Machinery sharing!

[Fendt820]

Just looking for any advise/tips/warning about machinery sharing. Mixed farm milking and arable and a small bit on contracting. Few neighbours around milking and arable. Wounding if it was a good idea approaching them to see if the wanted to share silage gear. Combine and cultivation equipment. Plus maybe slurry unbiblical equipment. Seems mad that we all have this gear but could do a lot more with it. Thanks

 

[RWG Contracts]

My dad and all hos neighbours share. Siloing is done with his immediate neighbour. His tanker is half owned with another neighbour, they borrow other tackle off each other as well, no money ever changes hands

 

[nick...]

My dad tried to do this 20 years ago and nothing came of it.most farmers are too independant
Nick...

 

[DeeGee]

Need to have at least two like minded farmers who will take care of machinery and are both prepared to give and take.
Not always that easy as there are plenty who will always do the latter before the former.

 

[4course]

great idea in theory and could given the right people and business set ups work to the benefit of all but grandad said when the chips are down a donkey of your own is better than 1/2 a horse and hes been proved right many times

 

[CORNFLAKE]

It's a good idea and a sensible business move but as said above it takes like minded people to make it work. That's the problem which is a pity.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

m y dad said niether a lender or a borrower be , he was right , i borrowed a dump traieler, the axle broke off and twisted the frame, how do you explain that

 

[4course]

m y dad said niether a lender or a borrower be , he was right , i borrowed a dump traieler, the axle broke off and twisted the frame, how do you explain that

twas polonius who said it to laertes so your dad borrowed it from him or did he borrow it from shakespear who wrote the line, therin lies the problem of who borrowed from who and who used it,ps just goes to show it wasnt a total waste of time doing english lit 50 years ago and the memory still works

 

[Campbell]

The British farm machinery business is founded on the 'tractor for every implement and plenty of implements' theory, don't start sharing kit, it's tough enough for the machinery trade as it is!

 

[KMA]

Yes the theory is great but unlikely to work in practice. Who's crop gets done first, who's slurry tank gets emptied first ......who is responsible for maintenance/repairs &etc.,

Best option is neighbouring where you exchange services or work together working your own machinery on a reciprocal basis, - I'll bed your sheds if you muck out mine or I'll bale your round bales if you wrap mine.

 

[colhonk]

I`ve worked too hard to get my gear to let someone else bust it,no one round here I would trust with it.
50 odd years ago my dad`s cow trailer was borrowed by lots of neighbors and used to come back full of cow sh!t, broken front boards ect. the cement mixer went missing for several years,first person lent it to someone else who lent it to some one else ect, when dad finally found it, the person using it had know idea whose it was. same with the tatty planter, still never had the rowing bodies returned after all these years.

 

[Grassman]

If you can manage without sharing I would. You are going to put money into something that isn't yours to do what you want when you want so far more sense to just let a contractor do the job. I do share some things without great issues but as stuff gets older it needs repairing or replacing which is difficult to sort fairly.
For example the machine needs a few thousand spending on repairs and tyres. One wants to trade in and the other wants to just do the repairs. Someone has to do what they don't want to!

 

[JD-Kid]

truth be knowen if there is eneff guys keep the very basics on each farm say a feeder topper etc etc then have a stand along machinery pool common driver running the gear etc etc can go up a bit in gear size to speed up working
better use of gear use of labour etc etc
loaning gear tends to end in tears one can be fussy others fix with string bend things etc
know alot of areas running machinery rings there gear is in most cases well kept looked after jobs done on time gear replaced etc .. also there maybe some things with tax etc so needs to be looked in to from all angles

 

[scholland]

We share forage wagon, post driver, slurry kit, sprayer etc all with one neighbor. Works really well, I drive the wagon and combine and do most of the maintenance but we use the kit slightly more than him so all works out.
It suits us well.

 

[nick...]

I hired my nc trailer out for a couple days.a dealer reccomended me and i never hired out anything before with out me.all went ok but i was worried untill it came back.on a different note i lent someone a tractor vhs video about 15 years ago.it was subsequently lent out by the first person to 16 others.i was ages getting it back and never again
Nick...

 

[7610 super q]

Never again. Borrowed flat bed trailer off a neighbour a few years ago, did what I wanted with it, but didn't get round to returning it. Neighbour needed it, so comes round to pick it up, but someone came out of a road junction too quickly, neighbour panicked, swerved to avoid car, and overturns his tractor. He broke his arm, and spent months off work. I felt awful about it, and still do 10 years later.

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

Either be a Contractor or get a Contractor in to do the work,
Borrowing tackle is like borrowing someone else's woman will only get you into bother, and if you can't afford the gear, then it would be cheaper in long run to get a contractor, and going half's on gear is like being separated, you don't see her,but it still costs you

 

[early riser]

Sharing can work if you have a formal agreement, get on well with one another, both mechanically-minded and most importantly have slightly differing farming systems e.g. One man dairy and one man beef so that you aren't bickering over whose silage gets cut on 21st May.

 

[DRC]

The number of farms that don't own a decent trailer, and think they can borrow mine. I used to let a grain trailer go around with a contractors combine, until it got returned with bent steps. Chap said, I put my lad on it, laughing, and he turned a bit short , but we've straightened it out.
This year my flat trailer has been spotted by guys I wintered cattle for, and they've asked to borrow it. FFS you own your farm and 300 cows, buy some tack!

 

[early riser]

The number of farms that don't own a decent trailer, and think they can borrow mine. I used to let a grain trailer go around with a contractors combine, until it got returned with bent steps. Chap said, I put my lad on it, laughing, and he turned a bit short , but we've straightened it out.
This year my flat trailer has been spotted by guys I wintered cattle for, and they've asked to borrow it. FFS you own your farm and 300 cows, buy some tack!

Machinery sharing is a different thing to machinery borrowing