Going rate for contract drilling

alomy75

Member
You must have some easy drilling land to go at that speed and filling
the drill like a formula one team changing the tyres .🏎️
Good on you though if you can achieve those rates.
Clive did say spot rate…won’t include turning, filling, wee-stops and reading messages on TFF so intently that he’s forgotten to engage autosteer after setting in…because no one’s ever done that…🤫
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
You must have some easy drilling land to go at that speed and filling
the drill like a formula one team changing the tyres .🏎️
Good on you though if you can achieve those rates.

spot rate but, small fields and filling obv cuts that but 250ac in a day is quite possible without silly hours

could do more if we had bigger fields and worked a extra hour each end of the day I guess, I suspect some do

logoistic of filling etc are very important of course
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
With a 12 metre drill 250 acres a day would be a steady speed. My fields are large and 30acres an hour is decent going. As said filling is the critical thing to achieve a good daily average. When man power is available we use a drill fill. Two hoppers with 8 inch augers direct into the air cart. Enough seed and phosphate for 100 acres in 7 minutes. Quick check for any problems,a whiz and back at it. I seed for various neighbours for 20 an acre. But at that I expect a couple days of driving at harvest time from them. Works good for me as they feel obligated to help when normally they’d be happy to go fishing. I won’t drill anyone’s until mine is done. Ever.
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
£60k ish with front tank . Depends on spec
Really? That seems cheap.

A used 4m lemken sold recently at that price at a farm sale up here. @Sandy will know details of it.

I charge £25/acre with 4m combi. Should be more, has been that for years. I always do our own first don't actively go seeking work. Thoughts are tractor and drill and me is there anyway so not costing me a lot to do a bit extra.

What fudges it up for proper contractors.
 

Speedstar

Member
Location
Scottish Borders
The question begs, why do some charge that t

speedy
this is for 3 m
dolomit subsoiler bar
a helidor
powerharrow
front tank and toolbar
so could use either or mix of above
£79000 😳
the a team has a project this winter
ex demo 3 m combo £37
As cheap as that you will be working for £35 per hour , these people are out of touch with things now , is there 50% discount off that & 10 years 0% to pay for it
 
As cheap as that you will be working for £35 per hour , these people are out of touch with things now , is there 50% discount off that & 10 years 0% to pay for it
£35 an hour 👌👍💁can go chapping stobs in for more than that
two of us going to knock some in for horse customer £60 an hour i said , did not want job but she said oooh that sounds ok 😭😳 been quoted more , when can you come
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
Drilled 11 acres with combi for neighbour to south of us last month.
Biggest part of job was looking for the chain to drag the disused hunt jump out of the hedgeline. ;)

I rolled ploughing before I fetched drill, then he rolled drilling afterwards.

Marginal cost was about 40 litres of diesel. £30 at the time.

Contracting charge would be £5 an acre for rolling then £25 for drilling.
I'll be charging him £25 x11 acres when I get around to it. He's a neighbour with spare land. ;)

Real cost is priceless as field was rained on overnight and was green over inside a week.

I'll be getting more work to do and can do it at the right time for both of us.
He can come and drive for me for £10 an hour off his bills.
That's my reality.
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
He said he wants to make a profit. Neighbour isn’t dying just to wet to use his one drill. If a favour will surfice then crack on. But as a business choice , I’d charge by the hour. £40 per hour
That's not enough.

3m drill, 50 acres in 10 hours.
So 5 acres an hour.
Makes you only £8/acre.
Drilling is probably the most important job of the year.
Charge by the acre, charge for fuel or know your costs and add it in.
Can do £150 an hour, which then means you've earned enough for the time spent getting ready, cleaning off afterwards etc.
It's still not a way to get rich unless you've got a lot of acres to do.

There's probably in excess of £120k tied up in the tractor/GPS/drill. Which depreciates faster than it earns.
A few quid an acre doesn't cut it
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
Please note; contributors to this thread may not have a calculator, be able to use a spread sheet or be allowed to sign cheques.😭
But with £20k tied up in the drilling setup rather than the £120k mentioned it's kind of up to me and between my neighbour and I. ;)
I know people running around the parish for less and hoping to be in business next year.
One looks to be growing tramlines to sell as a sideline.
 

PB1507

Member
Location
Lincs
Point taken but the OP wanted some guidance on what to charge and the thread changed into what it costs to run existing equipment. Which is fine but if you turn the argument on its head the cost of producing a ton of wheat may be £75 ? would you recommend that when the market is £200/t a grower forgoes the profit ???? .
Profit pays for reinvestment. Yesterdays costs may not pay todays bills.
 

tullah

Member
Location
Linconshire
That's not enough.

3m drill, 50 acres in 10 hours.
So 5 acres an hour.
Makes you only £8/acre.
Drilling is probably the most important job of the year.
Charge by the acre, charge for fuel or know your costs and add it in.
Can do £150 an hour, which then means you've earned enough for the time spent getting ready, cleaning off afterwards etc.
It's still not a way to get rich unless you've got a lot of acres to do.

There's probably in excess of £120k tied up in the tractor/GPS/drill. Which depreciates faster than it earns.
A few quid an acre doesn't cut it
All you people with expensive kit saying depreciation etc bumping up your costs and you have £120k of drill and tractor to run and depreciate. Have you ever thought of running a simple 3 m combination drill pulled by an old 125hp tractor all in at at say 20k max.
Or even simple 4m nordsten on 70 hp tractor total for sub 10k doing sixty acres a day.
No wonder those with top of the range kit have to charge double the rate to make the sums add up.
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
All you people with expensive kit saying depreciation etc bumping up your costs and you have £120k of drill and tractor to run and depreciate. Have you ever thought of running a simple 3 m combination drill pulled by an old 125hp tractor all in at at say 20k max.
Or even simple 4m nordsten on 70 hp tractor total for sub 10k doing sixty acres a day.
No wonder those with top of the range kit have to charge double the rate to make the sums add up.
Been there done that, got the black grass to show for it.
This ground didn't suit it.
All the while it was burning off the carbon stored in it for centuries it worked to an extent, but as the organic matter reduced over time, and biology got less it got harder, and harder to make anything resembling a seedbed.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,292
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top