Quote:we dont do any custom work, but we hire one a smaller guy so he can afford his maximizer payments. For the past 3 years we've been paying him the same $25/acre harvested and delivered to the elevator.
Prices were up this year and we're still paying the same rate...and that $25 includes labor, machinery, and fuel, we just double check his acres on his monitor to our fields in the books and give him a paycheck for however many acres he cut.
Now would be a good time to adjust some, but if your paying for a harvest crew to come in, i bet they'll give ya an idea, but they'll wait till its closer and can adjust their prices accordingly. Why say your gonna do it for $35/acre delivered, when ag fuel could go up to $4/gallon or prices could plummit and they'd look like crooks.
If he raised is rates to $27.5/ac (10%) you would not pay it? Reason(s)? The seller (the custom harvester) must be able to profit from opportunity just like the buyer. If you would not pay his higher rate you are admitting that his services are not (1) good enough, or (2) he adds little to no additional value (i.e., grain or quality savings, convenience, etc.) and that you can do just as good a job if not better on your own, in which you probably should and not try to just help him make his "Maximizer" payment. Business is business no matter whether intended as a good gesture or not, especially if it continues as an annual gesture and especially more with the increasing price of farm machinery and its operating costs. You can't just be running it to be running it. Every time that separator is engaged it had better be making money.
Commodity prices, fuel prices, insurance costs are all proper business reasons (good business practices) why every last custom farming/harvesting operator should have annual rate increases of some sort, especially if new machinery is being used each year and fuel prices keep rising. Custom farming/harvesting rates should not be left solely in the hands of the buyer (the producer).