[lly597]

Hello, I am new to the site and doing some research.
My dad and I run a farm with about 1000 acres split between corn and soybeans. It is about 600 corn and 400 beans. We have always had a local guy do our combining but the more we expand the harder it is to schedule.
We are looking into getting a 2388 and doing our own combining. Just trying to get some idea on what it might cost per acre to run that machine.

 

[farminflyboy]

You can only harvest 4 acres per hour with a 2388?

 

[lly597]

The machine will be looked over well before we would buy it. I will most likely be running the combine so we won't have the cost of hiring an operator. I suppose my time counts for something but we will factor that in somewhere else. We are mainly looking for actual operating costs. Things like Gallons per acre and maintenance costs, maybe even acres per hour to factor in our time. We will probably be running a 6 row head and 30' bean head.

I am just starting to get really serious in this business, my dad has been farming all his life and I have always helped him out as much as I was able to. When I graduated high school I did what "everyone is supposed to do". Go to college, get a job, hate that job, and then realize what I would actually enjoy doing for a living has been right there the whole time. Live and learn I guess.

 

[farminflyboy]

Acres per hour in beans should be 12 or maybe a little better, depends on yields and moisture. Corn with a 6 row i'm guessing 8-9.

 

[greeniron]

Has the combine been through the shop and ready for the field?
Will it burn one gallon of diesel per acre in a heavy crop?
Then will it average $3.00 per acre of maintenance?
Not sure what you figure paying for a good operator, maybe $1.50-$2.00 per acre?
Miscellaneous costs of maybe $1.00 per acre? (It probably wouldn't hurt to bump this up to $2.00 per acre).

I am probably leaving out some things, but hope this helps. Best of luck.

 

[farminflyboy]

sounds about right if its in good shape, Could even be a bit high for the maintenace figure, but its good to keep extra in reserve in that department.

 

[ihdriver7088]

local dealership is renting 2002-2004 2388's for around $100.00 per seperator hour which i figure comes down to aroun 25-30 bucks an acre pending fuel cost and labor cost (yes this includes the header)

 

[9280]

we run an 02 2388 in cereals pulses and oilseeds with 30' headers we average 10ac/hour sometimes bit better

 

[watglen]

$3/ acre in maintenance seems low to me. I would think it would be higher than that. After 1000 acres, i would expect to spend more than $3000 getting it ready to do it again.

That said, we only got our first combine 2 years ago after hiring the neighbour all my life. That combine has made me more money in the last two years. Every time i pull it out it pays.

If you aren't already really familiar with them, find someone who is really familiar, and spend some time looking at machines in detail. Pretty soon you learn what to look for, and you can tell a good one from a bad one pretty easy. I hired the mechanic at the dealer to go with me on weekends to inspect machines. It worked out really well for me.

The sooner you spend the money, the happier you'll be.

 

[harvest04]

This was our first season with our 01 2388 and the one time i checked the fuel consumption it was about 8 liters per acre in 200 bu. (wet, 35%) corn with a 8 row 1083. Hope this helps and is accurate.. I'd be interested in what others are getting???

 

[blackfalcon]

That a little over 2 gallons per acre. I would say that is pretty accurate. When we had 2388's I always figured about 2 gallons per acre in corn and around 1gallon per acre in average wheat.

 

[cornstalks]

3dollars/acre is low always look at the bushels that go through it if you`re doing 600acres of corn then about 100-125,000 bushels and 400 of beans then about 20-25,000 bushels so you then look at how you do maintenance in relation to that (augers ,shaker, feeder etc..) don`t get caught up in the hours routine we have customers that are only putting 250 hours on a seperator with a 12 row head in a year and are still harvesting 3000acres of corn or over 600,000 bushels

 

[lly597]

What is considered low or normal hours on these machines?

 

[cornstalks]

most operaters put 2-400 hrs a year depending on head size, as a tech I no longer consider 1500 seperater hrs to be low that can be a large amount of bushels and need a lot of repairs if it hasn`t been touched on the other hand if it goes through the shop each year you should be ok

 

[boog]

I agree with cornstalks on the hours. Use to be we never had to do much to our AF combines until they got to around 2,000 hrs. Now it seems we are replacing those components at 1,250 -1,500 hrs.. Not sure if it's because of more volumne going thru the machines of the quality of parts are not as good as they use to be.

We have an '02 2388 that had around 2,300 engine hursa when we started this fall. In '07 we spent over $12,000 on repairs but that did include a new AFX rotor prior to the strt of the year. In '08 we spent around $15,000 in repairs, a lot of which was a complete new unloading system. This year we spent over $25,000 prior to the beginning of harvest but that did include about $10,000 for a Field Tracker & 3rd hyd lift cylinder. All work was done by us except for the installation of the rotor & thework done prior to harvest this year which was done thru our CIH dealers CMI program.

We're running about 2,400 ac of corn & beans thru this machine per year.

 

[farminflyboy]

boog the afx and field tracker you can hardly count in "repairs"...except for taxes