Newer combine ???

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
Yeh ok I get your point , only difference is that we are only arable but I will give it a go. 👍🏻

Probably didn’t really word it well but the important point was that there really wasn’t much in it using my costs. Go with whichever works best for you on paper and practically. My guess is with 1000ac cereals owning one is a good idea.

Bg
 
Location
Cheshire
It will do a few more years yes , but then it’s value goes down and costs more to change , plus more likely to start running into bigger running costs 🤷🏻‍♂️
Except it won’t lose value the way things are going.

Reading between the lines I would say your senior assistant wants to do less, I would work your plan around that. Maybe look at drilling capacity if there is less need for a student?

Call it self preservation to halt any ideas of fully contracting the farm.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
We do not need hired help apart from harvest when we just need a part time lad on carting duty between us both we can manage the cultivation,drilling , spraying , fertilising no probs we manage harvest well aswell 🤷🏻‍♂️

So using a contractor to cut would save the depreciation and servicing/repairs on your own machine, it would save the labour of the harvest help (you'd be relegated to trailer cart of course), and a hell of a lot lower fuel bills.

The only extra cost to your business would effectively be the margin the contractor is making on the job.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
So using a contractor to cut would save the depreciation and servicing/repairs on your own machine, it would save the labour of the harvest help (you'd be relegated to trailer cart of course), and a hell of a lot lower fuel bills.

The only extra cost to your business would effectively be the margin the contractor is making on the job.

You are very correct. Put like that is sounds very simple and logical.

It never seems quite so in real life though....probably because you see the big sums going out annually when you pay the bill compared to if you have your own machine.

Getting a contractor in to cut 20ac with a brand new Lexion driven by an experience operator would be brilliant value at £50/ac compared to the farm running its own machine, even if the contractor is making a 20% margin.

As the area gets larger it's more tricky, but where the cutoff lies is a very difficult question indeed because it depends on so many factors.
 
Sad times in farming if 1000acres can not employ 2 men. 2 people is so much easier to give a lift to a machine, help fix a machine, move seed to drill or just have a laugh.

Sad but I can see the way things are going. Lots of farms not much smaller than that opt for contract farming or stubble to stubble. I can see why. To replace a tractor or combine or drier is big money, finding harvest students no longer that straight forward, not as much fun in the job etc. Last 20 years have seen some real rotters in terms of weather patterns, too.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Sad but I can see the way things are going. Lots of farms not much smaller than that opt for contract farming or stubble to stubble. I can see why. To replace a tractor or combine or drier is big money, finding harvest students no longer that straight forward, not as much fun in the job etc. Last 20 years have seen some real rotters in terms of weather patterns, too.

I hope you’re not suggesting that some of those arable farmers are looking for ways to avoid getting their hands dirty?😲

It wasn’t very long ago that they would keep some livestock to fill the slack times. Now there seem to be plenty that would rather ease the slightly busier times instead. :whistle:
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
You are very correct. Put like that is sounds very simple and logical.

It never seems quite so in real life though....probably because you see the big sums going out annually when you pay the bill compared to if you have your own machine.

It seems madness that 1000ac of cereals doesn’t easily warrant your own combine, but when you look at the economics it is likely marginal.

Of course it does depend on having access to a reliable contractor with sufficient capacity, who isn’t trying to maximise the use of his machine by spreading it over lots of acres…
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.3%

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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