Contractor talk

Byrnie55483

Right lads thought I'd start a thread where contractor's can tell tale's and story's of tractor and machinery mishaps and also about some services they provide to farmer's and experience of jobs they have completed an also have a place to have a general discussion on up-date challenges of contracting

tanko

The contractors are all too sick from starvation and food poisoning to talk at the minute.

Base price

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

Right lads thought I'd start a thread where contractor's can tell tale's and story's about farmer's and jobs they have completed an also have a place to have a general discussion on up-date challenges of contracting

I sincerely hope that any contractor wouldn't be a tittle tattler let alone a story teller to all the neighbours.

The part time boy

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

where contractor's can tell tale's and story's about farmer's

Any bussinces that "trash talks " and laught about there clients wont last very long

paddysdream

tanko wrote: »

The contractors are all too sick from starvation and food poisoning to talk at the minute.

To get food poisoning you need to actually get the food and reading through the other thread it seems that many contractors are in little danger of that !!!!!!

Stories are nice and all but when written down and read by complete strangers without context and actually knowing even the smallest detail of those involved they are not exactly enlightening.

Limestone Cowboy

Used to do bales and slurry in a place and the hens would be in around the kitchen when we were eating the tea.

Byrnie55483

Just curious have any other Agricultural Contractor's, cut any 2nd cut silage yet ?and are they finished all of 1st cut silage for farmers,and was the silage situated to bales or pit!.

davidk1394

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

Just curious have any other Agricultural Contractor's, cut any 2nd cut silage yet ?and are they finished all of 1st cut silage for farmers,and was the silage situated to bales or pit!.

Started second cuts here. All bales. Finished 1st cuts this week. Dog heavy stuff and a nightmare to bale

Sam Kade

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Used to do bales and slurry in a place and the hens would be in around the kitchen when we were eating the tea.

How strange























































































I've never heard of anyone eating tea.

Muckit

....Full of hen ****e. 'Atin and drinking in it!!

mf240

Maybe it was a hen party

Byrnie55483

o how i love these fusion's :P , means less time wrapping bale's and listening to farmer's son's daydream. :rolleyes:

Muckit

That trailer load only confirms my suspicions that fusion bales are getting smaller!!

Byrnie55483

Muckit wrote: »

That trailer load only confirms my suspicions that fusion bales are getting smaller!!

Muckit, this was a bit of early 2nd cut and well as you could imagine was awfully light! as we were progressing on through the cut there was even less and less bale's coming out of 30ft swarth? , and 6 hour's later when we were leaving the yard the 1st few bale's we made i see had turned into pancake's #pancakethursday

X6.430macman

Muckit wrote:

That trailer load only confirms my suspicions that fusion bales are getting smaller!!

Contractor got a new fusion this year and also runs a standard baler..he reckons that the fusion bale is smaller but more densily packed

The part time boy

X6.430macman wrote: »

Contractor got a new fusion this year and also runs a standard baler..he reckons that the fusion bale is smaller but more densily packed

His hardly going to tell you bales are smaller and there less in the bale lol

Spin is as important here as his fusion bailer did not come cheap

X6.430macman

The part time boy wrote:

His hardly going to tell you bales are smaller and there less in the bale lol

Yeah true

visatorro

Muckit wrote: »

That trailer load only confirms my suspicions that fusion bales are getting smaller!!

Muckit they're not small, they're far away

Muckit

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

Muckit, this was a bit of early 2nd cut and well as you could imagine was awfully light! as we were progressing on through the cut there was even less and less bale's coming out of 30ft swarth? , and 6 hour's later when we were leaving the yard the 1st few bale's we made i see had turned into pancake's #pancakethursday

I will say they are nice shaped bales. Now can you tell me, is it possible to pack the edges as good as that out of 20' raked swarths from paddocks? My contractor seems to think it isn't

Bleating Lamb

In fairness contractors can set the baler to pack as much or as little as they want in....doing the latter loses customers for them eventually.

Noveight

Muckit wrote: »

I will say they are nice shaped bales. Now can you tell me, is it possible to pack the edges as good as that out of 20' raked swarths from paddocks? My contractor seems to think it isn't

Only ever picked 20" once and found it tough enough to pack out the shoulders of the bale, made the odd carrot shaped one even when concentrating on packing right :pac:

I've found that nothing suits a baler like a heavy 10" row after a conditioner mower.

