The REAL Cost of Harvesting My Own Silage! | I Was Shocked by the Result!

This week we get nerdy! We take a deep dive into the cost of running your own silage equipment vs using a contractor to do the job! I think a lot of people will be surprised by the result! Hope you enjoy!
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[@fatbaby8193]

This is exactly why a farmer like me or someone interested in agriculture watches your videos, truthful honest facts that no other KZbinr shows!keep up the great content!👏🏻

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Thanks! I do want to try and offer something different at times! 😅

[@ryanlennox684]

I must be a nerd too, love this level of analysis. A big key in any outsourcing decision is quality gained/lost. Your production quality if anything is higher in house as you can go when it suits you.

[@MrDT82]

Brilliant video. Doing the sums nobody wants to look at. 👏

[@TheBIGlittleFarmer]

Great video. Be interesting to see a forage wagon compared on price to!

[@MaxDinnis]

Nope, great vid for young men with decisions to make in their future, thanks to much Andrew.

[@PowershiftScotland]

If you are taking 4 Cuts a Year in a Wet Climate Best to Do Silage Yourself. I think you would get Impatient! waiting on a Contractor Andrew😂

[@davidb6028]

Are you calculating depreciation on the differential of what you paid for it minus what its worth today if you were to sell it???? Thats why i dont see a benefit in a contractor vrs doing it yourself. At least with your own kit you can zero the tax bill and always have assets you can sell...... Whats the point in paying a contractors finance, wages, profit etc. I work on the principle of, The money you make is the money you save.

[@FarmTheoryNI]

I'm not, the balance is the way I deal with repairs. Depreciation is too much, repairs are too little.

[@EdwardBrady-ls6up]

U a right to do your own silage when u have the help .

[@gerryoconnor8751]

You forgot to cost the storage of the gear.

[@mclarenrob2]

£100 acre sounds cheap compared to what we paid for just raking and picking up...

[@mikeysky8917]

Some actually charge £90/£95. Anything over £100 is madness and I would tell them where to go.

[@SuperSparkie123]

Great video and a lot of time gone into the figures! Think we will stick to mowing it ourselves and letting our contractor do the rest for £65 an acre!

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Good plan!

[@ronanlucid9588]

great content Andrew , really informative - the capital depreciation of equipment is shared across all eh activities - eg JCB 320 is used for feeding, cleaning and loading - it would sit in yard unused if not used for silage, ditto some of your other equipment (eg. tractors) - would need at least 1 or two tractors for other activities - so there is a machine utilisation component of calculation (some of depreciation is due to time - eg age of machine not just wear & tear) which would be incurred if using a contractor anyway.

[@sweed58]

That was great,look forward to more analysis

[@CharlesYeo-qs6nb]

I know you think your nerdy but come on you forgot service oil, filters, insurance. Have you ever thought about or costed a forage wagon when you replace the chopper.

[@marcjonah4210]

I’m sure filters etc are in the repairs and we find/found with a wagon you’re 4 times slower and cutting 150acs a day is not really possible

[@Rmac-eb2zb]

@@marcjonah4210 bull shit. 2 wagon lifted 145 in 8 hours here

[@marcjonah4210]

@@Rmac-eb2zb well thats twice as slow at least and in a light crop or heavy crop? I’m not aiming for a pissing contest but have a wagon and have changed systems and we pick up 4 times quicker…

[@martinconnolly3227]

I would say that the contractor cost of 100 acre seems small.

[@mikeysky8917]

No it isn’t. Many charge less

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Depends where you live. The range is huge!

[@EDWIN1MIDDLETON]

Excellent video. In the south majority of dairy farmers are not VAT registered as we get an extra payment on our milk in lieu of VAT. This makes machinery more expensive. Also, have you factored in the lost opportunity cost of capital, say 7% for average S&P500 return? Would it be safe to assume an extra 150k of machinery due to silage making?

[@FarmTheoryNI]

If you compare capital spend on a farm to the s&P you should just sell the whole farm. 😅 £150k extra is probably about right

[@TEquinevet]

One of the best videos you have done. Love the breakdown of costs.

[@cathalirwin]

Great content. Well done

[@willholliday3537]

Did you talk about cost of your own labour and your own time? I find farmers hardly ever think about the cost of there own time, and whats lost when they arent doing other things.

[@MrDT82]

Watch the video. All this is covered

[@wizardoflolz5626]

love the content man.

[@johncharleskelly]

Brilliant stuff

[@ronancampbell6022]

Interesting video, but a true reflection would be cost per tonne in the pit, rather than acres lifted.

[@marcjonah4210]

Cost per ton lifted drives an appeal to lift less often at a less quality stage to “save” money when this is paying for quality and the only fair way is area or time unless you go cost per ton at x amount ME of grass in clamp.

