A good cost of production is one thing. Good marketing will help maximise profit. We sold wheat at £135/t and some at £203/t from 2020 harvest, and the rest in between the two.
Sustainable?
- Thread starter Overby
- Start date
A good cost of production is one thing. Good marketing will help maximise profit. We sold wheat at £135/t and some at £203/t from 2020 harvest, and the rest in between the two.
Well if you want to play Top Trumps….
My 32 year old JD3350 plus 21 year old Dale Direct Drill and Rolls of a similar vintage to yours will be better still!!!
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Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Does running old kit really make anyone more profitable?
Some people on here seem to be very proud of the age and low value of there machinery.
Who's going to benefit from you running old machines? Your children, the nursing home you end up in?
Many sitting on hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of land. Yet they'd rather make do with old machines. Yet they expect a government lump sum to retire and get out!
Some people on here seem to be very proud of the age and low value of there machinery.
Who's going to benefit from you running old machines? Your children, the nursing home you end up in?
Many sitting on hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of land. Yet they'd rather make do with old machines. Yet they expect a government lump sum to retire and get out!
- Location
- Lincolnshire
If old kit wasnt cheaper to run there wouldnt be any, all machines and tractors would be scrapped at 3 years old, no one buys a tractor at 3 years old thinking this will cost more to run than a new one even when the cost of money is included.Does running old kit really make anyone more profitable?
Some people on here seem to be very proud of the age and low value of there machinery.
Who's going to benefit from you running old machines? Your children, the nursing home you end up in?
Many sitting on hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of land. Yet they'd rather make do with old machines. Yet they expect a government lump sum to retire and get out!
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
If nobody bought new, there would be no used available?
Why does anyone buy new if 3 year old kit is cheaper to run?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Why does anyone buy new if 3 year old kit is cheaper to run?
They want to, and are convinced they self destruct the day the warranty runs out.
- Location
- LINCOLNSHIRE/KENYA
That actually wasn’t my point if you want to talk sustainability then older kit will have less of an impact on the planet as it has already been manufactured obviously it may not be as green to run but that can be balanced out against the use of resources in manufacturing something new. There is a lot to be said for getting the full life out of your machinery investment. I had somebody from Claas on the farm once and i was telling him how pleased i was to be getting 12000 hours out of our tractors to which he told me but in Tanzania on the sugar estates they are getting 30,000 hours.Does running old kit really make anyone more profitable?
Some people on here seem to be very proud of the age and low value of there machinery.
Who's going to benefit from you running old machines? Your children, the nursing home you end up in?
Many sitting on hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of land. Yet they'd rather make do with old machines. Yet they expect a government lump sum to retire and get out!
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Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Wasn't really aimed at you directly.
I take pride in running old stuff too. Buy a mixture of used and new here depending on workload. Would rather buy a over capacity used machine than a smaller new one and push it all the time.
I'm questioning myself as much as anyone on the forum.
- Location
- LINCOLNSHIRE/KENYA
I think defining sustainability is pretty difficult there are so many variables. Listening to the radio from UK i get really annoyed when they advertise the changes to the London congestion charge they talk about older more polluting cars but the truth is the environmental damage caused by building newer greener could be far greater however that damage is being done elsewhere and making things last longer isn’t as good for the economy.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
As a industry Ad plants and the renewable heat industry are examples of complete unsustainability involving agriculture. As long as these continue I will not question on farm sustainability.
- Location
- Near Beeston Castle
If the old kit can still do the job in a timely fashion and you don't need to buy new kit at the prices they ask, then yes it does make you more profitable.
On the other hand if that old kit is constantly needing repair and is so unreliable a lot of time is spent in trying to get it to work rather than actually out there doing the work then no. It does not make you more profitable it just makes you more miserable.
Scrapyard challenge farming is just the pits! I enjoy using old kit but not if it is shagged out rubbish.
Re old kit versus new there are lots to consider.
Obviously depreciation is a bit hit on new kit but this had to be balanced against repair costs. Then there is the question of timeliness, if you are trying to drill a couple of hundred acres with old temperamental kit all well and good, if you have several thousand acres then the opportunity cost of delayed drilling may be more than the depreciation hit of newer kit.
Obviously depreciation is a bit hit on new kit but this had to be balanced against repair costs. Then there is the question of timeliness, if you are trying to drill a couple of hundred acres with old temperamental kit all well and good, if you have several thousand acres then the opportunity cost of delayed drilling may be more than the depreciation hit of newer kit.
I do it because I can’t find anything that will do the job better (at least better enough to justify the cost of change) or come close to doing it more cost effectively. It’s also not a bad place to spend a day, I’ve fitted it out with full auto steer, air con would be nice on some days, but not that many. We had it from new and it has (so far) been very reliable and I can work on it myself for most repairs.Does running old kit really make anyone more profitable?
Some people on here seem to be very proud of the age and low value of there machinery.
Who's going to benefit from you running old machines? Your children, the nursing home you end up in?
Many sitting on hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of land. Yet they'd rather make do with old machines. Yet they expect a government lump sum to retire and get out!
If I was looking to take on more land it would stop being the right tractor, but as things stand with the way I’ve set the farm up unless it goes BANG it will stay here until at least 2024, by which time I should have a reasonable idea about what the public want from UK Ag going forward.
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I very much doubt anyone's advocating using old clapped out kit to farm a few thousand acres, so your comparison is rather pointless.
Not really, some of the above posts seemed quite black and white in their views, I was pointing out that it was more nuanced than that, so not pointless. If you have anything worthwhile to say please feel free to chip in.
The discussion already nuanced from what I read, it was you who tried to paint it as black and white. Whatever.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I run old kit as a) new gear is not affordable on my area and b) big old gear is cheaper, so gets work done so I can earn off farm
Courier
Member
- Location
- M62 - M1 - M18 triangle
Similar to our policy of buying new for our workhorse vans and then maintaining them properly before moving them on at 300 - 350,000 miles at around 5 - 6 years old but a genuine car we are happy to buy at !00,000+ miles at less 1/3rd new value.
Too many vans miss out on timely servicing from new, not worth the risk of letting a customer down, but if my car has a problem, well that's only me being inconvenienced and there is always another vehicle around somewhere...
warksfarmer
Member
That’s just ridiculous. Better off putting it into stewardship and doing nothing.