Business
Cost effectiveness of spraying your own fields?
At what point as a farmer does it become more cost effective to spray/ fertilize your own field as apposed to having a local Co-op do it for you? And this would include buying a used sprayer, and chemicals.
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Timing is everything. If the coop can’t get to you in a reasonable time frame, then you are better off with your own sprayer. I had this exact problem and purchased my own sprayer about 3 years ago. I now have no issue with getting the spraying done
I have enjoyed reading all the responses, I too agree that water can be the bottle neck, garden hose doesn’t do it, I bought 3 blemished storage tank from local dealer, 7000 gallon storage, I have a semi flatbed with 2 1600 gallon tanks, our town has water dispenser for quick fill, 10 dollars for 1600 gallons, I keep my storage tanks topped off all summer so I can quickly load my 1200 gallon spray...
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Was close to the same position. We found a TOP AIR 550 gallon pull behind with 60 foot booms, first year pulled it with a 4020, had to hook the Ravens 440 and the electronics to the right battery only. Spent 4500 on the sprayer then another 1000 for the repair and spray tips we needed. Local co op charges 6 00 dollars an acre, 500 acres twice, not to difficult to figure out that we are money ahea...
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My pump only requires 7 gpm. I spray Liberty at 20 gpm at 7-8 mph w 60' booms.. A 4020 should do that. Water tanks at auction can't hardly be given away aound here. If your fields aren't that far away set it on the ground and set the pump next to it. Fill from the top. A 1000 gallon sprayer will cover an 80 at 10 gal per acre. If you go w a hyd. Pump make sure it gets set up to match the tracto...
I really appreciate everyone’s responses here!!! It’s making me look at options for us that I thought were just simply out of my reach. I will continue to look into purchasing one for our operations and see if I can keep a little more money in our farms pocket!
Purchasing a sprayer was an easy decision for us. Timeliness is critical for spraying, and custom operators are rarely here when you need them to be. It doesn't have to be an expensive self propelled either. We cover about 25000 acres a year with a pull type.
Not sure what you looking to spend but there are several self propelled units on big iron under 10k that close tomorrow, there is a nice looking John Deere 6700 at $4400 that might suit your needs without breaking the bank, on the other hand we did all of our own spraying across several thousand acres with bowman 16 rows and saddle tanks mounted on the tractors. It was tedious but with a water tra...
Thank you for the information on the monitor and precision setup up too. We have a 4020( not good for spraying) and a 4860 that have no form of precision to them. Yet agai one of the hurdles with a pull behind sprayer unless the monitors and setup come with it.
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I wouldn't exactly call a Raven 440 "precision", but it gets you speed compensated flow, 3 manual section shut offs and will let you know when you're empty. This is what you will find on half the used sprayers out there.
I pull my sprayer with a boxcar magnum and it works pretty well. It does take a decent amount of flow to run a hydraulic pump and still have good boom speed. I'm guessing the...
We don't use precision or anything for spraying... one monitor gives an AB line and kinda helps show where we've been but we still have to steer down the row and manually turn on the sprayer and manually turn it off
Very similar to *****'s comment. I run a 1000 gallon 60ft pull type sprayer on 250 acres averaging 2 trips per year. Typically spraying 15-20 gallon/acre. Picked the sprayer up a few years back for $5100 (have to watch the auctions). I would recommend something that at least has automatic rate control (Raven 440 is hard to beat at this price point). I figure $7.25/acre with 1/3 of that going...
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Each chemical you want to apply will have a recommended gallons per acre somewhere on the label maybe its back a few pages... We do alot of 15 gallon an acre... more water and feel its better coverage... could probably get by with 10 gallon an acre but it amounts to maybe 1 more load.
if you spray your own field. id assume having them spray it is atleast $5-7/A
Once you buy your own sprayer yo...
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I cannot imagine hiring someone to spray. The only custom sprayer I know of is 90 km away. My sprayer is wide, 40.5 metres ( 133.3 ft) covers 70 to 120 acres per hour depending on what I am doing. Cost me $22,000 to buy. Costs about 1.30 per acre for fuel. $0.85 per acre in maintenance and repair.
