This is Dr. Nathan Mueller, your local agronomist with Nebraska Extension for Dodge and Washington counties. If you plan to either hire or provide custom harvest and haul this fall, it is best to determine a fair custom rate before the custom work is done, not after.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Iowa State University both conduct a survey with custom operators on custom farm rates by operation, such as price per acre for harvesting soybeans including the tractor and grain cart.
Four values are reported for each operation in these two surveys:
- the average rate or charge
- most common rate or median charge
- the range of rates
- and the number of custom operators who responded
For example in the East Central District where Dodge and Washington counties are located, the average rate for combining irrigated corn was $38 per acre, the most common rate was $35 per acre, and the range was $18 to $65 per acre and these values were based on 24 custom operators in the district.
Based on responses in East Central Nebraska, here is a quick list of the most common or median rate for some custom operation that I often get questions on:
- Combining rainfed or irrigated corn at $35 per acre
- Combining soybeans at $30 per acre
- Hauling grain with the tractor and gain cart at 6.00 per acre
Based on response just across the river in Iowa
- Combining corn at $35/acre
- Combining soybeans at $35/acre
- Hauling grain with the tractor and gain cart at $6.00 per acre
For more information about custom farm rate survey results from Nebraska and Iowa, contact me at 727-2775 or visit our locally-focused website at croptechcafe.org to find digital copies of these surveys. Know your crop, know your tech, know your bottom line. This is Dr. Nathan Mueller, your local agronomist for Nebraska Extension on KTIC radio.
