2011 Contractor Prices

locky76

Any idea what sort of money it'll be this year?

• Agitating
• Slurry Spreading
• Fertilizer Spreading
• Mowing
• Round Hay Baling
• Round Silage Baling
• Wrapping (Wrap supplied)
• Wrapping (Supply your own)
• Drawing from field and stacking

It should be up a fgood bit on last year

Casinoking

Doubt it'll go up much, getting paid at the current rates is tough enough. I don't plan on increasing charges a whole lot anyway, but any of the lads who were under-cutting and working for nothing will be under serious pressure now with ever-increasing overheads and a chronic lack of credit

Agri contractor

All depends on fuel. If it goes up any furthur charges will have to go up.

reilig

Wrapping (Wrap supplied) €2 per bale with a few quid off for those that pay me when leaving the field - thankfully most people do.

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

Wrapping (Wrap supplied) €2 per bale with a few quid off for those that pay me when leaving the field - thankfully most people do.

God that's good value Reilig. Does it pay you?

jeff greene

Not to speak of Reilig but I can wrap 40-50 bales an hour with my old Tanco, so thats €100/hr. I only do my own thou, so I expect the pros can do more per hour. Not many jobs can make that kind of money

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

God that's good value Reilig. Does it pay you?

I wrap about 1000 bales a year for 3 neighbours along with my own 500. Would wrap 40 - 45 an hour. It suits my neighbours as I'm close by and can come when it suits them. I'll do 10 bales for them without complaint if they only have a small bit. It probably doesn't pay - I probably only break even but it gets me out of the house (as if I don't have enough to do). But at the end of the day it helps out the neighbours which is a good thing to do and they help me in other ways so its a win win situation.

rocketjk

reilig if a roll of plastic costs €70 like last year and 32 bales to a roll that costs €2.18 per bale for the wrap alone. Add in your time, diesel and depreciation for tractor and wrapper cant see how you can do this at €2 per bale

reilig

rocketjk wrote: »

reilig if a roll of plastic costs €70 like last year and 32 bales to a roll that costs €2.18 per bale for the wrap alone. Add in your time, diesel and depreciation for tractor and wrapper cant see how you can do this at €2 per bale

the wrap is supplied by the farmer

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

I wrap about 1000 bales a year for 3 neighbours along with my own 500. Would wrap 40 - 45 an hour. It suits my neighbours as I'm close by and can come when it suits them. I'll do 10 bales for them without complaint if they only have a small bit. It probably doesn't pay - I probably only break even but it gets me out of the house (as if I don't have enough to do). But at the end of the day it helps out the neighbours which is a good thing to do and they help me in other ways so its a win win situation.

Your dead right lad, you've the right attitude. Having good neighbours to help out with other things is worth anything.

st1979

Have to agree with rellig a real win win. If a contractor is to come do a job he might have to drive for an hour there and back or more andd thats costing where if your doing it for a neighbour less wasted time and diesel.

Casinoking

€2/bale is pretty much the standard rate for wrapping no matter who's doing it

rahin man

The prices will depend if you have paid for last year

Ha ha:D

locky76

rahin man wrote: »

The prices will depend if you have paid for last year

Ha ha:D

I like the idea of 20% reduction for paying going out the gate!!!;)

barryoc1

I was talking to my silage contractor last night and he was saying diesel last year was around 55 cent and now 87 cent so he reckons bales will have to go up bout 2 euro a bale this year.

st1979

He must use 6.25 litres for every bale he makes if he reckons 32 cent increase equates to 2.00. My god these wrapped bales are thirsty buggers to make. Thats 50 litres an acre at 8 bales to the acre. Doesn't sound right to me

rahin man

i reckon that contarctor putting it up by 2e/bale is in danger of dislocating his shoulder trying to put his arms around the world;)


as for 2O% off at the gate locky. CASH ONLY...