I have to haul my own water which isn't a big deal. I have never calculated how much that costs...
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Thank you so very very much with the hard facts and numbers that you’ve provided. I greatly appreciate that!! My biggest issue in this area is we only have to spray twice a year on our wheat. And it’s kind of hard to find a used sprayer that’s not a pull behind for around the same amount of money. The co-op here locally does a lot of the spraying and dry fertilizer, because I think most people don...
You or at least I can not afford to not have my own sprayer.
165 acres irrigated. Anything on 30 inch row spacing I am spraying with a side by side mounted sprayer. 22 inches - hire out. Fence lines, internal roads, general all around weed control - do it yourself.
Anyone here considered the cost benefits of spraying with a drone? Would love to get some feeback. *****************
Also are you farming only 200 acres or is 200 acres the farm land but you also have pasture?
Just wondering because if you have cattle and are hauling water, you’ve got a water setup covered. If you’ve got a baling or planting tractor, you’re also more than halfway there. On 200ac the highest volume of product will be something along the lines of roundup or atrazine. Even at that, you could get ...
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Not knowing for sure what you’re going to be spraying, your rate per acre will likely be 8gal/ac or higher. That’ll help you figure out how much you can spray and what size of nurse trailer or bulk tank to have. I would think a 2000gal flat bottom tank would suit you just fine. You’d have bulk water to spray with and pull out to haul for livestock. 2” pump would be enough for what you’re doing.
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We farm 200 acres or so but we also have about 80 acres of pasture. We do haul water but we simply fill up with a water hose because we’re on well water. I really appreciate the information more than I can say. It’s hard to find “quality information” when most coffee shop talk is inflated for purposes of ego.
How many times are they spraying for you in a year? Take that number times the rate they charge you and see if you can afford buying a spray coupe or pull type machine. If you’re doing hay, wheat, etc you don’t need a tall clearance machine. Maybe you have a neighbor in the same boat and you can go in on a machine together.
As for support equipment, depending on where your field is from your far...
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We’ve found that owning a sprayer and doing the job when you want it done has been the most profitable piece of equipment on the farm. With the local fertilizer company’s where we are charging 11 to 14 dollars an ac to spray it doesn’t take long to make up the payment on the machine over 700 acres. The sprayer actually makes money over the payment each year. We didn’t buy a new one but is a good u...
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For our area it’s $4.50 an acre to fertilize, but again we would be starting from scratch with no equipment. Just trying to wrap my head around the logistics of it all
Agreed. Quick and simple way to compute how much you want to put into the unit.
Corn and soybeans mainly. I also burn down hayfields prior to planting.
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With the amount of small pull type sprayers available for less than $2000, you could probably almost double your money in one year from saving the application cost, cheaper chemical and higher yields from better timing. I bought my first sprayer when I only farmed 40 acres for $1300 and it more than paid for itself immediately.
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What kind of crops do you spray? I’m looking at spraying wheat in the spring with my nitrogen and if I plant Doublestop applying Beyond or other like chemical.
I don’t think there a number that justifies owning a sprayer but it determines the kind you buy. I have that farms 120 acres owns a pull type.
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Thank you that’s kinda along the same lines as my thoughts, just finding the opportunity to get a sprayer at the right price.
I use our local co-op for dry myself, the equipment is out of reach for me too. on 200 acres you may could get by with a good 3point type sprayer on a tractor. that way you could get it done when you want it done and it would pay for itself in a year or 2.
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I appreciate your thoughts as well. I just don’t like seeing the bill and knowing that some of that money is going into their pocket and not working for me in the long run.
spraying hands down is more cost effective if you have to do several trips in a season. you'll be able to do it on your time instead when they get to you. I hope I never have to rely on someone else to do my spraying ever again.
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I only farm 45 acres tillage and hands down its more cost effective for me to do my own spraying. Being the small guy the coop usually puts my farm on the back burner. Its still important to me so I take pride in even the small things in life...
I appreciate the insight I’m just curious because the farm my dad and I run is only about 200 acres. We put down dry fertilizer in the fall with wheat and fertilize/ spray in the spring. I just didn’t know what others experience was as far as the tipping point either way