Dave Cen.Ia - 6/5/2010 14:21 I feel fairly confident in saying that a semi won't help me enough at harvest to make the difference in owning one or not, otherwise I would probably own one by now. It's the marketing equation that is the dark area. It would open up more markets and marketing opportunities for emptying bins. Filling them happens fairly efficiently with wagons and carts. This is my opinion only, I do not have hard numbers to back up my opinion. If you don't need it at harvest I don't think you can possibly justify owning a truck unless there is no competition in the grain hauling business in your area. Guys in this area haul grain 15 miles for a nickel a bushel.
We've got a single axle truck and a short trailer, that someday will probably get replaced by a full size rig. If it weren't for using it at harvest we wouldn't have a truck, we can hire grain hauling done (10 months of the year) for not much more than what fuel and a couple tires cost. However the convenience of having a truck in the shed when a load needs to be moved is nice also, but if we don't have time it would be even more convenient to call somebody else to do it but since the truck is in the shed that's not likely to happen. To quote a former elevator owner "A better bid is just a bad trucking rate away."
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Tractor / trailer question #1
