Combines custom harvesters

The Price of Wheat is the same as 20 years ago too!!!!!

Yep, and there may not be many bushels to cut this year in the core area if we don't start getting some moisture.Our wheat looks good now, but it is VERY dry here, with no rain_snow in sight.

That may be true, but that hasn't stopped inflation, the cost of fuel, machinery etc. Therefore, the price of wheat is a moot point. Farming is farming, you still have to produce no matter what the commodity prices are (the only alternative isIJ). If I were a custom harvester I would be implementing a higher fee structure as well as promoting the value added side of my operation. If all you do is cut, haul and try to achieve the best grain quality possible year after year, what value are you lending each year after yearIJ If custom harvesting operations are turely retail service providers, then they need to act like them by promoting themselves and each year do a few things better to improve themselves and entice the farming community to contiue with them and attract more. Posters and radio adds (if you have new equipment or a unique piece of, especially tracks, promote it, provide questionnaires and harvest's end evaluations to get more input. Don't just show up in OK and TX with a bill board that says "Harvesting Available." If so, you better have another that says "Wll Work for Food."

The point i'm getting at is, don't let custom harvesting be a buyers market. You are the service provider, you sell your services just like the dealer you buy your equipment from.

landsurfer, I realise what you are trying to say, but as a farmer AND a harvest contractor here in Australia we are up against exactly the same problems as you. Your right, harvest contracting is one of the only service providers who take take the price they can get, however farmers are no different. We are offered a price for our grain, and we either take it or we don't. The majority of farmers Are NOT trying to screw every contractor that comes along. Only trying to put together a long term relationship with their service provider at a price that is workable for both parties.