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NE NC | With the high cost of this machine, can it pencil out to be cheaper on a per acre basis? It is obviously more productive, and every cotton farmer's dream, but will it pay for itself? |
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| Yes and no. The way I figure it will cost a cent more per lb. But with savings on hauling by hauling more bales per load and
one gin has said it would haul for free. Little to no cotton wasted and it would replace at least four people, or allow
you to get ahead on field work instead of having everyone tied up in harvesting. I think it would work for us. |
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| We got one this year and wouldn't consider going back to the old system for anything. If you just look at the raw dollars, I think it's more expensive than using basket pickers with builders and buggies but we made the decision to do it anyway because of the intangibles. Less labor, safety, easier logistics, less wasted cotton, easier to run longer hours, freeing men up to be doing field work right behind the picker, these are the things that made the decision for us. We had a guy get a finger cut off in a module builder last fall and that really made us think about the exposure we had with the old pickers. We are very happy with the change. |
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Bartlett TX | when will the price of the wrap come down? Seems like there is some need for competition on that product. Every time i see a module express picker i cant help but think of all the money and time that went into developing that machine and its already been out done. How much you want to bet that case is working on a round baler picker??? They better be, or might as well get out of the cotton business. |
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Aurora, NC | John, you planning on alot of cotton next year? |
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| Miss St. has done a paper comparing both on board systmes vs conv pickers....havent found it yet but know its out there. Farmer in our area has run both and currently runs 7760 on 1800 acres. From a talk he recently gave, I believe his cost was between $100-120 for the 7760 (if my memory is correct). I think 1500-2000 is the acre range you need with 2000 getting pretty high for a 30" machine. |
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NE NC | GSI, here is the link for that study. They do not use the correct sale price for the JD picker so the numbers are a little off.
http://cgs.chibichatter.com/wp-content/uploads/cottconf2008/Supplem...
Jeff, I hate to say it, but I am going to cross over to the dark side and plant more cotton next year. Have to keep a few hundred acres of beans though since I am on the board. |
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Eastern VA. No such thing as too many Magnums. | Did he do it while raising the tramper from transport to work position? I've seen that happen. |
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Aurora, NC | Go where the money is. Knew a fellow that was on the wheat board and didn't raise wheat. He did a great job to boot. See you in November. |
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NE NC | You give me the secret to those big soybean yields you were talking about the other day, I might not move so hard to cotton. |
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| No he was climbing up the back door to pull the tarp down after pulling off a module and the door slammed shut on his hand. |
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Eastern NC | Hey John, you should have been at the Cotton Field day this year at Flatland Farms. They spent a while discussing this topic there with real world numbers from a farmer who had run traditional pickers as well as the Case and John Deere OBMB pickers. He had everything layed out on the presentation boards and the bottom line was that it was costing him $40 per acre more to harvest with the 7760. He was pleased with the machine and said that he would not go back to the old way for anything but he was comparing the price of the 7760 to the price of running a used 9996 that you could easily purchase for $250,000. I think that his numbers would be a lot closer if you compared a new 7760 to a new 7660. He stated that he had a harvesting cost of $109 per acre in 1200# cotton with the 7760. As far as planting some soybeans because you are on the board I wouldn't worry about it too much. Ask Bobby Joe what varieties of soybeans he planted this year and see what the response will be. Have a good one. |
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| I don't think it will work out on paper as long as you can buy nice a 9996 for 170k. Of course working on paper and working on your farm are two different things. I suppose someone who has a hard time finding good labor might not mind paying a little more not to have to deal with the frustration of poor help. |
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| As the other poster indicated, the Deere round bale system has a higher cost per acre than the Case half module system. It has long been suggested that if the ME625 was a Deere product and the 7760 was a Case product, Deere would still be winning the "VHS vs Beta-Max" war. The reason is simple: Deere invests more money in their new product R&D and has a better dealer network to support new products. Let's use the 7760 versus the ME625 as an example:
From a content standpoint, the 7760 picker was a ground up new design, while the ME625 was built on the back of the CPX610. From an investment standpoint, Deere ran 20 to 30 company owned, company operated prototypes to develop the 7760, while Case built the first ME625 prototype in a customer's shop. The subsequent 4-6 prototypes were also customer owned. According to industry insiders, Deere out spent Case 4 to 1 developing the next generation cotton picker. Beyond investment, the 7760 has gotten better each year - It looks like a well engineered, commercial product. On the other hand, the ME625 still looks like a short line prototype. The hose and harness routings are poor, nuts and bolts are loose or missing, chronic oil leaks, etc. I have always been more red than green, but even I will admit the ME625 has problems that need to be addressed.
AA |
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Aurora, NC | Will do : ) |
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Itta Bena Mississippi | I've watched 3 different 7760s on 3 different operations consistantly pick over 100 acres per day this year. I've yet to see a 625 pick more than 55 acres a day, and that's off an operation that's been running them from the getgo. That issue is what sells green paint.
Tom |
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NE NC | We bought an used 9996 at the end of last year when the market was still low, and with the market turning like it has we can put some money in our pocket if we sell the 9996 now. I can come close to making it work on paper, but can't quite get there. My thinking is that if this is where things are going, and I think it is, I would rather choke down that payment with cotton in the neighborhood of a dollar than 65 cents. Risky move, but I might try it. |
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West Texas | 7760 takes 16 hrs to pick a 122 acre circle. That includes filing up with fuel and water in between. |
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Eastern NC | John, if you want to sell the 96 send me an e mail. I would like to talk to you about it. |
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Has anyone done the math on the JD 7760 Round bale cotton picker yet?