Nobbies

contractors are getting labour cheaper now than sum years back.that should count 4sumthing????

rahin man

Charges this year. ill stick my neck out

Chopped bale/ wrap e7/bale
Hay e4/bale
Mowing e20/acre
Swarting e5/acre

No plastic supplied. Bank charging 9% on overdraft so why should i give free credit.

Payment at gate 10% off
Otherwise no dollars wanted till 1st installment of sfp

F.D

st1979 wrote: »

He must use 6.25 litres for every bale he makes if he reckons 32 cent increase equates to 2.00. My god these wrapped bales are thirsty buggers to make. Thats 50 litres an acre at 8 bales to the acre. Doesn't sound right to me

maybe because the extra 32 cent he needs to cover his costs, takes until the following season to get from some of his customers he charges the 2 euro to cover interest etc
makes me laugh how farmers think the contractor can carry the burden btw i'm not a contractor just get f'ed up paying him going out the gate and other people taking the p#ss and getting away with it

kay 9

How much to make a round bale of hay vs round bale of silage around the country? Curious lads. Wrap supplied by farmer of course. Cheers...

Shauny2010

Last year I got charged
€11.50 for cut bale and wrap (supplied by contractor) I made 250 bales in 1 go
€6 per bale for hay (which I thought was too much) I made 90 bales in 1 go


This year I'm going to give it to the cheapest out there, screw loyalty to the contractor

Atilathehun

How many lads using or asking the wrapper guy to put on six layers of wrap instead of four layers.
I supplied the plastic last year as always. I used Volac. I'm not at all happy with the amount of mould on my bales. Downright unacceptable.

My contractor shruggs and says most of his clients ask for six layers of plastic.

What do ye think?

Swinefluproof

st1979 wrote: »

He must use 6.25 litres for every bale he makes if he reckons 32 cent increase equates to 2.00. My god these wrapped bales are thirsty buggers to make. Thats 50 litres an acre at 8 bales to the acre. Doesn't sound right to me

Maybe the €2 increase is to cover more than his diesel bill.

The price of bale wrap has been creeping up for a number of years now but small increases have meant that most contractors haven't added it on to the cost per bale (can imagine the curious looks from farmers when you tell them that you need an extra few cent a bale to cover plastic costs, they'll laugh at you and say sure it's only a few cent and sure contractors are loaded anyway, look at all the fine machinery you have).

That brings me to my next point, the cost of borrowing money has gone up and that has to be factored in too. Machinery needs to be upgraded regularly so that a contractor can be there when the farmer decides that "Today at 3 oclock you need to cut my silage or I'll just get somebody else that can" :mad:. Some farmers think it's ok to leave paying the contractor until he gets his SFP without paying interest but the bank doesn't care and just adds on the interest every month to the overdraft.

Also with the price of steel and diesel rising then a price increase on spares can be expected in the near future.

As for cheaper labour as somebody else pointed out, I'm still paying my guys what I paid them 4 years ago. You get what you pay for out there and I'd rather hang on to the two guys that have been with me for 15 and 9 years each than get a "cheap" driver for €20 less a day who doesn't know where every field is and which ones have the odd stone and foreign body in them. It ends up costing more in the long run in time and repairs.

Well sorry for the rant just needed everyone to see the other side of the coin too. As for price increases, bales will definately be going up for me this year but haven't got a concrete figure on my plastic costs yet so holding off until I do. Will only rise enough to cover costs though with maybe a few cent leeway either way just to give a nice round figure. Just to make it easier to calculate all those "cash going out the gate customers" that I have . I wish!!!!!

vanderbadger

Swinefluproof wrote: »

Maybe the €2 increase is to cover more than his diesel bill.

The price of bale wrap has been creeping up for a number of years now but small increases have meant that most contractors haven't added it on to the cost per bale (can imagine the curious looks from farmers when you tell them that you need an extra few cent a bale to cover plastic costs, they'll laugh at you and say sure it's only a few cent and sure contractors are loaded anyway, look at all the fine machinery you have).