MFdaveIreland

better with a smaller tighter bale of high DM silage than a big bale of wet. id say to be sure work out the weight and DM% then you'll know what's better rather than assuming.

Byrnie55483

Noveight wrote: »

Only ever picked 20" once and found it tough enough to pack out the shoulders of the bale, made the odd carrot shaped one even when concentrating on packing right :pac:

I've found that nothing suits a baler like a heavy 10" row after a conditioner mower.

Noveight I find the fusion takes in 30ft's handy enough , only problem that occurs is as my tractors are not vario , and some places in fields are light and others are heavy, this results in more wear and tear on break and clutch pads.

Blockages rarely occur but when they do you would know all about it! 10ft is a fairly light swarth for a baler to take in I think? also would this not impact the time spent on jobs??, as many farms in my area are only 7-40 acre fields! This would certainly mean a good 3/4 of a day would be spent driving up and down poxy rows.

The job of the affable Agri Contractor in my eyes is to complete the task requested as quickly and as efficiently at a price beneficial to the Farmer and Contractor .

This is why many Contractors are turning to fusions as they are doing 2 tasks in one reducing labour , in reply to this I am running 3 fusion balers, 2 bale chasers and 1 tractor with a bale trailer and 2 tractors for stacking this outfit goes to the one farm together mainly !, but if the weather takes a turn for the worst the crew is split up according to the size of the job's needing to be completed to cover the acerage as quickly and efficiently as can be!.

davidk1394

Noveight wrote: »

Only ever picked 20" once and found it tough enough to pack out the shoulders of the bale, made the odd carrot shaped one even when concentrating on packing right :pac:

I've found that nothing suits a baler like a heavy 10" row after a conditioner mower.

Have a 20ft rake here. Ideal in heavy crops. In light crops speed up the rake and narrow it in if necessary. That allows you yo weave over and back to fill the bale evenly. Picking 10ft swards would be my idea of torture.

davidk1394

The job of the affable Agri Contractor in my eyes is to complete the task requested as quickly and as efficiently at a price beneficial to the Farmer and Contractor .

Hit the nail on the head there. But why do some contractors decide to do jobs at a loss ? Farmers then expect other contractors to do the same. Most of these lads who charge nothing have old clapped out machines that are unable to cope with the pressure. I'm not as big as yourself but run good gear and deal with local farmers. I know the fields I do the job and I'm gone. The farmer hardly notices I'm there.

Byrnie55483

davidk1394 wrote: »

The job of the affable Agri Contractor in my eyes is to complete the task requested as quickly and as efficiently at a price beneficial to the Farmer and Contractor .

Hit the nail on the head there. But why do some contractors decide to do jobs at a loss ? Farmers then expect other contractors to do the same. Most of these lads who charge nothing have old clapped out machines that are unable to cope with the pressure. I'm not as big as yourself but run good gear and deal with local farmers. I know the fields I do the job and I'm gone. The farmer hardly notices I'm there.

The thing about the young lad who is using Daddy's chequebook to buy machine's he is just a lad who likes machine's and let's his passion for machine's go to his head. , contracting is not for the weak it is a job not a hobby as some people should learn, if i let the job slip through my hand's whatsoever there would be consequences financially and mentally, you have to live for the job and hold on to it not you are on a road to going financially broke.
Them young lad's who are reading this and thinking about going into contracting might say i am a ignorant old boluex! and you's aren't far wrong i have no interest with young lad's who setup to go into contracting .This usually mean's undercutting occurs and people lose customer's resulting in a tough year financially. ! ill still be at it in 10 year's time hopefully even if lad's are still under cutting like they are in this day and age but i can guarantee there will be a huge amount of lad's who were hit&run show's and either gave up due to work effort or daddy cutting off their credit .

