How much to charge for fertiliser spreading?

[redsloe]

there may just be a £140k tractor and £40k pa driver to pay for as well to get the job done

then there is training / compliance, a yard to work from a building to keep kit in and a office to pay for

a decent spreader is best part of 10k today as well you can spend 20 if you get carried away !

I don’t see many farm contractors looking like they make fortunes! About time this industry started paying properly imo

That's very true, but I am pretty sure that 35 English pounds would get me a 140k tractor and a 40k man for any job for an hour. That still leaves a fair bit for a fert spreader.
If there's no profit there would be no 20k fert spreader. Simples.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

We charge by the tonne spread, over 250kg/ha, and by the hour under 250kg/ha.
Grass, direct-drilled and cultivated ground are all different rates, partly for affordability reasons as we do the haulage of the fert as well.
But it protects both sides, ie spreading 62 dairy paddocks at 50kg is a different beast to 5T/ac of lime on a ploughed paddock.
Certainly we get plenty of work

 

[farmerm]

If all contractors agreed to use the NAAC rates it would stop this pointless race to the bottom

we are all happy be supplied by cartels so why don’t we join them with our pricing ?

£12.77 / ha it is !

Can we all also all agree to give wheat away for free but all charge a minimum of £150/tonne for loading…..

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Both the chaps I use charge by the hour.

Prefer it that way as there is a bit of difference between a top dressing of urea and an after cut slug.

 

[cvx175]

That's very true, but I am pretty sure that 35 English pounds would get me a 140k tractor and a 40k man for any job for an hour. That still leaves a fair bit for a fert spreader.
If there's no profit there would be no 20k fert spreader. Simples.

If there was no profit then there'd be nobody going to do the job

 

[lloyd]

What area? I paid contractor £80+vat a couple of years ago to throw 1.8 t (3 big bags) on around 100 acres of smallish paddocks. Probably took him a couple of hours.

At that application rate sounds like he just went for a drive round your fields
listening to his favourite tunes.

 

[Clive]

That's very true, but I am pretty sure that 35 English pounds would get me a 140k tractor and a 40k man for any job for an hour. That still leaves a fair bit for a fert spreader.
If there's no profit there would be no 20k fert spreader. Simples.

great - go buy your own spreader then, why worry about contractor rates


Profit is not a dirty word and any man who expects another to work without one is not worth working for

 

[Clive]

Can we all also all agree to give wheat away for free but all charge a minimum of £150/tonne for loading…..

If only we could be so organized/united! ..................... but yes I like the idea !

 

[lloyd]

great - go buy your own spreader then, why worry about contractor rates


Profit is not a dirty word and any man who expects another to work without one is not worth working for

Afraid it's a competitive business
If one man can make a profit at £5ha but you want £12.77ha
then you'r too dear as long as the quality of the work and standards
are the same.
If you choose to run an office and employ a secretary and another mans office is his tractor
then his overheads are less too.

You wouldn't buy a branded chemical product over a generic as long
as the result was the same?

Thoughts

 

[Clive]

Afraid it's a competitive business
If one man can make a profit at £5ha but you want £12.77ha
then you'r too dear as long as the quality of the work and standards
are the same.
If you choose to run an office and employ a secretary and another mans office is his tractor
then his overheads are less too.

You wouldn't buy a branded chemical product over a generic as long
as the result was the same?

Thoughts

One man may think he's making a profit at £5/ha but as a recent and long-running thread re depreciation proves well a lot of farmers are not exactly talented with a calculator!

 

[lloyd]

One man may think he's making a profit at £5/ha but as a recent and long-running thread re depreciation proves well a lot of farmers are not exactly talented with a calculator!

That maybe true to some extent but when
buying in your inputs do you worry whether or
not that company is making profits?

I am normally concerned if they are making too
much out of me but generally speaking it's not
for me to point the errors of their way if they're not.

It goes back to supply and demand
Plenty of tractors and spinners out there
with surplus capacity.

If you want to earn good money contracting
find a specialist sector and eliminate the competition.

 

[SilliamWhale]

great - go buy your own spreader then, why worry about contractor rates


Profit is not a dirty word and any man who expects another to work without one is not worth working for

You could pay a contractor yourself and give him some profit instead of buying your own machine and keeping the profit for you!!

I pay £2.50-4 per acre depending on rates for an all singing/ dancing spreader. I think for man, machine (£120k fastrac/ top range kuhn spreader £20k) its not worth me doing it. To be honest having the extra man counts for as much as anything.

 

[Brisel]

I did some fertiliser spreading for a neighbour, 24m weigh cell KRM spinner with Patchwork GPS on grassland, what should I be charging, thinking £3-4/acre?

I'd be at least £4/acre if the customer supplies the bags to the edge of the nice smooth big field. Hourly rate if it's fiddly and a minimum charge if it's a lot of running about. Less if it's a light dose and you like this person i.e. they would help you out if you needed it.

 

[Brisel]

Can we all also all agree to give wheat away for free but all charge a minimum of £150/tonne for loading…..

Why not? This is how the electricity industry got around capped unit charges - you pay higher metering fees. The same applies for mobile phones - you pay higher rental charges and call charges to recoup the capital cost of the handset.

 

[Headless chicken]

How anybody thinks it's reasonable to buy a spreader for perhaps 3 or4k for a half decent one, probably cover 40 or 50 acres an hour and charge 5 quid an acre! 250 quid an hour?
They wouldn't get much repeat business with me!

then buy your own.

 

[redsloe]

great - go buy your own spreader then, why worry about contractor rates


Profit is not a dirty word and any man who expects another to work without one is not worth working for

I have.
One for 3k through TFF thank you.

My point is, if I can hire a rear discharge dung spreader for £48/hr, why would I be content to pay the equivalent of £250/hr for a fert spreader?
That's all, not bothered by other people's profit at all, good luck to them. Just looking after mine.

 

[Clive]

This thread reminds me why we only do s2s contract farming

 

[ollie989898]

How anybody thinks it's reasonable to buy a spreader for perhaps 3 or4k for a half decent one, probably cover 40 or 50 acres an hour and charge 5 quid an acre! 250 quid an hour?
They wouldn't get much repeat business with me!

Ah so the tractor on the front and skilled man doing the job are free? I understand the maths now.

 

[lloyd]

This thread reminds me why we only do s2s contract farming

Sounds like s2s contact farming
Is lucrative.
What's not to like?

 

[Gerbert]

Charge your neighbour by the hour, something from €60 to 80 depending on how posh your spreader is.
I guess...