anyone rent their own farm eq. out??

okiemom · #1 03/22/07, 12:47 AM

I am looking into how to make extra income if we buy a bigger tractor and buy some rock removal eq. w/ it.

There are many prop. around here that are littered w/ rocks due to surface coal mining. I was talking to a tractor dealer who sold a few of the pickers who said there was a fairly large demand for used rock pickers and inquires on rentals and such but no where to rent them and no one to operate them.

I am wondering if it would be benificial to buy the eq. and start a company to hire out the service. I am wondering how I would go about this. I have a neighbor who has a dozer/backhoe service he does on the side of his farm.

Do any of you have a seperate tractor for hire service? anyone rent/contract for haying/ditch digging/ mowing...etc?

Who does it work in reality?

The tractor would be a 80 hp ($40,000) windrower ($5,000) and picker ($12,000) and maybe a cultivator ($7,000?)

These prices are for new eq. and wouldn't have to buy new. Would anyone pay to have the surface rocks removed off their pasture to improve it for haying/grazing?

what would a reasonable charge be? Based on what equation? Dozers here run around $75hr.

veggrower · #2 03/22/07, 01:22 AM

I would pay to have someone with a rock picker clean my field. The soil type in this area is Salem Gravelly Loam. There used to be farms that would do custom rock picking but no more that I have been able to find.

I could hire a lot of rock picking done for the $60k you listed in equipment.

I think you have a good idea, buy the equipment to clean your field and then make it pay for itself cleaning other's fields.

Don't know what you should charge or how. I'll ask how it used to be done around here.

**fordson major** · #3 03/22/07, 06:01 AM

unless you are doing the work with the equipment, i would not go down that path! we bought the farm we live on (37 years) from a man that rented out his equipment, had insurance and all. besides the large amount of money he spent repairing equipment, he had a farmer lose a hand too a corn picker the year after we bought the farm. farmer went too court and won a judgement agin the farmer renting him the equipment and tried too take the farm! i am part of a large custom work team, long hours, hard work but does pay in the end. manure spreading, hay from standing too small square and large round. offering a rock picking service would mean picking flat rocks by hand and having a backhoe too deal with the too large rocks.

Beeman · #4 03/22/07, 07:58 AM

I'm sure there is some money to be made. Unfortunately there will be more ways to lose money then make money. Always count in the liability factor and insurance to cover yourself if you care to.

veggrower · #5 03/22/07, 10:46 AM

Lots o' liability insurance. I wouldn't want to rent the equipment to someone else to use--too little control over how they use/abuse it. They could do someothing stupid and then sue you for it. You (meaning you, a family member or employee) doing custom work would give you control over how it is used, not abused.

I have rented a lot of equipment and the rental places often have a "Wall of Shame" where they post photos of really stupid things people have done with their equipment.

DaleK · #6 03/22/07, 11:24 AM

We do custom work. I wouldn't rent the equipment out at all. There's a guy here who does custom rock-picking with a picker and windrower combined, I think he charges $120/hr Canadian.

okiemom · #7 03/22/07, 01:43 PM

Great ideas and points. I am just brainstorming and not doing anything fast.

Insurance, liability , and how to find a decent operator for us to hire are some of the things making me really think. What does an employee mean for payment, taxes, insurance, medical...... Around here there is a lot of problems w/ fake SS cards. Who would I know if the person is legal or not. I'd hate to get busted and have steed fines. It seems like that is what "everyone does here".

I think you all are right in not letting JohnQPublic operating it. I was thinking more of a contractor only rental, but I am sure they could be just as rough/stupid. The eq. is dangerous but so is every piece of heavy eq. I have seen.

Where do people get insurance to cover items like this. Is it an umbrella policy conected to your home insurance? Is it a seperate policy from a specialized company?

there are many other local people I need to talk to about this, but I wanted some ideas from here first. Your the best!

Silvercreek Farmer · #8 03/22/07, 02:07 PM

It sounds like the guy at the tractor store is trying to make a sale to me. When he says a "lot" of inquiries he probably means 2!

veggrower · #9 03/22/07, 03:50 PM

In Oregon, it runs about 33% more than your employees base salary. A $12/hr person costs me $16/hr with worker's comp, UI, FICA. No benefits.

Do you have a farm policy in place or just homeowners? I am sure for a price my farm policy would cover custom work.

As far as the immigration status, you have to fill out form I-9, keep copies of the applicants SS card, driver's license, green card etc. You could probably find an I-9 online and read the instructions and what info is required to file it.

You're going about this the right way, asking questions, researching which generates more questions...

fantasymaker · #10 03/22/07, 04:11 PM

Operate the machine yourself and save tons of headaches,
By the tractor used You can buy them in good shape for a lot less than new and farmes tend to take very good care of their tractors ,Im not to sure about the rest of the equipment ,but the simpler it is the better buy it is used. For example Ive never seen a useless used plow and used combines are always a headache.

rambler · #11 03/22/07, 10:38 PM

Liability insurance will be high, & will be it's own policy - or possibly a rider to a farm policy, but probably not to a homeowner policy. It's a business, you will get business rates - not cheap.

If you have an employee, then you get into witholding & workers comp & all that. Oh boy.

Why don't you drive it around & make the $10 an hour???????

I'd consider doing that; but the insurance & difficulty in collecting from people will soon stop that.......

I wouldn't even think of hiring someone else to drive & be paying all the costs with all that for just one machine. Then you need to get into a landscaping business & go big time, year around work for 3-5 people to make all the equiipment & insurances and paperwork to pay off.

You'll be spending $75 an hour. Not counting breakdowns.

What will you make?

My opinion.

--->Paul

okiemom · #12 03/23/07, 03:33 PM

Contract farming prices would make it around 75-$95/hr. Each step is priced alone.

Step 1. round up and cultivating ( could be done by property owner or me)

Step 2. windrowing $75-90

Step 3. picking ( I have found only info on the price per acre so I would have to see how many linear feet could be done on average in an hr.)

Canada prices showed "rock picking" as $175/hr ($130usd/hr) I would assume that the windrowing and picking were combined.

Step 4. rock removal off property

some places around here are not bad and could almost be done by hand, but some like ours is almost 50% covered in places. Hard to get glass to grow when the mining co. left it in such bad shape. That was the trade off when we bought the property. 30 min to work w/ rocks or 45-55min + turnpicke tolls ($300+/yr) for reasonable priced land w/o rocks. DH choose not to drive 2 hrs a day to go/come from work.

The fences on this place are insane 8 wire barbed and cattle catchment system.

But enough rocks to open up our own portable rock crusher.