MF290

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

The thing about the young lad who is using Daddy's chequebook to buy machine's he is just a lad who likes machine's and let's his passion for machine's go to his head. , contracting is not for the weak it is a job not a hobby as some people should learn, if i let the job slip through my hand's whatsoever there would be consequences financially and mentally, you have to live for the job and hold on to it not you are on a road to going financially broke.
Them young lad's who are reading this and thinking about going into contracting might say i am a ignorant old boluex! and you's aren't far wrong i have no interest with young lad's who setup to go into contracting .This usually mean's undercutting occurs and people lose customer's resulting in a tough year financially. ! ill still be at it in 10 year's time hopefully even if lad's are still under cutting like they are in this day and age but i can guarantee there will be a huge amount of lad's who were hit&run show's and either gave up due to work effort or daddy cutting off their credit .

Where abouts in Ireland do you offer your contracting services :rolleyes:

The part time boy

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

i have no interest with young lad's who setup to go into contracting .

This is a awful attitude to have

How do we expect younger people to get into contracting . Or are sons of contractors only allowed to take over .

It's a free open market if someone want to do it for free they should be allowed . Who are you to say what anyone can do with there lives .

Reality is most farmers will keep a contractor who is good . Not who is cheaper . So if you Loss a farmer to young buck undercutting ya either a) your charging way too much b) your not a a good contractor or c) the farmer you lost was not a good client to have anyway so it's no Loss

mf240

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

The thing about the young lad who is using Daddy's chequebook to buy machine's he is just a lad who likes machine's and let's his passion for machine's go to his head. , contracting is not for the weak it is a job not a hobby as some people should learn, if i let the job slip through my hand's whatsoever there would be consequences financially and mentally, you have to live for the job and hold on to it not you are on a road to going financially broke.
Them young lad's who are reading this and thinking about going into contracting might say i am a ignorant old boluex! and you's aren't far wrong i have no interest with young lad's who setup to go into contracting .This usually mean's undercutting occurs and people lose customer's resulting in a tough year financially. ! ill still be at it in 10 year's time hopefully even if lad's are still under cutting like they are in this day and age but i can guarantee there will be a huge amount of lad's who were hit&run show's and either gave up due to work effort or daddy cutting off their credit .

You must of been young once and started out. Or did you appear of of thin air as a fully fledged and experienced service provider. ,?

Byrnie55483

To all the above i did not mean any ignorance to the text i posted "i have no interest with young lad's who setup to go into contracting" this was just mearly a response to people starting out into contracting that i would not be to keen or should i say fond of them if they have the attitude i have seen other's with attitude's such as undercutting by x2 as much as other contractor's are charging and also telling other's to shove their advice and that theyre well cappable of starting out on their own.But if they have a fair price and are reasonable i have all the time in the world for them. Many a small contractor i gave advice to when he started up and even gave the odd job or 2 to him just as what other fellow contractor's did when i started out.
I am no dictator to what they should charge or if they are allowed to start up?in fact everyone to their own but you must take into account everyone is entitled to their own opinion and what i may say might not be to your liking it is just my opinion on matter's and is not directed at aneyone . Their is a few farmer's who i have lost throughout the year's but their is also the few farmer's who i have gained as well , i still to this day talk to old customer's who i had lost weather it be to my price or efficiency and reliability .

Who2

Honesty and reliability is what it comes down to. The price is secondary in most situations within reason.

shootermcgee

Did silage on a farm one day and the woman of the house killed a chicken that was as old as myself in front of us and cooked it for dinner

pedigree 6

shootermcgee wrote: »

Did silage on a farm one day and the woman of the house killed a chicken that was as old as myself in front of us and cooked it for dinner

That was a long dinner break.
How'd ye manage to wangle that one?
Breakdown?

Bullocks

shootermcgee wrote: »

Did silage on a farm one day and the woman of the house killed a chicken that was as old as myself in front of us and cooked it for dinner

How do you tell the age of a chicken ?

The part time boy

shootermcgee wrote: »

Did silage on a farm one day and the woman of the house killed a chicken that was as old as myself in front of us and cooked it for dinner

Did you wake up in the shower latter and realise it was all a dream

freedominacup

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

Noveight I find the fusion takes in 30ft's handy enough , only problem that occurs is as my tractors are not vario , and some places in fields are light and others are heavy, this results in more wear and tear on break and clutch pads.

