Viewing a thread - How much do you save by spraying yourself?

Southern ILBuilt my own sprayer this year, and sprayed soybeans right after planting, other than my $6 an acre application fee that I'm saving how much do you think I really saved? What's the mark-up of the chemicals that a coop usually marked up? I really like the fact that I can spray immediately after planting, and know that it's done and not be waiting from either one day to 10 days waiting on someone else.

Northeast NDI buy most of my chemicals from the same co-op that would do the spraying if I were to hire it done. They provide great service and support. Even with the chemical prices being equal, I believe that spraying is one of my best-paying jobs on the farm. I get it done when I want to get it done (usually... ). I have more flexibility, I can change my chemical mix right up until the moment I load the sprayer, and have the ability to do spot spraying and more detail work. I also have a front-row seat to what my crops are doing!

Ontario560man - 6/16/ 20:32

I also have a front-row seat to what my crops are doing!

to me that's the best part. it does depend what type of sprayer you have tho, if you're like me and have to run over quite a bit you end up doing some damage which may cost as much as paying to get it sprayed. i know with my beans i can do the first spray myself but any late spraying does enough damage that i'm better off getting someone to do itYes mine does. However in my example I was using his numbers for custom hire costs not mine. He said his sprayer was homemade so I doubt it's going to depreciate much (could be wrong ). I also gave a couple examples where the savings were "$??" - I kind of figure those (?? ) savings eat up a considerable amount of variable costs.

The man asked an honest question. I gave him an honest answer. If you want to know how much it costs to do your own spraying you should post that.

Dougherty, IAArt Van de Lay - 6/17/ 06:38

Yes mine does. However in my example I was using his numbers for custom hire costs not mine. He said his sprayer was homemade so I doubt it's going to depreciate much (could be wrong ). I also gave a couple examples where the savings were "$??" - I kind of figure those (?? ) savings eat up a considerable amount of variable costs.

The man asked an honest question. I gave him an honest answer. If you want to know how much it costs to do your own spraying you should post that.

I appreciate your posts on the subject. I was just highlighting that everyone looks at the application costs but doesn't look at variable costs on sprayer, tractor, GPS equipment, tender, extra labor for tender, fuel in the tractor, fuel in the tender truck, tires on the tractor/sprayer/tender truck/tender trailer that wear out eventually, fuel and repairs on inductor/pump engine etc.

Thanks again for the post and I like your screen name!


20 miles west of Indianapolis IndianaNEILFarmer - 6/16/ 23:02

I figured that was a smart remark by clicker. Funny i can't remember much of any use coming from clicker, maybe i don't read enough. Sure do remember lot of useful info from you and many others. I guess i'll have to keep looking harder.

What a rig, even got Integra keeping track of where you go even.

You said it not me... And I didn't argue with ya...

With the 40 gallon tank and a garden hose as my tinder, I can really pound out some acres in a day! : )

Farmington ILGrainTrader - 6/16/ 20:19

Example...

SureStart at my coop is $59 a gallon

Dual is $90


Generic SureStart is $38

Generic dual is less then $30

Above is very typical of what I see. Here is a good example. I needed 25 gal. Of roundup recently. Called my local retailer because I like the sales guy and like to kick something his was once in awhile. I asked if he had a good price on some generic round up. He said sure do. Said I will take 25 gal. He said I'm headed over that way in awhile I will just drop it off. He did. Good to chat with him. Talked about several things. His generic roundup cost me exaclty twice what I bought from wholesale. I figure I save enough every year to pay me back what I paid for my tractor and sprayer and the auto steer and fuel and.......


SC KSI rigged my planter and strip till up to spray with saddle tanks on my quadtrac. We farm some unforgiving creek ground that if you missed that 1 day it's restart. I figured between dad and mine 7-800 ac of milo and corn I saved 12k this year. Paid for my equipment and then some in a year on 1/2 our farm. Not perfect I know but have to get creative. I'm a crop consultant for the day and farm at night and weekends. I don't have time to jump into a 100k+ sprayer.

