Chemical Price Tracker

[Andy26]

Thats a big difference woodlander. Since posting my prices we have left agrovista and gone with a independent. Who should we be pricing up when ringing round for chemicals?

Join a buying group, it will take all the hassle out of shopping round for prices and you will always be there or there abouts the best price available.

 

[Andy26]

Thought I'd try to add some values to the difference between serviced agronomy and supply only, which might help a few with their decision making.

Firstly, this is by no means scientific. I've taken a few of the products priced on here as serviced and compared them to the average quote price which I recieved to get a percentage difference figure. These are listed below. It is difficult to compare a lot of products as distributors often have their own 'mixes' so I have kept it to the ones easy to compare.

Even if you are using a large distributor serviced package they should be able to offer you a price for just advice on a per acre basis, therefore you can keep your current agronomist if you so wish. I don't know for sure, and they would have different ways of working it out, but I imagine this would be in the region of £5-6 per acre for combinable crops.

So the difference in price for the posted products (products may not be the same name but are the same rates of active)

Deere 66 - Savannah (tebuconazole 250g/l) 36.6%
TomO - Duplosan KV 23.7%
- Agrovista 3see (chlormequat) 16.9%
Jon 3085 - Tracker - 16.7%
- Kayak - 42%
Silverfox - Bio-power - 26.4%
Stroller - Oxytril - 6%

The average difference is 24% (I was expecting 15-20%). With more products to analyse I could get a more accurate figure, and the variation is quite high.

So take a 100acre farm only growing wheat. If you paid £5 per acre for agronomy that would be £500. If buying products on a quote basis they were spending £70 per acre on crop protection products that would be a further £7000, total cost £7500.

If you are on serviced agronomy with a 24% average mark up you would be spending £87 per acre on crop protection products - totaling £8700 for the farm. The difference therefore is £1200 between serviced agronomy and non-serviced agronomy.

My farm is only of a modest size, and therefore larger farms may get even better prices than I do and the difference could be even greater.

As I say, this is by no means scientific but should give food for thought.

An excellent post, which is right on mark. Although I suspect the serviced agronomoy would have you using even more products, particuarly high margin things like trace elements and adjuvants, so the £1200 saving on 100 acres could well be a several hundred more.

Yet still you here...

'but mines one of the good ones'
'he knows the farm'
'been coming here years'
'always used him'

Even on a supply only basis you can expect chemicals to be delivered next day, as for returns it will depend on the distributor. If you can operate on just-in-time basis thats brilliant, but product shortages (or artificial ones!!) can mean you have to be a little more organised when ordering chemicals.

 

[Worsall]

You are suggesting an agronomist is going to regularly walk your farm of 100 acres, with possibly three different crops, and write multiple plans for £500 per year???????????

 

[7800]

This is all fine and dandy but who do you think is paying for next day delivery and the ability to send back? It's the boys getting taken for a ride.
Also the bigger buying groups get the less competitive they are, if we are all members then prices go up. This is what happened in France.
There are good distributor field walkers and they have a place.
If too many are on an acreage fee look out for 2 to 3 day delivery and charged to send back.

 

[balerman]

You are suggesting an agronomist is going to regularly walk your farm of 100 acres, with possibly three different crops, and write multiple plans for £500 per year???????????

That is probably unrealistic,but for say 200 acres upwards,has to be the way to go.For very small areas serviced agronomy is probably better,Agrii prices are the same no matter how small the order.

 

[Steevo]

Surely you'd need 1000ac to get an independent agronomist to walk the farm 45 times for £4 an acre?

 

[Woodlander]

You are suggesting an agronomist is going to regularly walk your farm of 100 acres, with possibly three different crops, and write multiple plans for £500 per year???????????

It all depends. How many times a year are you likely to see them, and how many times will they walk your crops? If you only want to see them once a fortnight during the growing season and not at all during the winter then this may be possible. There are people on here only paying £4 per acre for crop walking, and if the agronomist has several farms in an area then it isn't that different to walking a larger farm.