Blockages rarely occur but when they do you would know all about it! 10ft is a fairly light swarth for a baler to take in I think? also would this not impact the time spent on jobs??, as many farms in my area are only 7-40 acre fields! This would certainly mean a good 3/4 of a day would be spent driving up and down poxy rows.

The job of the affable Agri Contractor in my eyes is to complete the task requested as quickly and as efficiently at a price beneficial to the Farmer and Contractor .

This is why many Contractors are turning to fusions as they are doing 2 tasks in one reducing labour , in reply to this I am running 3 fusion balers, 2 bale chasers and 1 tractor with a bale trailer and 2 tractors for stacking this outfit goes to the one farm together mainly !, but if the weather takes a turn for the worst the crew is split up according to the size of the job's needing to be completed to cover the acerage as quickly and efficiently as can be!.

30ft is the standard rake around here for balers. Fusions are starting to wear out their welcome with the contractors though. Not the concept by any stretch, a lot of guys are on their third fusion, but more some of the design flaws. The guy who does our baling is on his third season (I think) with a fusion three and from talking to him I wouldn't be surprised to see him replacing it with a competitor's machine. Bales were always wrapped in the field around here so there weren't any customer hang ups when the fusions appeared. In line wrappers were on the scene for a while before the fusions. Once our contractor got a keltec we parked the yoke we used to haul bales and I won't be pulling it out of the briars anytime soon. Keltec usually costs less than €1/bale to drop bales beside the stack and last bale in the yard minutes after the baler finishes. This contractor us not the cheapest by any stretch but he's reliable and efficient which is more important. NB he started from no background at all in contracting as a young lad in his early twenties and still going strong twenty years later.

pedigree 6

Bullocks wrote: »

How do you tell the age of a chicken ?

He counted the rings.

Honestly Bullocks. I thought you knew that one.:rolleyes:

patsy_mccabe

freedominacup wrote: »

...... Once our contractor got a keltec we parked the yoke we used to haul bales and I won't be pulling it out of the briars anytime soon. Keltec usually costs less than €1/bale to drop bales beside the stack and last bale in the yard minutes after the baler finishes......

So he drops the bales from the Keltec wrapped. Any issues with damaged bales.

Water John

Contractor must be like Churchill who said on a visit to a distant cousin: If the wine was as old as the chicken, if the chicken was as plump as the maid, and if the maid was as willing as you madam, it would have been a great visit.

davidk1394

Byrnie55483 wrote: »

The thing about the young lad who is using Daddy's chequebook to buy machine's he is just a lad who likes machine's and let's his passion for machine's go to his head. , contracting is not for the weak it is a job not a hobby as some people should learn, if i let the job slip through my hand's whatsoever there would be consequences financially and mentally, you have to live for the job and hold on to it not you are on a road to going financially broke.
Them young lad's who are reading this and thinking about going into contracting might say i am a ignorant old boluex! and you's aren't far wrong i have no interest with young lad's who setup to go into contracting .This usually mean's undercutting occurs and people lose customer's resulting in a tough year financially. ! ill still be at it in 10 year's time hopefully even if lad's are still under cutting like they are in this day and age but i can guarantee there will be a huge amount of lad's who were hit&run show's and either gave up due to work effort or daddy cutting off their credit .

Your talking to one now. I sold all my stock and bought a wrapper. I promised myself if I lasted a year with a 2 wheel drive 1394 case a welger rp 220 and an old Goweil wrapper. Now I've built up into a viable enterprise with new high capacity machines. This put me through college and paid my way through life. I pay everyone who works for me including my parents. I'm tough with credit and I'll take anything as payment including stock, feed or machines. I'm a "young lad" but make no mistake I take shít from no one, if I do a job I want to be paid within 60 days. Had difficulty with a person last year, loaded up hay and sold it on.
I built up my business using my reputation not undercutting. If I take a job off a rival well tough shít. Suck it up and move on, quit complaining or else I'll take another one. Lads seem to have a right to do a job, but if someone better comes along they may up their game.

Nekarsulm

Good job your not operating up our way. A 7 acre field is a good sized one. A 40 acre field is the stuff of legend ........

CloughCasey1

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Good job your not operating up our way. A 7 acre field is a good sized one. A 40 acre field is the stuff of legend ........