That brings me to my next point, the cost of borrowing money has gone up and that has to be factored in too. Machinery needs to be upgraded regularly so that a contractor can be there when the farmer decides that "Today at 3 oclock you need to cut my silage or I'll just get somebody else that can" :mad:. Some farmers think it's ok to leave paying the contractor until he gets his SFP without paying interest but the bank doesn't care and just adds on the interest every month to the overdraft.

Also with the price of steel and diesel rising then a price increase on spares can be expected in the near future.

As for cheaper labour as somebody else pointed out, I'm still paying my guys what I paid them 4 years ago. You get what you pay for out there and I'd rather hang on to the two guys that have been with me for 15 and 9 years each than get a "cheap" driver for €20 less a day who doesn't know where every field is and which ones have the odd stone and foreign body in them. It ends up costing more in the long run in time and repairs.

Well sorry for the rant just needed everyone to see the other side of the coin too. As for price increases, bales will definately be going up for me this year but haven't got a concrete figure on my plastic costs yet so holding off until I do. Will only rise enough to cover costs though with maybe a few cent leeway either way just to give a nice round figure. Just to make it easier to calculate all those "cash going out the gate customers" that I have . I wish!!!!!

just wondered how contractors manage the plastic bill, do you buy in bulk off coop and get a few months credit on it and do you get a good discount or how does it work,maybe you pay it as you go? it must be a serious bill for instance if you clock up all the plastic a busy contractor would use over say 2 cuts. around our area the main baling guy never looks for money till late in year and i often wondered how he manages the running costs, i mean his weekly diesel bill alone must be huge

Swinefluproof

I start out with 4 pallets of black plastic from a supplier which I pay half up front but I usually give him a few cheques during the season too if I manage to collect from some of my better customers. This is supplimented by rolls of white, green etc for haylage that I get from my local farm store, they also supply me with all the net I use, they give it on credit though and never come looking for money off me, just pay it when I can but then I've been dealing with them for 15 years or more and my old man gets all his farming stuff there too.
The supplier usually calls again around the beginning of September if I owe alot, or closer to Christmas if I have a good hole made in what I owed originally
Filled up my main tractor the other day at a depot cos I was low in the yard and was passing on my way to a job, €247 to fill her and this lasts less than a day and a half in peak season on the Fusion baler. Maybe that puts it into perspective for people, reckoning if fuel holds it price that's at least €1000 to €1200 a week on diesel alone for that tractor in peak season. Make alot of bales in the week to clear just that.
Drivers are paid every Saturday evening if I'm around or Monday evening if I happen to be away when they finish up. Sundays are counted as extras so usually give them an extra €50-€70 depending on the length of the day, I don't charge the farmer extra BTW. All you need is to win the Lotto or have a huge overdraft and everything is rosy hahaha

Muckit

Swinefluproof,

You mentioned using white and green rolls of plastic...

Does the colour of the plastic make a difference to type/quality of silage? Or is it just for identification purposes?

Muckit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5NUZJQuoEg&playnext=1&list=PL9D575D5A85A938FB

Good idea/bad idea?

Swinefluproof

Muckit wrote: »

Swinefluproof,

You mentioned using white and green rolls of plastic...

Does the colour of the plastic make a difference to type/quality of silage? Or is it just for identification purposes?

Apparently green or white should be used on dryer/ well wilted crops and also on haylage to cut down the amount of mould in the cured silage. I've tried it out on my own stuff and there does seem to be a slight difference with less mould on the white wrapped haylage, also there was better results from bales stacked on end than those just dropped from the handler.
I also have a few guys that want a roll of black and white on the baler so the bales come out striped. They seem to think it frightens crows off!

Shauny2010

Muckit wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5NUZJQuoEg&playnext=1&list=PL9D575D5A85A938FB

Good idea/bad idea?

That vicon looks like it has made a great bale, Look how square the edges are.
Neat looking machine too

what happen

bad idea muckit .a man told me he done his round bales of silage in white plastic and the crows destroyed them never again.i done bales of silage in green plastic great job. i see men making silage bales beside me too dry and getting very mouldy bales.also rushes in bales will leave a lot of mould.

