apart from silage,slurry,ploughing,etc what do u hire contractor to do for u

bk1991

what do u hire a contractor to do for you and what services would u like to see more of ?

GERMAN ROCKS

for us its just hedgecutting and setting a about 10 acres of beet every year ofr the the cattle in winter.

snowman707

silage and sheep shearing only ,

used to get hedgecutting but we are presently looking for a machine to do our own. last couple of years are so wet we have a couple of fields where you need to able to move in when they are dry, luckily they are not in our reps plan, good thinking on my planner's behalf.

reilig

snowman707 wrote: »

silage and sheep shearing only ,

used to get hedgecutting but we are presently looking for a machine to do our own. last couple of years are so wet we have a couple of fields where you need to able to move in when they are dry, luckily they are not in our reps plan, good thinking on my planner's behalf.

We bought our own hedgecutter a few years ago. Like you we needed to be able to cut when the fields were dry. Only bought a small machine, and it was 20 years old - but it was in like new condition, owned by a farmer in the uk who rarely used it. Hasn't given us a problem since the day we got it and it only set us back €4500.

Best buy ever.

whelan1

dung and lime spreading

dasheriff

Dung & lime spreading and hedgecutting..

What of the country are you in 1991 there is a different demand in all areas.

maidhc

Just hedgecutting here as well. It doesn't really pay to get contractors to be perfectly honest. We have all our own machinery, and it is all quite old (i.e. the baler is 21 years old), but it is well maintained and works. It all keeps costs down and increases profit (as meagre as it is).

dar31

easier to say what he dosent do.. topping, feeding and fert (silage fert is bulk spread).a combination of 3 different contractors dose everything. dont see the point in spending a heap of money every year on machinery. rather have the money in my pocket, wife recons it easier to find there .
as for getting started with contracting,id recon slurry with the right gear, 2000gls with lgp tyres on tanker and tractor, best option of selling your self in the wet weather.
however id be 98% certain you wont get finance in the current climate, unless some family will stand over loans. best bet, head off have a good time for a year or two, and get as much experaince as possible, it will stand to you in the long run

PMU

as dar31 says,slurry spreading on wet soils,using a trailing shoe and umbilical system keeping the tanker off the field. pat

PMU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC96J2n5mXM something like this!

PMU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC96J2n5mXM something like this!

JohnThomas09

bk1991 wrote: »

what do u hire a contractor to do for you and what services would u like to see more of ?

I think you should take the advice your getting here.I know that you probably look at others in your area that are sucessfully contracting and you think that will be me someday.

The sad reality is it may not.The best advice I can give you is either do a course in Agri or else head abroad.I know a few guys your age who spend the winter months in New Zealand(October-March),its summer there during these months,and then comeback here for our summer and work at Silage/Tillage..

It might be worth looking into.I can put you in touch with a guy in New Zealand.

bk1991

dasheriff wrote: »

Dung & lime spreading and hedgecutting..

What of the country are you in 1991 there is a different demand in all areas.

westmeath !!!

Casinoking

Try a google search of agricultural contracting, you might get some ideas from what other contractors are doing, particularly in England and New Zealand. As I said before in a different thread by the same poster, it isn't a great time to be starting out in contracting. Apart from the banks not lending any money a lot of farmers are buying their own gear for jobs like baling and hedgecutting, and all the succesful silage contractors are well established over the last 30 years or so. As for the trailing shoe slurry systems, I wouldn't encourage anyone to go out and spend €40K on a slurry tanker on a whim without plenty of guaranteed work. It was often the case that there was more money in smaller, simpler jobs like spraying or topping. The gear is a lot cheaper starting out so you haven't the same overheads.