Ya mean 40 acres would be the whole farm.☺

visatorro

davidk1394 wrote: »

Your talking to one now. I sold all my stock and bought a wrapper. I promised myself if I lasted a year with a 2 wheel drive 1394 case a welger rp 220 and an old Goweil wrapper. Now I've built up into a viable enterprise with new high capacity machines. This put me through college and paid my way through life. I pay everyone who works for me including my parents. I'm tough with credit and I'll take anything as payment including stock, feed or machines. I'm a "young lad" but make no mistake I take shít from no one, if I do a job I want to be paid within 60 days. Had difficulty with a person last year, loaded up hay and sold it on.
I built up my business using my reputation not undercutting. If I take a job off a rival well tough shít. Suck it up and move on, quit complaining or else I'll take another one. Lads seem to have a right to do a job, but if someone better comes along they may up their game.

There's a lad that may or may not do work here again, he believes he has a right to do work here when it suits him, not when it suits me. He was disgusted and snotty with me when I got someone else to spread slurry.

freedominacup

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

So he drops the bales from the Keltec wrapped. Any issues with damaged bales.

I had a discussion with the foreman before he came in for the last lot of bales. The young lads here reared up on me over the number of damaged bales. They had gotten their nuff between here and their uncles place. They said to me if X was operating the keltec I could do the patching myself. Foreman obviously had a word. Not a single bale to be patched on last lot. Keltec is a great machine the nut behind the wheel is always the problem.

davidk1394

visatorro wrote: »

There's a lad that may or may not do work here again, he believes he has a right to do work here when it suits him, not when it suits me. He was disgusted and snotty with me when I got someone else to spread slurry.

I'll do it and I'll be glad of it :P

Sam Kade

shootermcgee wrote: »

Did silage on a farm one day and the woman of the house killed a chicken that was as old as myself in front of us and cooked it for dinner

It must've tasted like leather, you do know that you have to hang the chicken for 2-3 days to let the meat season :rolleyes:

freedominacup

visatorro wrote: »

There's a lad that may or may not do work here again, he believes he has a right to do work here when it suits him, not when it suits me. He was disgusted and snotty with me when I got someone else to spread slurry.

There's a guy something like that in this area. Losses his $hit completely whenever he losses a job. Won't take no for an answer almost. He'd be pretty good to get work done when he says he's going to do it. Big enough operator so more moving parts to control which I would allow him regarding timeliness a busy times. He lost a job close to me a few years ago when a favoured nephew took over a farm that had been long standing customers of his. Nephews best mate was a contractor and work went that way. Some of the stories about old contractors reaction were priceless and I have them from the source.

Grueller

When I took over from the father here I had a fella who does work here one day start to give me a long run down on "contractors rules". This guy is 30 years my senior and I felt was trying to get the upper hand straight away. I let him off and when he was finished I said that is a long list, I only have one rule. That is I reserve the right to employ any contractor that I see fit. His face fell but I knew that my message was received loud and clear.
I don't want to be boss in anyone else's business, but equally important is that I don't want anyone else to try to be boss in mine.

whelan2

A few years ago , I had a contractor in sowing maize. He arrived on a Saturday evening, did one run up the field and announced he doesnt work Sundays and he'd see me Monday :mad::mad: it rained for a few days after , so it was Thursday again he came back, I was livid. He doesnt do contracting work anymore

Reggie.

whelan2 wrote: »

A few years ago , I had a contractor in sowing maize. He arrived on a Saturday evening, did one run up the field and announced he doesnt work Sundays and he'd see me Monday :mad::mad: it rained for a few days after , so it was Thursday again he came back, I was livid. He doesnt do contracting work anymore

I wonder why

Bullocks

Is this there worth being loyal to a contractor ? We don't use them much on the farm but at work if a lad doesn't come on Monday when he says I do my best to have someone that will be there on Tuesday . I'm not really a stickler on price because I've been there , done that and find the difference between good and bad isn't worth the money difference when a lad is good but hate chap's that aren't on time or make a big deal out of small stuff .
If it becomes weather dependent like alot of farming jobs I deffo go for the first lad that I can get . It's usually the same lads I use but wouldn't hesitate getting someone else if I felt I was going to lose out over being loyal .
I'm not a bollix even if it reads like it haha