charge is y the hour for chopping corn silage. I think our more costly fuel, and laobur rates help to drive the cost. These two things make all ventures in Canada less competitive with the USA .

Not to worry , I know what a processor is, but I do not have one . I also do not have any cob disc left in my mangers, and see no kernels going through the cows. I have not done a fecal starch test, so I don't know about that angel. I grow only silage specific corn, store it in a pit silo , and try to chop when the moisture is as close to right as I can get. Corn silage would only make up about one third of our cows diet.

A good combine operator should be good at adjustments and may get you an extra 5 bu/acre over someone who really doesn't know how to set an operator. They may be able to pay for themselves over using a junk, old combine.

If you chop early it is possible to get kernel breakage without a kernel processor. But keep this in mind- with the kernel processor, you can chop a lot longer cut, like 3/4 in to an in vs say 3/8 without a processor. So you get a lot better cud chewing etc on the fiber, and still have better processed kernels.

I'd suggest the fecal starch test. You might be surprised what you find.