[@samuelhawkins2552]

If you were in ileland you might do 4acres an hour with that outfit

[@FarmTheoryNI]

You would need an insane crop to go that slow

[@liampatton6290]

Did you include VAT in your calculations...

[@rich7584]

Claim the vat back so why would you include it?

[@Johnydeere30]

Don't forget this is for a multi-cut system. There is a massive difference in the work involved lifting a multi-cut crop compared to a 2 crop system and £100/ac is all that contractors in your area are charging for a 2 cut system (less the compactor). A multi-cut can be done a good bit cheaper. More often than not I would say my customers get their grass into the pit sooner than if they were doing it themselves, farmers are more demanding of the contractor than they are of themselves. Then again I have a relatively manageable amount of customers compared to others who have twice the amount of work to get around. Also Andrew, I use the cost of replacement of a machine. For example, if it costs £60,000 to replace a tractor with 6000 less engine hours that works out at £10/hr. Add servicing, fuel, implement, driver etc. after that. This gives a more balanced cost, as I couldn't be changing prices up and down based on the level of investment in machinery every year.

[@nthnmcclure3020]

Would you do a video on how you track farm finances, like how you make and use financial statements like cashflow forecasts, income statement, breakeven milk price etc?

[@ronancreedon9872]

I might not have picked this up during the video, are all the machinery depreciation costs for gear that you use elsewhere on the farm (JCB, tractors) only applied pro rata for the hours used on silage?? As in for the JCB that has depreciation costs due to silage/feeding etc during winter. Another question, financing costs - I’m assuming you’ve some level of finance on machinery. Is that somehow calculated into the costs??

[@Coppertop-f9w]

Very interesting. Well worth it when doing the acres you are. Plus the flexibility and weather windows allow you to get optimal silage as and when you please

[@RST1600]

I loved this video, and how enthusiastic you are. Extremely factual. One thing I would say is looking at second hand forage harvester prices, and output difference, a self propelled forager would be so much better. Yes repairs would need to be factored in, but it would make your life a lot easier. Keep posting vids please

[@tonymckeage1028]

Great Video Andrew, while the costs are important, the key issues are the convenience, of getting the job done quickly, resulting in quality silage! Thanks for sharing

[@mrhorsepower150]

The jf and the donnelly trailers are worth as least what u paid for them.i bought a jf1060 last January and it cost63000 euro.Your 1260 cost 52000 euro approximately

[@6thcence897]

Another great video👍

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@JeremyGibbs-k7q]

Outstanding video Andrew!! Well done keeping all those numbers flowing! You would enjoy a German farm.. data ohne ende!

[@FredMurphy-d1n]

Brilliant video.honesty and intelligence in agriculture!!!itll never catch on

[@fisherh9111]

120 pounds an acre assuming you account for capital costs is my guess.

[@feirmfactor859]

Great video!!

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@nialldaly7108]

Well Put togetheer. Good explaination and reasoning.

[@ares657-ni2sh]

Should u not allow some of the depreciation towards feeding and slurry ect

[@Mike-k4e2i]

But if you only have 50 acres 😂all depends on volume to keep price down

[@patmulcahy9796]

Well done really enjoy your news and facts

[@emmetsherry]

The reality is the likes of your Donnelly trailers are worth more now than you paid…Buckrake is probably the same

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Yep, I think that buckrake only cost me £5k

[@finbarreburn5112]

'DATA CENTRE' 👌 😍

[@padraigking5185]

Good stuff

[@danmurphy6541]

Great vid..honest figures are scarce..a decent saving, and a great buzz in doing it yourself..til the inevitable breakdown🤨

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Thanks!

[@timatkinson8792]

Interest must be around £1k a month on the capital expense on machines. Also it’s not just the opportunity cost of your time . Also the opportunity cost of the capital you spend on machines rather than cows and labour. Perhaps you could go to x3 milking if all your time and money was focussed on the cows. Up to 15% more from the herd - say around £45k on your herd size. So more than the saving on diy silage.

[@marcjonah4210]

Surely a 3x day system would need to be housed 24/7 as opposed to grazed which would release more grass for silage and lead to a lower cost per acre of silage and a more profitable system again when a move to 3x milking…. It’s a magic roundabout and i think Andrew has alluded to housing all year around as opposed to grazing maybe the way in a challenging year, more intensive but more consistent and manageable

[@raymacmahon3651]

60 pounds

[@mikeysky8917]

It’s definitely cheaper to do it yourself. Also what makes a contractor expensive is the fact they never come when you want them which creates issues. My contractor arrived at 11:30pm for one of the cuts. Took out a gatepost, and left a bit of a mess because of the nights ‘due’, and couldn’t see in the dark the wet and tender areas. You mention stress preparing for grass. The stress waiting all day for a contractor and they don’t arrive till dark and you know if you had your own kit, you would have the majority of the grass in yourself and the grass would most likely have turned into hay waiting all day for the contractor.