Southeast WIWell custom app is $8.75 per acre here. If you need a "hired man" it's pretty cheap. If your farm can do it yourself you will save a bundle. I talked to one client that has a neighbor spray his so he shops chems. Generic Roundup was $8.75 per gal. I stopped by another client yesterday and co op sprays his. PowerMax from the co op was over $24 per gal. About twice the cost! That's just on a cheap herbicide.Where are you guys getting chemicals? We always prepay in the spring from the coop. If you buy in season, I know they are always a lot higher than early. We've alwasys done all our own spraying untill this year. Hired the peemerge on the corn. When we did it, it seems we planted till it rained, then we would spray and then it wouldn't rain again. Or we went post, and last year that seemed to ding the corn, so figured I probably lost enough there to have them spray it premerge.

Morris, ILChemical savings add up quick, i'd guess somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 comparing to local coop. We really don't even compare to coop anymore as get tired of waist our and coop's time, and i can say i get better service from my chemical guy. I think we save a bit doing it myself and timely but hard to figure it exactly. Being out there seeing your own fields and crops is priceless. I enjoy spraying, sometimes i say i don't like dealing with chemicals but i get over it.

S.E. South DakotaWhy do you talk about coops? Forget about them and support local owned retailers. Coops never were big here. They tryed to move in and all went broke. I buy all my stuff from a husband and wife thats the same age as me. They started with no help from anyone. I was one of there first custmers. Now they have two outlets and give great servive. They also scout my ground for free.

Morris, ILThey are very far and few between in my area, coops are everywhere. We bought chemicals from a private company and they were bought out by wilbur ellis so i guess we do buy from coop (i think they are a coop? ) after all but deal with same guy we've followed for 15+ years and prices have stayed very competitive. If my guy retired tomorrow i'd probably talk to few other private retailers one being Bugkiller for sure, he's a good guy and really knows his stuff.

Farmington ILkencat - 6/16/ 21:04

I figure I could replace my pull type every year. Chem is the big savings and if you buy from a decent guy, he'll give you guidance and service.

As much as I hate spraying, it's the most profitable thing I do row crop wise. I'm trying to get my head around spreading our own dry, because that's gotta be close ROI wise.

Last fall IIRC wholesale delivered potash was at least $80/ton savings over retail. You can operate a tractor and spreader for less than custom app charges. I think I can do a better job than a hourly employee for a retailer who doesnt care about my farm. I have complete control of when it gets done. Yep, roi is decent.


Central ILThat's how I feel. "Good deal" august prepay for potash last year was 430 here. I paid 250 this spring.....if i am going to be a full time farmer and didn't inherit a mint, I need to make money by saving money at every level of input. Chems, fert, trucking, drying, storage. Most the stuff I use isn't pretty-sprayer is though lol. I don't understand other than not wanting too how every farm regardless of scale can't justify a spray rig of some sort and a buggy

SE IAfarmrn - 6/16/ 18:16

Built my own sprayer this year, and sprayed soybeans right after planting, other than my $6 an acre application fee that I'm saving how much do you think I really saved? What's the mark-up of the chemicals that a coop usually marked up? I really like the fact that I can spray immediately after planting, and know that it's done and not be waiting from either one day to 10 days waiting on someone else.

Neighbor started doing his own spraying a year or two ago. Bragged about how much money he was saving....then he skimped on chemical...and then had weeds...and was busy spraying when he should have been planting....I figure it cost him $100/acre to do his own spraying.

Ultimately he probably saved $25-30/acre by doing his own spraying...but his management cost him big time

North Central IllinoisThe big savings is in chemicals. You don't have to own a sprayer to get the savings on chemicals. Find a good independent custom applicator who will do your spraying for you and doesn't care where you buy your chemicals. We do the spraying for a couple of smaller farmers around us and there are others that do it too. As long as they have the proper license they can buy the chemicals anywhere and have us or someone else spray them. The downside to this is you don't get to see and scout your own crops while spraying.

If you have a good reliable pull type sprayer and keep it calibrated and in good working order, the savings on application costs can rack up in a hurry too as long as you don't have a lot tied up in the sprayer and have the tractor anyway. Those of us with high cost self propelled sprayers with higher upkeep costs find it harder to save as much that way.mafrif - 6/16/ 21:35 Everytime I figure it up, I'm saving $500-1,000 an hour spraying. Biggest problem I see is all the custom sprayers have the largest sprayers made. Works great when it's dry, but that rarely happens in spring. Seen lots of fields worked up just to fill sprayer ruts that were not planned to.