100 acres was only used as an example for easy maths, but lets say your agronomist charged £10/acre then you are still £700 better off switching. As Andy26 said, my £70 per acre for crop protection spend was a little on the conservative side as well.

I am just trying to put some figures on the arguement, I am not saying everyone should switch, but surely if you are running a business you should always question what you are doing. You may come up with the answer, 'carry on as normal' but always ask the question.

 

[Woodlander]

Surely you'd need 1000ac to get an independent agronomist to walk the farm 45 times for £4 an acre?

45 times????? Does you agronomist walk all of your fields 45 times in a season? They must be one in a million! There will always be different levels of service depending on what the individual requires, and obviously the higher the level of service the more you pay!!

 

[Steevo]

45 times????? Does you agronomist walk all of your fields 45 times in a season? They must be one in a million! There will always be different levels of service depending on what the individual requires, and obviously the higher the level of service the more you pay!!

Sorry, was based on a comment I read on BFF.

http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?11773-chemical-cost&p=168644&viewfull=1#post168644

 

[warksfarmer]

Anybody got a price on Adexar?

 

[Outsiderofthree]

Anybody got a price on Adexar?

I paid £290/10lt last week (no service)

 

[warksfarmer]

I paid £290/10lt last week (no service)

The trial data I've seen would suggest 2l/ha rate is the best return so that's £58/ha cost to obtain 0.5t/ha extra yield. 0.5's worth £180/t so £90/ha leaving a £32/ha profit over the application before the sprayer pass or any other chems added at the time.

 

[Outsiderofthree]

The trial data I've seen would suggest 2l/ha rate is the best return so that's £58/ha cost to obtain 0.5t/ha extra yield. 0.5's worth £180/t so £90/ha leaving a £32/ha profit over the application before the sprayer pass or any other chems added at the time.

I am using adexar at 0.9lt plus 0.4lt opus and 0.4lt comet (pyraclostrobin) This follows T1 of tracker and at flag leaf the crops are very clean

 

[Andy26]

The trial data I've seen would suggest 2l/ha rate is the best return so that's £58/ha cost to obtain 0.5t/ha extra yield. 0.5's worth £180/t so £90/ha leaving a £32/ha profit over the application before the sprayer pass or any other chems added at the time.

Look at the HGCA dose response curve, bear in mind last year had a high dose response. I've used/using Adexar @ 1l/ha.

 

[An Gof]

1L/Ha Adexar + 1 L/Ha CTL here

 

[Woodlander]

Our independent walks our crops 51 times a year ( we let him off Christmas !)

I walk them weekly as well apart from winter when nothing's growing much

I would imagine it is necessary for the agronomist to show up weekly on larger farms during the growing season, checking recommendations, updating etc. I would be suprised if he/she walked every field thoroughly every week though!!

 

[Woodlander]

1L/Ha Adexar + 1 L/Ha CTL here

Same for me, but I'm adding in an extra 0.1 epoxiconazole as the triazole rate of 1l/ha Adexar is a little low in my opinion.

 

[Clive]

I would imagine it is necessary for the agronomist to show up weekly on larger farms during the growing season, checking recommendations, updating etc. I would be suprised if he/she walked every field thoroughly every week though!!

A lot of the year more drives about I guess ! But a weekly meeting always

 

[warksfarmer]

I would imagine it is necessary for the agronomist to show up weekly on larger farms during the growing season, checking recommendations, updating etc. I would be suprised if he/she walked every field thoroughly every week though!!

Anybody expecting their agronomist to walk every single field every week is in the wrong job. You can't even expect them to drive past every single block of land.

Its your land, your crops and ultimately your decision how they are treated, so it's your problem not there's. They are there to advise and then prescribe if required.

 

[Jon 3085]

Arizona 10lt £98.78
Velocity 3lt £36.32
Agate 5lt £106.00
Tracker 10lt £245.00

Serviced