The annual Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey, released this week by Iowa State University Extension, shows custom machine work is on the rise in the state, and so are custom costs.
Of the nearly 100 Iowa farmers surveyed, 20% perform custom work, 14% hire work done, 59% do both, and just 6% do neither.
The report is intended to give farmers and agribusinesses a starting point for discussions and negotiations, not to set rates for specific practices or operators. It reflects the 2,621 rates farmers, custom operators, and farm managers say they expect to pay or charge this year.
Estimates for tillage, planting and seeding, spraying, harvesting, farm labor, and other custom services are included, along with new categories ground spraying with a self-propelled tall-crop sprayer and liquid fertilizer high-clearance application with a drop hose and Y spray nozzle.
Custom rates on the rise
Overall, custom rates are up 10-15% over last year. Harvesting and hauling rates have increased 20.2%, pre-harvest operations 15.1%, harvesting forages 14.3%, bin and machinery rental 13.7%, and labor 9.8%.
The average charge per acre including tillage, planting, pest control, harvesting, and hauling to farm (no drying) is $152 per acre for corn and $139.65 for soybeans, up 10.6% from 2022.
Individual rate averages for 2023 include:
- Chopping cornstalks: $14.80/acre
- Strip tillage: $24.35/acre
- Disking, heavy or offset: $21.75/acre
- Rock picking: $19.25/acre
- Cultivating, conventional: $14.05/acre
- Planting with fertilizer and insecticide attachments: $27.10/acre
- Drilling soybeans, no till: $23.05/acre
- Drilling small grain: $17.70/acre
- Drilling cover crop seed: $20.40/acre
- Ground broadcast spraying, self-propelled tall-crop: $10.35/acre
- Dry bulk fertilizer application: $7.20/acre
- Liquid fertilizer application, high clearance, drop hose, Y spray nozzle: $13.30/acre
- Anhydrous injecting with tool bar: $14.70/acre
- Corn combining with chopper head: $44.10/acre
- Soybean combining: $39.90/acre
- Small grain combining: $31.75/acre
- Complete harvesting (combine, grain cart, haul to farm storage): $65.75/acre for corn, $60.10/acre for soybeans
- Hauling corn in a grain cart: $7.35/acre
- Hauling grain to market, truck, 25 miles, 1-way trip: $0.210/bushel
- Mowing hay: $13.70/acre
- Hay baling, large round bales with wrap: $14.70/bale
- Silage, chopping, head row: $108.70/hour
- Loading, spreading solid manure: $164/hour
- Livestock hauling with trailer: $3.80/loaded mile
- Labor for spraying or harvesting: $23.85/hour
These averages were figured assuming an average price for diesel fuel of $3.39 per gallon, and may fluctuate depending on fuel and other input prices.
According to the report, machine rental not including operator, tractor, and fuel ranges from $0.11/bushel for a grain auger to $73.50/hour for a skid loader. It includes a worksheet for estimating machinery rental rates for items not on the survey.
Click here to read the full report.
