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Alentejo, Portugal | I'm with Gerard on this one, once you are big enough that you could do with your own harvesting equipment, you are big enough that you have a full time job on the dairy... So you need to milk, feed cows, breed cows, cows are calving, calves need to be fed etc. No way you can leave that behind, jump on your SPFH and forget about the rest.
I have a friend here that is about 1/3 of our size, and he has his own SPFH, (or actually 2, 1 that works...) That is because he thinks he can do it cheaper by himself, than the custom guy does. (custom guys charge per hectare, and i am yet to see a half decent corn crop on his fields) His soil is sand, almost like on the beach, and he cannot irrigate enough to get a full grown crop. He has 2 pivots, only 1 pump. And his water supply is to small to do a full circle on 1 of his pivots, so he needs to wait to do the other half, and then the other pivot needs watering so crop does not get enough water. At that point, cutting by himself can be cheaper, he has 2 loading wagons (for haylage), his fields are close to the silo so that is no problem.
But then again, when you are out in the field, you are not in the barn, so there are going to be things that go wrong. A cow that calfs, calf wrong way round, calf dies because takes to long to be born. If you had been there, you saved it. Even if you have the best technology, you are going to miss cows in heat, sick cows etc so it´s going to cost you money...
And that is if all your equipment keeps working, if you have a breakdown on your harvester, you call the custom guy again?? He´ll probably have you on top of his list now, since you bought your own... So you either fix it of have your crop dry out in the field. A custom guy usually has more then one piece of equipment, so if it has a serious breakdown, he gets the other. A tractor breaks down, ok, take one of ours. About the weather, they usually have more capacity to cut your acres in less time than you would...
We pack, so we are in constant control of the feed quality. (takes 1 guy out of the dairy, not all of them)
What do you do with your harvesting equipment the rest of the year? Very uneconomical investment.
But once you get to the size that you allready have the tractors, the drivers and enough people on the cows, you can think about it.
I know it´s not going to be MY next investment...!!! | |
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when is it time to invest in your own silaging equipment?
