The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is conducting a survey to collect rates charged for custom agricultural operations and services across Texas.

Dr. Steven Klose, AgriLife Extension economist in College Station, encourages farmers, ranchers, landowners and custom service providers to respond.

“We receive a number of inquiries each year for custom rates for a variety of agricultural operations and services,” Klose said. “The information collected in this survey is the only source for market and pricing data related to custom-hire activities in Texas.”

He encouraged farmers, ranchers, landowners and custom service providers to respond to the survey, which accounts for activities such as tractor rental, tillage operations, planting operations, chemical and fertilizer application, custom harvesting, hay baling, land preparation, brush control and other miscellaneous operations or services. The resulting price publication provides a baseline of regional and statewide average rates.  

“The survey should only take 10-15 minutes for most people because we only want them to answer the questions that pertain to their operation,” Klose said. “Hard copies of the survey will be mailed to a limited group, however anyone with knowledge of custom farm and ranch operations is encouraged to participate online at: https://agecoext.tamu.edu/crs2018. We need broad participation to produce an accurate and reliable publication of this market information.”

Survey collection will run through June and the publication will be available shortly after. For more information and previous custom rate publications, visit https://agecoext.tamu.edu/crs.