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Yep, that's a huge advantage

[@TomoT007]

There's way to many variables to compare "diy" cost and contractor cost properly, They way the contractor charges (per Acer, per hour, tonnage) And how far away the fields are from the yard and how awkward the fields are, this would slow the contractor down and lead to a higher cost if the charge is per hour

[@FarmTheoryNI]

It's a complicated question for sure

[@Andy-ix2ox]

As a bit of a nerd myself I really appreciated this post. Thanks for sharing your figures. I think you summed it up perfectly if you are in the system it makes sense but it probably doesn’t make sense to consider going to the expense of gathering up the extra gear needed to make your own silage. In all fairness the mowers are a bit of a no brainer and we do that and rake just to justify having the tractors for slurry etc.

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Yeah, big mowers make so so much sense

[@paulbruton2253]

Well done . Great insight and well documented.. thanks

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@greggroome2791]

🇮🇪🇮🇪💪💪👍👍👌👌

[@paraickelly701]

Does doing it yourself affect the quality of the silage and then milk yield? If so, is it possible to put a number on this?

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Yes, massively. It's £10000's a year

[@dayleboyd6442]

Not paying staff £15ph but pay yourself £15ph??

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Better going high on the costs

[@serhatdemir3509]

a great video...next video title ‘'The cost of 1 litre of milk''

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Great idea! Let's do that!

[@Ai-lm9pb]

Put triples on the 8s and buy a self propelled.

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Might well end up there one day

[@winstonfoster6009]

Making good silage =priceless

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Absolutely agree!! It's just not easy. 😅

[@damienmckenna6954]

Did I miss it or did you not include the cost of buying the equipment itself? So would the details change much if you financed the equipment over five years?

[@nialldaly7108]

That would be included in the depreciation costs (or should be)

[@FarmTheoryNI]

The 8s was 2% finance, didn't include it, most other silage equipment was bought without finance

[@Rmac-eb2zb]

It’s simple would you do my silage next year I’ll pay ya £60 an acre

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Not a hope. Wouldn't do it for £100. 🤣

[@Rmac-eb2zb]

@@FarmTheoryNI I think a couple of your prices were a bit on the low side but over all not bad.

[@timatkinson8792]

Bank interest ???

[@finbarreburn5112]

I beg your pardon and a byre a beef / milk 💰 💰 💪 💪

[@wyndhamhewlett8223]

WHAT'S😅😅 THAT?? 😂

[@rich7584]

That’s more than I was expecting! I’m paying £55/acre for 3x200hp+20t trailer 1x self propelled 4 rotor rake Loading shovel. All Including fuel. . I mow, Ted and help roll the pit. Using a wagon would cut the Cost in by 1/3 roughly,But can’t always get the wagon when wanted where as the SP can come the day I want. Thats for 4-5 cuts

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Now at least you know you're getting a good price! 😅

[@Imtheman1977]

Do these calculations assume you aren't using any of the machinery for the rest of the year?

[@finbarreburn5112]

Mind you the silage harvester is a mighty yoke for spreading slurry 😅😅😅

[@finbarreburn5112]

'Data Centre' 👌 😍

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Nope, total hours a year with only the hours used for silage costed the silage

[@rogerhall1638]

I must be a nerd. This is great😂

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Welcome fellow nerd. 😅

[@secondchance4498]

How do you value being able to say, 'I have a 285hp tractor'? 🙂 Enjoy these type of vids... Thanks, Chris.

[@finbarreburn5112]

'Must be a reason why I'm King of My Castle' 💪 😍

[@FarmTheoryNI]

🤣

[@saabsonsan]

For the machinery you covered whose sole purpose is silage your figures are spot on I am sure. For multipurpose machinery such as the tractors which you can use for other essential jobs throughout the year (and therefore not requiring the hiring of a contractor. Eg. drawing slurry / manure / spraying sowing fertiliser/ ploughing etc etc,) Is it fair to lump your whole depreciation cost of the tractor on the cost of silage alone. Would it not be better to account for the other hours when the tractor is engaged in necessary farm work and perhaps express the cost of depreciation of the tractor when engaged in silage harvesting as a percentage-of the total hours useful work done by the tractor through the year. Perhaps you have already considered this and I didn’t pick up on it. Doing this might reduce the cost per acre of harvesting your silage significantly? When I buy a new (to me) piece of machinery, I always calculate the cost of employing a contractor, how much work I would need to do with it and over how many years to justify purchasing it.

[@FarmTheoryNI]

It's not all out onto the silage, only the hours it's used for. Like you suggested. It's not clear in the video, but the cost per hour is for total hours used on the year.

[@mickeyjoe-ne1og]

the poor raking man man left out in the cold contractors around here gettin very scarce, id consider doing my own only i wouldnt have a hope to get the labour