Central Nebraska | dt4020 - 1/17/2025 11:44
I've done what you are describing for years, obviously there are savings but realistically it costs at least 8-10 dollars a year per acre to run a modern sprayer plus paying yourself a small wage.
What that wage is debatable. 25/hour or 100/hour. I know I don't get much else done when it is time to spray.
25-35 per acre is achievable to do it yourself vs a total custom app.
Reading your cost below on SS that is an impressively low number. Very few here use conventional corn. Too many neighbors with booms 15 ft in the air when they make the pass around the field. One field a few miles away, spray cowboys got 50 rows into the neghbors conventional corn... would have been an interesting conversation to hear.
One huge benefit of owning a sprayer though is maybe sometimes a field just needs bordered. Or maybe that 8 acre patch across the creek is the only thing that needs sprayed.
I usually figure whatever the coop charges for an application fee is the same thing it costs me to run mine. It's just the fact that I can do it when I want and when it needs done and if there's a screwup it's my fault. There's value there. |
Where do farmers see cost cutting in their operations
