tractor hire with operator

Zippy768

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dorset/Wilts
You are not paying yourself enough, not enough for fuel, insurance, repairs etc, and borrowing the implement you are going to use. Honestly you are way out and I hate to rain on your parade but one medium size breakdown or repair will finish you. I traded two 6000 hour tractors that I just could not afford to own anymore, one hit me with a 5k repair bill, followed by a 2k bill a month later.

New one on 5 years warranty and service, including fuel I know the cost per hour down to pence, if it doesn’t add up and I make money, I don’t do the job
You see I would probably look at that differently and think "I've just spent 7k on that tractor, I'm gonna keep it longer"
 
The problem with farmers they don't value there time and think the red diesel in there tank is free it wouldn't bother them if it took them all week to bring their bales in go and sit on someone's else's tractor for £15 a hour a lot. Better job
 

Zippy768

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dorset/Wilts
The problem with farmers they don't value there time and think the red diesel in there tank is free it wouldn't bother them if it took them all week to bring their bales in go and sit on someone's else's tractor for £15 a hour a lot. Better job
That is true.
I have a few jobs that maybe if I add £10/£15 an hour for my time, it might be cheaper to get someone else to do it.
But this is where Opportunity Costs comes in. At that moment in time saving a few quid per acre or hour, instead of getting someone in, might be the most profitable job
 

Zippy768

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dorset/Wilts
The problem with farmers they don't value there time and think the red diesel in there tank is free it wouldn't bother them if it took them all week to bring their bales in go and sit on someone's else's tractor for £15 a hour a lot. Better job
That is true.
I have a few jobs that maybe if I add £10/£15 an hour for my time, it might be cheaper to get someone else to do it.
But this is where Opportunity Costs comes in. At that moment in time saving a few quid per acre or hour, instead of getting someone in, might be the most profitable job
 

james ds

Member
Location
leinster
There you go not many farmers are going to spend 7 hours of their own time Drawing bales considering what they have to do in a day most will pay somebody to it 7 hours is a long time considering a farmers buzzy day imagine he has 200 cattle to look at there’s not a notion he going to spend 3 hours looking at cattle and then drawing for 7 hours
Why would a farmer spend 3 hours a day looking at 200 cattle in June . .
 

james ds

Member
Location
leinster
I would say around at 300 per week and 5 euro per clock hour, tractor will be maintained by me tractor will be viewed after every 2 week and will bring someone ik who is mechanical minded to see if he can find anything wrong , for contracting yes hiring no but I’m looking into it look I’m only in the beginning of this I’m not setting it up month I’m talking a while in the future in the next year year I plan to try fine customers this year who would be interested find out what their willing to pay and work from there ,
So you want to hire your tractor out for €5/ hr , can I book it now please , I’ll take it , and I’ll leave my 7 tractors in the shed.
 

james ds

Member
Location
leinster
Hold on a second I’ve worked out my money and you go and look at the contractor rates for transporting bales is 55€an hour im offering it for a lot less at the money I’ve said and I’m sure by doing the math I’ve worked out what I need to make and I think I have now ,look the most people on here just say oh there’s no money in that but the funny thing is that if there wasn’t nobody would be doing it , now some people on here have been very helpful by telling me which services I should go into and which one not to be in looking for constructive thoughts and yes I am taking on board what other s and are listening what they have to say but all I’m hearing is deconstructive ,don’t do that for this and that reasons and yes I’m fully aware of the risk , thanks again for your help and I’m listening for your advise and trying to take all on board to try and make it work thanks again?
You should learn something here , WHY is the contractor charging €55 / hr, I’ll tell you why , it’s because it’s costing him near that.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
You are more than welcome to come over here and charge what the going rate for a tractor and driver is over there. I’d have work year round for ya. You would be the cheapest running tractor in the state.

I do not understand The phenomenon over there of young guys wanting to operate a tractor all day for nearly nothing. It does not exist here.

Go do something that isn’t already saturated. If you are set on equipment I don’t have any ideas. Personally I’d buy the best hoof trimming chute made and earn More than double what you can charge with a tractor.

The money is in the cows dude.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
I should add that I also looked into “contracting” as y’all call it. The guy I worked for offered to sell me his harvesting business and finance the sale. I was 21 at the time and looked into it. I was honored at the chance, not everyone will give a young guy an opportunity like that.

It was profitable as a stand alone business, but for the amount of money ultimately invested, the return was just not there. This was on 4 combines and associated support equipment.
 

Daniel

Member
ok fair enough i understand where your coiming from im still only in the thought process nothing is bought yet so im only thinking and having a look , thanks again

Whats the old saying........?

