Combines Is it really worth it anymore IJ

[MostlyGreen]

If you're asking whether it's worth doing custom work for area farmers aymore, I'd have to say "NO", it isn't. In my situation, custom work revenue just helps to keep me in a new combine every 2 years but, without doing custom work, I could easily trade every 3 or 4 years. I realize there's other factors like depreciation, repairs and the likes, but when "penciled out", the numbers are still in my favour to quit doing custom work all together. It's just that I can't let my past customers down by NOT doing it!

 

[FarmerTom]

I have been in the custom work business , one way or another, for over 35 years and have always charged for my work "plus fuel". i do not understand custom workers that go from farmer to farmer, farm to farm, and charge including fuel rather than plus fuel. yields are different thus fuel use varies, field size, shape and terrain vary thus fuel use varies. we charge our combining out by the hour. we make sure we have low, low losses. we don't waste time. we do a super job i think and our units are old(30 to 40 years) but in excellent condition and well maintained in season thus a low downtime percentage. our repeat customers and growing customer base attest to this. there is a place for custom cutters. everybody(farmers, cutters, dealers) needs to respect the other for their talents and their need for a profit. finding the system that works is the tough part. my 2 cents worth.

 

[860rook]

what do you charge per acreIJ or per hourIJ what machines do you run and with what support unitsIJ just interested in your setup. thanks

 

[MostlyGreen]

That's a great idea. I might just start charging for fuel seperately from now on.

 

[FarmerTom]

we are in an area which grows winter wheat, spring wheat, oats, barley and barley with peas. many small fields 4 to 20 acres. uneven ground. lots of straw needed for cattle bedding. can't use rotaries for that reason. we use 3 straw walker, 4 and 5 walker machines with various heads, 11', 13', 15' and soon 18'. a wagon accompanies each combine and it will hold 3 dumps of the combine. all our combines are altered. blanking plates in the concave, higher cylinder speeds, plastic front grain pans, plastic auger liners, extra fuel tanks, double grain bin extensions and lots more little things. basicly we charge $15_hr per straw walker in the combine plus $1_hr_per foot of grain header. a 3 walker combine with a 13' head is charged out at $58_hr including driver_operator. we supply a 4 wheel grain wagon that is towed by farmer's tractor and man and is charged out at $10 per dump of the combine. we will be adding a weed seed separator this year to one combine and will charge this out at $10_hr - farmer's choice - it can be bypassed on the combine. in all this , the farmer supplies all the fuel. transportation of the combines to and from the farm is charged to the farmer. our combine area was used to charges including fuel and at first this was difficult to work with , but repeat customers are used to supplying fuel now and it works well. we have worked to combine with very low losses, a very low breakdown rate, being timely to the job and just generally trying all the time to do the best we can. a diary is kept on each unit and it is reviewed at the end of season and changes, renovations, rebuilds, and new ideas are completed before the next season. we currently use MF and NH combines. each has their own strong and weak points.

 

[Bundy]

Interesting concept although extremely different operating enviroment to ourselves in the northern graingrowing region of Australia. Using that theory a 9600 machine or a TX34 with a thirty foot front would be worth - $15 * 5 walkers = $75 $15 * 6 walkers = $90 30ft * $1 = $30 Which is cheap!!! In my area the general going rate for harvesting is "roughly" $12 per acre + GST and the farmer supplies the diesel. Or Hourly.. $220 - $250 roughly!! That is for straight cuting of wheat at yeilds up to approx 40 bushells or 1 tonne to the acre or 2.5t to the ha, give or take a bit. Then ususally if they want to get stingy they start charging an extra $1 per bag (12 bags to a tonne) Others will charge by the hr. but this also can lead to blues over what is and isn't to be charged. I.e. seperator hrs or engine hrs. Problems also arise when the bigger machines Ie your class seven and eight machines charge you at $350 plus per hr when they are really doing no more per hour then a class five or six machine due to light crop conditions or speed limiting factors. In fact we have found the bigger machines will do a worse job then the five's or sixes because they are trying to push the machines to hard and fast to keep them full, and I can assure you nothing stirs up a contractor with a big flash new machine then the the cocky's own little machine keeping up with him, and thats when dirt and poor uneven cutting starts occuring. Try keeping a 36tf front cutting evenly at 15 - 17km_hr in uneven_undulating country with banks and gullies.

 

[FarmerTom]

some vast differences occur between here and there. we are putting all the straw thru the machine!!! we are dealing with yields that range from 60bpa to 160bpa. combine 160bpa with 5' to 5.5' straw and speed decreases greatly. we are also dealing with older combines that have a lower purchase price. using newer machines , this formula needs to change. we recently had an opportunity to combine beside a JD9400(largest combine in our area) with 18' head with our 3 walker machine and 11' cut. when the jd operator got his losses down to the rate we had, we were out combining the 9400 in acres per hour. very much depends on many factors. we charge by the hour because of crop differences, terrain differences, field size and we can put the most grain in the tank. one farmer is not subsidizing the other. in the end , the farmer tells us to speed up or slow down when it comes to setting for losses. most around here want all the grain in the tank, not on the ground, and all the straw they can get. my 2 cents worth