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Here are guidelines on what you can charge or pay for 24 forage and pasture custom rates.
2 Min Read
Spring is prime time for pasture renovation, seeding forage crops and harvesting. It’s also when farmers and landowners begin checking custom rates for hiring jobs done. And those numbers aren’t easy to come by.
The latest information on custom rates for forage-related practices comes from University of Maryland’s 2015 report. For your convenience, the accompanying chart categorizes charges as mean and median values tabulated from 77 custom operators and farmers surveyed evert two years by Shannon Dill, University of Maryland Extension educator. As you can see, charges can vary widely.
WHEN SPEED IS THE NEED: Custom forage tasks are one of the region’s most popular custom charges because timing is everything to feed quality.
The "average" or mean is the mid-point between the top and bottom charges, explains Dill. You get it by adding up the values of all reported charges, then dividing that sum by the number of reports. Median refers to the number in middle of the range. It's less sensitive to extremes, and is a better measure than the average.
Some variations may be due to lack of awareness of local competition or how many jobs are accepted by custom operators, she adds. Other factors include location, field size and topography, crop yields, soil conditions, weather conditions, work quality, equipment size and timeliness.
The full report, including minimum and maximum charges.
Operation | Unit | Median | Average |
Seeding - Grass Drilling/No-Till | Acre | $21.00 | $24.48 |
Seeding - Grass Broadcast | Acre | $18.38 | $16.31 |
Seeding - Small Grain Broadcast | Acre | $7.25 | $9.83 |
Lime (includes Lime and Application) | Ton | $46.00 | $44.86 |
Manure Loading | Ton | $5.00 | $9.00 |
Manure Spreading - Solid | Ton | $10.00 | $8.92 |
Manure Spreading - Litter | Ton | $7.00 | $7.82 |
Manure Hauling | Ton | $5.88 | $8.69 |
Spraying - Pesticide Ground | Acre | $9.00 | $9.07 |
Mowing Hay | Acre | $20.50 | $26.69 |
Mowing and Conditioning Hay | Acre | $20.00 | $24.93 |
Raking Hay | Acre | $11.00 | $16.83 |
Baling - Small Squares | Bale | $0.85 | $1.10 |
Baling - Large Round Bales | Bale | $9.00 | $10.55 |
Baling - Large Square Bales | Bale | $7.50 | $7.07 |
Mow, Rake, Bale Hay - No Haul | Bale | $14.75 | $15.56 |
Round Bale Wrapping | Bale | $7.00 | $8.00 |
Bush Hogging | Hour | $75.00 | $71.20 |
Posthole Digging | Hole | $5.50 | $9.50 |
Post Driving | Hole | $10.00 | $25.33 |
Clearing Land | Hour | $130.00 | $177.14 |
Mowing CRP Acres | Acre | $21.50 | $32.77 |
Mowing | Acre | $23.50 | $31.96 |
Tree Planting | Per Plant | $10.00 | $10.00 |
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