Contracting charges plus fuel, or contractor charges including fuel

hoff135

Member
Location
scotland
Ploughing is not much fun in this sh1t!
2016-07-21 14.04.06_zpsqltvaq5a.jpg
 

hoff135

Member
Location
scotland
What is the solution to fields that turn over like the one in the picture?
Eaten to the roots with sheep, and/or burnt off with roundup and left a few weeks.

Or rough plough, level, sow stubble turnip and try and re seed next year. However if you plough again next year you also turn back the mat of dead grass so you have that to deal with.
 
looking at the picture above, I have at times had to suffer similar woes and like others have said it makes far more sense to charge by the hour, after all it is fairer to both sides. However most farmers dont like to think outside the box and wont really want to go that route
 
Eaten to the roots with sheep, and/or burnt off with roundup and left a few weeks.

Or rough plough, level, sow stubble turnip and try and re seed next year. However if you plough again next year you also turn back the mat of dead grass so you have that to deal with.

Ah I see. This must be why I have never had a customer complain about finding land this difficult to plough, I always insisted that old leys were destroyed and left to disappear for a time.
 

hoff135

Member
Location
scotland
You can run the discs deep and they will help cut through the turf but I was finding they were getting knocked off with stones, losing the disc and the hub which would then get ploughed in. I lost 3 or 4 over the past few years and the aren't cheap to replace buying new disc, bearings and hub.

Then this happens, pin holding the auto reset spring to the rid breaks and there's a clevis which gets sent in to orbit!

I've since replaced the 4 pins on the plough, 3 inch pin with roll pin in each end were 45£ each from kverneland!

This happened twice within a few hundred yards lol. Was ready to cry

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hoff135

Member
Location
scotland
looking at the picture above, I have at times had to suffer similar woes and like others have said it makes far more sense to charge by the hour, after all it is fairer to both sides. However most farmers dont like to think outside the box and wont really want to go that route
I was trying to float that idea to a couple of people but then they kind of wanted to know how long it would take!
 

john432

Member
Location
Carmarthenshire
It's sad to see ash trees die on their feet...but when ploughing near them , especially if they haven't been ploughed in the last 10? Years it's difficult to feel sorry for them. Take the little top handle chainsaw with me now,. Saves a lot of tugging trying to get the roots out.
 
It's sad to see ash trees die on their feet...but when ploughing near them , especially if they haven't been ploughed in the last 10? Years it's difficult to feel sorry for them. Take the little top handle chainsaw with me now,. Saves a lot of tugging trying to get the roots out.
I just turn the plough over and back a few times
 

DrDunc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Dunsyre
Some farms you take the diesel, some you use the tractor monitor to record what you've used and add to the bill

Some farms the tank is easy access and well filtered, others you're expected to take half an hour to fill with black sludge from a rust pocked container full of water (advice: just don't)

Some farms have big fields brimming with bales begging for 80 an hour wrapping personal bests, others have 36 scattered over 40 acres of rough grazing after taking an hour to get there

Charge accordingly - an hour of work and an hour of depreciation - while it's a way of life, farming isn't a charity



The best farms are where you get fed food, share beer, and expect nothing more than the favour returned
 

Oscar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Have not the time to read 4 pages [so not sure if this already mentioned]but I do contract spraying and on my regular customers I am charging a fixed price per ha but based on 90 p / ltr diesel price . I then charge a fuel supplement charge on top upto price I paid for last load ie diesel bought at £1.10 / ltr , [110-90 ]20p x 15 ltrs/hr [average fuel burn] = £3 / hr extra x time I m on farm .
Everybody is happy with that and caters for fuel price rises and falls.
On small "one off" type jobs , I just charge a increased flat rate / ha
 
looking at the picture above, I have at times had to suffer similar woes and like others have said it makes far more sense to charge by the hour, after all it is fairer to both sides. However most farmers dont like to think outside the box and wont really want to go that route

and when I see photos like that I’m glad we do charge per hour. The job still gets under your skin but you get a little compensation for it.

we are lucky though. People around our way are used to being charged per hour for some work. Trying to convert farmers from per ha to per hour is a painful process.
 
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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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

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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/
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