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Farmers Find More Demand To Work For Others
Dick Kraus couldn’t shake the itch to farm, so he moved home to Wisconsin
and started picking up jobs farming for others.
Eight years later, Kraus makes his living as a custom farmer - someone who
gets paid per acre to plant corn, make hay or harvest wheat.
The demand for farmers like him has grown as more owners who know little
about farming inherit farmland or buy it as an investment.
“It’s kind of specializing the market,” said Kraus, who
has built up a fleet of tractors, trucks, planters and field choppers since
returning
home.
It’s also less expensive and faster for some landowners or farmers to
hire a custom farmer with bigger equipment, rather than spending $100,000 on
new combine.
“They can put their money back into cows or land instead of equipment,” Kraus
said. “It’s also a quality of life issue. Instead of never getting
a day off, they can go fishing now.”
The demand for custom farming also is growing because it’s harder to
find and hire people willing to work long hours for just a few busy weeks,
said Tim
Baker, operations manager for U.S. Custom Harvesters, based in Hutchinson,
KS.
Most people in the harvesters association are full-time operators who travel
with a crew of combines over hundreds of miles from field to field during harvest
seasons.
Kraus, who lives near Elkhart Lake, WI, hires about 45 temporary workers
to help with fall harvests.
“In the beginning, we took every job we could,” he said. “Now
we’re a little more cautious.”
Custom farming isn’t without its costs and risks. Land owners pay for
seed, pesticides and other supplies. Custom farmers still have to cover the
cost of
their equipment, insurance, workers compensation and fuel.
“One of the pitfalls right now is these skyrocketing fuel costs,” Baker
said. “If you’re not careful, you can give it all away in fuel costs.” Many
farmers have added fuel surcharges to their contracts with land owners, said
Baker, whose organization represents grain, cotton and forage harvesters.
Setbacks to custom farmers in recent years include the increased size and
efficiency of grain harvesting machines, which have reduced the need for harvesters.
More
farmland has also been taken out of production for conservation reasons.
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