Listen to this weeks Extension Corner:
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 hauling this fall, it is best to determine a fair custom rate before the custom work is done.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln conducts a survey with custom operators for each Ag Statistics Reporting District in Nebraska on custom farm rates by operation, such as hauling with a truck. The Northeast Nebraska district falls north of the Dodge/Cuming County line and the East district falls to the south of this line. For a map of the districts within Nebraska and the spring 2016 survey results, visit our website at croptechcafe.org.
Four values are reported for each operation:
- the average rate
- most common rate
- the range of rates
- and how many operator reports these values were based on.
For example in the East District, the average rate for combining irrigated corn including the tractor and grain cart was 37.71/acre, the most common rate was 35/acre, and the range was 30 to 48/acre and these values were based on 17 custom operators in the district. For Dodge and Washington County, here is a quick list of the most common custom operation rates that I get questions on:
- Combining irrigated or dryland corn including the tractor and grain cart at $35/acre,
- Combining soybeans including the tractor and gain cart at $35/acre,
- And hauling grain with a truck at $0.10/bu where the average distance hauled was 13 miles.
Iowa State University conducts an annual custom rate survey. Their results provide the average and range in custom operations across the state of Iowa.
For more information about custom farm rate survey results, contact me at 727-2775 or visit our locally-focused website at croptechcafe.org to find digital copies of the surveys for Nebraska and Iowa. Know your crop, know your tech, know your bottom line. This is Dr. Nathan Mueller, your local agronomist for Nebraska Extension on KTIC radio.