Muckit

Lads

Yer missing the point ! Twas the way the wrapper applied the wrap rather than the wrap itself I wanted to highlight!

I never seen a wrapper apply it like this. Have another look! It would appear that an even amount of wrap is applied to both the round and the flat faces of the bale this way.

Is it practical though and is it necessary

reilig

Swinefluproof wrote: »

Apparently green or white should be used on dryer/ well wilted crops and also on haylage to cut down the amount of mould in the cured silage. I've tried it out on my own stuff and there does seem to be a slight difference with less mould on the white wrapped haylage, also there was better results from bales stacked on end than those just dropped from the handler.
I also have a few guys that want a roll of black and white on the baler so the bales come out striped. They seem to think it frightens crows off!

Black wrap attracts heat from the sun and white or green doesn't. That's why people will use the white on haylage - there is no requirement for it to have heat to ferment.

JohnBoy

@muckit, looks a great idea, but how much extra wrap does it need? seems to use a lot, but that could just be an illusion.

barryoc1

Muckit, bad idea i think. As Johnboy said it seems to use alot of extra plastic. Stuff is costly enough as it is. I never have any trouble with the way my bales are wrapped. McHale Fusion baler with standard wraps. Only bit of mould is where my cats climb up and scratch them, the little feckers. Also in most cases the Mchale fusion balers have bales ready again by the time the bale is wrapped so you would be waiting what would seem like forever if you have any sort of a decent crop and taking that long to wrap a bale.

jeff greene

Muckit wrote: »

Lads

Yer missing the point ! Twas the way the wrapper applied the wrap rather than the wrap itself I wanted to highlight!

I never seen a wrapper apply it like this. Have another look! It would appear that an even amount of wrap is applied to both the round and the flat faces of the bale this way.

Is it practical though and is it necessary

It has to be an improvement as the current system has a disproportionate amount of plastic on the ends. A more even cover has to be a good thing, he may be putting on 6 or 8 layers in the video, which takes for ever anyway

Casinoking

Muckit wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5NUZJQuoEg&playnext=1&list=PL9D575D5A85A938FB

Good idea/bad idea?

I was looking at the Deutz version of that machine last year. It uses a lot less plastic than a conventional wrapper alright, but from an operational point of view I thought it was overcomplicated. Too many moving parts and too much to potentially go wrong

iano93

locky76 wrote: »

Any idea what sort of money it'll be this year?

• Agitating €45-55/hr
• Slurry Spreading 2500g tanker €45-55/hr
• Fertilizer Spreading Broadcasting 8-€10/tonne
• Mowing Conditioner 18-€25/acre
• Round Hay Baling 3-€5/bale
• Round Silage Baling3.50-€4.50/bale
• Wrapping (Wrap supplied)
• Wrapping (Supply your own) €1.80-€2.15/bale
• Drawing from field and stacking Stacking only in field €0.60-85/bale

It should be up a fgood bit on last year

Going on what the farmers journal says today

jaredGalen

What's the price per bale for square bales this year?

I paid 50c last year but it had been that way for the last 2-3 years so expecting it to go u a bit.

jaredGalen

How could I estimate the rates then going by round bale prices? I could find it in the Farmers journal this year, which is where I usually see it.

jocotty

Hi Lads,

Anyone know what it costs to get a contractor in to make a square bale of hay these days?

Jo

13spanner

Around us, contractors (including us) are €2.50 cut, €5 bale and €2.50 wrap (plastic supplied by farmer)

jocotty

13spanner wrote: »

Around us, contractors (including us) are €2.50 cut, €5 bale and €2.50 wrap (plastic supplied by farmer)

small square bale...sorry.... just to bale it???

sea12

jocotty wrote: »

small square bale...sorry.... just to bale it???

around us its 35 cent a bale

charityboy

40 cent a bale including vat

13spanner

jocotty wrote: »

small square bale...sorry.... just to bale it???

no idea, sorry. Not awfully common around us to be honest...