|
SE Iowa | Hello all. I graduated from college about 2 years ago and have started farming with my dad. I work full-time as well, but can be flexible around my farming schedule. I am considering buying a sprayer to start spraying corn/soybeans for my dad and myself. Right now, I would need to cover about 550 acres twice. Maybe 3 times depending on fungicide decisions. Potential to double acres in the future. We have the coop spray right now at $10/acre. That’s $11,000/year. I also know I could buy chemicals cheaper elsewhere. For some context, I have a degree in ag and spent 1.5 years working in agronomy. I know a little about chemistry.
I would like to have a self-propelled sprayer because I do not own a tractor (dad owns several). I want to be able to take care of spraying with my own equipment so I can easily and cleanly charge dad a set rate for the acres that are 100% his. In addition, most of the fields we farm are irregularly shaped, and I don’t want to run over more crop than I have to.
The problem I face is that I do not think it seems reasonable to spend a large amount of money on a sprayer given the relatively small number of acres it will cover. I have primarily been looking at smaller, older machines like a Wilmar 765 or an 854 RoGator. These fall between $15-$20k. Several options have swath control and updated rate controllers, but they also have 3, 4, or 5 thousand hours. I also wonder how difficult it will be to get parts for older machines like these. You can start to find what seems like a lot better machine at $40k, but I question if this is a reasonable amount of money to spend given my scenario. I could pay cash if I stuck to the price range mentioned earlier.
I am looking for guidance on what I should do in this scenario. Let the coop keep spraying? Buy a cheaper machine with cash? Borrow money to buy a better rig that would be oversized for our acres? I’m not opposed to some custom work either. Thanks for any advice. | |
|
Decision on buying a sprayer
