Contracting charges plus fuel, or contractor charges including fuel

Tim G

Member
Livestock Farmer
the simplist

sounds a realistic charge and sustainable. trouble is many farmers arent great business men and dont know the true costs involved involved in running their business/tractors etc until it too late - esp true when acting as a part time contractor
Is it though? £34 an acre averaging an acre an hour is £34 per hour. To run a tractor and plough.....
 

hoff135

Member
Location
scotland
Is it though? £34 an acre averaging an acre an hour is £34 per hour. To run a tractor and plough.....
It's not enough, plain and simple. Sometimes you get a better field and you can do 1.5 acres an hour. Make a little bit leveling and sowing grass. But if you are off the tractor 20 times an hour to hammer stones out from below the skims you'd be better off not being there!
 

hoff135

Member
Location
scotland
Thats 20 times an hour to unblock stones, not 2 haha.

I'll burn 10 litres of diesel an hour plus at a guess £5 to £7 of metal an acre so you are pushing £20 an acre before further wear and tear on the plough and tractor is even considered. So there's not much left. Be better just jobbing around.
 

tepapa

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Wales
Thats 20 times an hour to unblock stones, not 2 haha.

I'll burn 10 litres of diesel an hour plus at a guess £5 to £7 of metal an acre so you are pushing £20 an acre before further wear and tear on the plough and tractor is even considered. So there's not much left. Be better just jobbing around.
Sounds like a dead loss to me. Sell them the plough to do it themselves.
 

Tim G

Member
Livestock Farmer
I've been fencing 10 years but looking for something else to do. Can't win what ever you decide.
I gave up fencing when someone locally decided to start up. They'd sold a quite large business (non ag) and had plenty of money to spend on whatever they wanted. They decided people were getting ripped off by fencing contractors so were doing the job for the price of the materials. I did say you won't making a living like that and got the reply 'we don't need to'.
Lovely, some of us do!
 
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Jrp221

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cornwall
We used to contract, our diesel supplier would rock up most days when we were on silage and fill everything. Forager, bowser, trailer tractors, rake, buckrake. They were generally fractionally more expensive but the service we had was fantastic and certainly worth paying a bit extra for. Certainly glad we are no longer contracting, scary prices of everything!!
 

bravheart

Member
Location
scottish borders
Tooling up for a job like ploughing is a scarey thought these days. The guy I used has just retired and held a sale of machines. Adding the tractor price onto the plough price one yolk made 85k and the other 54k with a third occasional use plough making 5.7k. and the tractors it was used on bid from 17k to 46k some not sold. How can anyone start out in business with those prices and the rates quoted above and make a margin?

edit. and perhaps commission on top of those prices.
 

Ali_Maxxum

Member
Location
Chepstow, Wales
So far I have just adjusted the man and tractor hourly rate with the cost of diesel, if it comes down, so will the rate. We could dart around half a dozen or more places in a day, granted I could fill up at the end of the day, see how many litres I've used and then see how long I was at each job and work it out that way.

I just can't be arsed to be filling up for the sake of filling up. This is the rate, take it or leave it or find someone else that will do the job to the same standard as me. Not much mention in an increase in labour, got to find £500 more in a year for the council tax, the electric is up, the gas, the food, need I go on?

Current rate is up £8/hr at the moment just for fuel and ad blue alone.
 
Have been charging silaging ( self propelled) out at a base rate - plus fuel at cost on day of job (fill up every night or after every job from metered bowser)for about 12 years,customers like it as always a couple of light fields- so use less fuel = cheaper per acre - just need to get the base cost right 🤔.
 
Trouble with contracting you can never get the rate right to make a set margin. Field sizes, types of soil, location etc etc all play a massive part in determining your costs. With a one price fits all it is invariably the heavier ground smaller field farmer that gains. All we can do as contractors is approximate ie a good margin on some farms and maybe a loss on others
 

john432

Member
Location
Carmarthenshire
Tooling up for a job like ploughing is a scarey thought these days. The guy I used has just retired and held a sale of machines. Adding the tractor price onto the plough price one yolk made 85k and the other 54k with a third occasional use plough making 5.7k. and the tractors it was used on bid from 17k to 46k some not sold. How can anyone start out in business with those prices and the rates quoted above and make a margin?

edit. and perhaps commission on top of those prices.
Every ones circumstances are different...doing a lot of ploughing now, with a 20 + yr old tractor of around 180/200 hp bought and fitted with new tyres for around£20k. My plough is 10 years old...full spec, vari width etc... tractor won't devalue much if any. Have my smaller younger tractor as back up, all paid for...
 

mtx.jag

Member
Location
pembs
Every ones circumstances are different...doing a lot of ploughing now, with a 20 + yr old tractor of around 180/200 hp bought and fitted with new tyres for around£20k. My plough is 10 years old...full spec, vari width etc... tractor won't devalue much if any. Have my smaller younger tractor as back up, all paid for...
Yes but the cost of replacement needs to be factored in. If the gearbox let go ploughing,would you replace or repair?
 

john432

Member
Location
Carmarthenshire
Yes but the cost of replacement needs to be factored in. If the gearbox let go ploughing,would you replace or repair?
It would deffinatly be repaired...the 8200 series Dynashift Massey's are very highly regarded.Used tractors are often ,better the devil you know, break faliure contamination ,and the future expensive never ending problems would be my biggest concern about used tractors.
 

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

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