Ah yes, a fool and his money are easily parted.

Aaron, you are in real danger of becoming the fool, listen to people when they tell you your costings are too cheap, because they are.
 

Drillman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Don’t do anything that involves collecting grass clippings as it’s a saturated market, don’t do anything that involves roadwork as it doesn’t pay and don’t do anything that involves pulling soil engaging implements as it hard work on the tractor and heavy on fuel
 

Shane s

Member
Location
Tyrone
I Started out doing contracting work bought my own tractor machinery etc at 16/17 and let me tell you, you will never become rich from it. Yes there is some profit in it but anything you make you seem to reinvest in more machinery or upgrading. If you want to make money you need to find a niche market for your area, for example for me it was Mulching & small square baling (now running 2 small square baler and a round baler). However unfortunately the mulching wasn't working well for me when i started baling in summer as i didn't have time to do everything. I decided to be wiser and got myself a good office job with flexible hours so that i am still able to contract on a smaller scale, mostly with baling etc. Im only at it 4 seasons as im only 21 yet and i know ill never become a millionaire from contracting but i enjoy doing it and still making a profit.
 

Fendt516profi

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yorkshire
I Started out doing contracting work bought my own tractor machinery etc at 16/17 and let me tell you, you will never become rich from it. Yes there is some profit in it but anything you make you seem to reinvest in more machinery or upgrading. If you want to make money you need to find a niche market for your area, for example for me it was Mulching & small square baling (now running 2 small square baler and a round baler). However unfortunately the mulching wasn't working well for me when i started baling in summer as i didn't have time to do everything. I decided to be wiser and got myself a good office job with flexible hours so that i am still able to contract on a smaller scale, mostly with baling etc. Im only at it 4 seasons as im only 21 yet and i know ill never become a millionaire from contracting but i enjoy doing it and still making a profit.
Why did you drop the mulching for the baling? If you didn't have enough time to do it when you started baling sounds like you had alot of mulching to do surely it's a longer season than the baler
 

cousinjack

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cornwall
There's a lot of young lads that have done well at this down here. There's quite a few daffodil and potato growers that regularly hire in tractors for destoners, trailers etc..

But, and it's a big BUT ....... it's rare to see any of them progress or upgrade to another tractor when the first is worn out ... it's hard to put aside profits for the day you need a new 30 or 40k tractor when "I've found a cheap baler/tanker/mower/forager etc, that'll make me loads of money !"

What you need above all else is luck... if that tractor doesn't cost you much and you have DONE YOUR MATHS correctly... you're on !!

Go enjoy your life first, make a bit of money, then have a go ...

But let us all know how it goes (y) :)

Oh, and self drive hire..... no, just no !! It'll do you better sat in the shed waiting for next summer !
 

cousinjack

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cornwall
The problem with farmers they don't value there time and think the red diesel in there tank is free it wouldn't bother them if it took them all week to bring their bales in go and sit on someone's else's tractor for £15 a hour a lot. Better job
I agree,
Every year I think to myself that I'll get someone in to help pull bales this year,

Then when the time actually comes I see that loader tractor sitting there and think about the £30 odd an hour it'll cost me to get someone in and think "nah, I'll just do it myself "

:LOL:
 

Shane s

Member
Location
Tyrone
Why did you drop the mulching for the baling? If you didn't have enough time to do it when you started baling sounds like you had alot of mulching to do surely it's a longer season than the baler

Well for the baling i have all of my customers (which are good to me and no issues) when are coming back every year and getting work of them, for the mulching it seemed to be you may of mulched 20 acres for a man you never done work for and once that bit of ground was tidy up they might not need you for another 3 or 5 years. To be fair tho a mulched practically all of winter which the baler was sitting in the shed gathering dust (had 1050 tires on the tractor so could go nearly anywhere). My baling was also growing by the bale count going up by about 50 to 60% extra work every year so i was getting less and less time and it wasnt viasable to hire the mulcher as i done so for a bit for she was getting abused and people breaking parts of her.
 
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Shane s

Member
Location
Tyrone
Probably my biggest annual profit from the contracting sides of things is small square bales of haylage. I have a mchale small wrapper which i hire out £100 per day never gives trouble and is hired out on most good days in summer. I also run a Tawi 200 small square bale wrapper (very rare only a few in Ireland) im fit to wrap approx 80 bales per hour at £1 per bale (not including wrap) and then i also make a few thousand bales of haylage to sell myself. The equine customers seems be more profitable as they pay out more than the typical farmer however quality is a must.
 

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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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