Latimer, Iowa (north central) | We farm more acres than that and haven't been able to justify running a sprayer. I buy our chemicals wholesale from a great dealer that wants to maintain our chemical business. They do our spraying , pre and post, for $7.00 an acre each pass. For the most part they do a nice job, sometimes push the wetness a bit but honestly I would do the same. We have a nice 90 foot boom, GPS controlled, and 1000 gallon sidequest tanks i haven't hooked up for a few years, also have a tender trailer that currently use for nitrogen. Farm with my dad and uncle, both 70's, and neither want to run a planter or sprayer at this point with the electronics and GPS involved. They are more then willing to run a tender though. I feel, with normal depreciation, which will happen again, that spraying cost me around $4.00 if do it myself. There is a lack of qualified people to hire in the area that are willing and able to run a sprayer on the short term they would be needed. Less then 1/2 your time will actually be spent spraying, most will be hooking up, cleaning, service, tending, etc. Don't underestimate time needed to do this. I do have a old 500 gallon pull type, 40 foot boom, to go around fencelines if nervous about custom guys timing. My Dad will spray by speed and pressure with the old pull type for those that remember doing that!
There is also the insurance needed and any issues with neighbors, rarely, but we all have that one neighbor, are referred to the custom sprayer.
I sprayed my own when farmed less acres but I can't justify shutting off the planter to run the sprayer. This knocks out being able to do pre spraying. I apply my own nitrogen with anhydrous or liquid bar before planting and also sidedress 32% on all my corn with my own bar. There is more margin to be made on a trip through the field that cost $14 an acre to hire done then one that cost $7. Spraying post dicamba or even liberty comes with neighbor issues. Basically leaves spraying post on a couple 1000 acres of corn. I feel i get a better economic return sidedressing then spraying to save 3.00 bucks a acre. Planting timeliness comes into play as well. Easy to lose more then 3.00 an acre on planting dates. Of course we don't know how planting dates will be till after planting what kind of spring it was. Custom guys get it done just as fast or faster then I would with me already doing nitrogen and planting duties.
For me the 1 bushel an acre it costs me to have custom sprayed is worth it. Everybody's situation is different. If you have the labor/ability a good $20,000 pull type would do alot in your situation and get your feet wet, not a insurmountable number of acres. Some of these custom guys are spraying 30,000+ acres a year with a Deere R series. |
Owning sprayer vs hiring it
