well, many avenues I could go down, but the short of the long is in the custom world it's pretty much about quality of the job, acres covered, and efficiency.   we do a fair amount of custom work, and the rates are profitable with newer machinery, but time is money.  yes if you buy a class 8 or 9 combine with the intention of only harvesting a 1000 acres, that's a different world than I live in.   but if you are purchasing 3 or 4 year old class 7's with less than 600 hours on them and running 4or 5 thousand acres, that's my world.    maybe i',m a fool, but I'd bet my operating costs per acre are less with that machine, than with a older one, and I am able to potentially capture more revenue per unit.