We have the largest sprayer made, in the Patriot brand anyhow.  Our gallon sprayer doesn't weigh much more than an 800 gallon rig, if we only put 800 gallons in the tank.  Kinda like how there's no federal law saying you have to load your center-fill planter completely full when it's muddy.  It's sure nice to have that capacity right now when it's really dry and we're spraying Liberty with 20 gpa of carrier, though!  This, of course, is one of the intangible things that go back to spraying yourself- you can make a judgement call on where the balance point is in regard to field conditions.  Full blown soybean program retail sprayed is $60-$80/acre around here

I do it for around $20-$25/acre with better results

Even on the low end that's $40/acre. Can pay for a nice sprayer real quick and after that is money in your pocket.

Corn is a bit less margin but still probably $20-$25/acre savings. More if you do two pass.

So average at least $30 and probably more like $40/acre.

acres and a $15K sprayer will put $25K in your pocket year one.

Mileage will vary

central, Il. - 6/16/ 21:57

Full blown soybean program retail sprayed is $60-$80/acre around here

I do it for around $20-$25/acre with better results

Even on the low end that's $40/acre. Can pay for a nice sprayer real quick and after that is money in your pocket.

Corn is a bit less margin but still probably $20-$25/acre savings. More if you do two pass.

So average at least $30 and probably more like $40/acre.

acres and a $15K sprayer will put $25K in your pocket year one.

Mileage will vary

+1

I have a 28 year old sprayer that has worked fine for me up until this year. I bought it new 28 years ago. 4 years ago, I thought about trading it off for a new one. And it is a PULL TYPE. After today, I am really mad at myself for not trading it off when I thought I should have 4 years ago for another PULL TYPE.

North Central IllinoisExcellent point. One needs to take every precaution they can. Some guys do but I know a lot of guys who are pretty careless when it comes to personal exposure. That is risky. With today's spray equipment and the personal safety equipment that is available, a guy can be pretty safe applying chemicals. There will always be the guy that is proud that he still sprays with an open station tractor and gets along just fine. Russian Roulette is what comes to mind.

Pasco WA.My custom spray guy could care less where I buy the chemicals. He is in the spraying business not chemical sales. So the only savings is his application fee but I cant run a sprayer for free. A big thing to keep in mind is the liability. This is a very diversified crop area. Spray drift will get you into trouble. With custom spraying you have the applicator first in line in case of a drift. Also be aware that your general liability policy does not include spray drift. That's covered under the pollution liability. A chat with your insurance agent would be a good idea.

NEINThere can definitely be a cost savings to buying wholesale chemicals, but ONLY if you are a horrible buyer otherwise. I never had any trouble getting my Co-op to price match wholesale. And coming from the guy who bought the 200k self-propelled its not all peaches and cream doing your own. To do it right you need support equipment, tanks for storage and loading pads etc. I have 20k in facilities now and did most of the work myself. Add inventory, leftovers or obsolete products too. Clean out and damage from a little left in the rubber hoses when switching crops. And don't forget exposure to all these chemicals. Acute exposure is one thing, chronic exposure is another when it comes to cancer. And then there is the stress of making a mistake. How many ounces of that product did I put in? And an ounce kills all the weeds in acre. Oh damn, that load had Fusilade in it and I just sprayed the edge of the corn while spraying the round up beans and forgot....... and so it goes. As others have mentioned it can be a source for savings but if you are a savvy business person you can definitely hire it done for not much more than it costs to own your own unless you are a very large operation. Probably the biggest argument for owning a sprayer is timeliness of application if your local is overbooked.

East Central, NEYou can save a whole lot or possible lose a whole lot...depends on the guy. I've seen guys buy a sprayer and still buy from the coops...probably not saving anything. I've seen guys buy a sprayer and buy wholesale but spray late or rut up their fields...probably not saving anything. I have a cheap pull type and shop around and spray when things need to be sprayed...I'm saving a fortune probably to the tune of at least $20+/acre.

It just depends on the guy. If your going to not be able to spray when things need to be sprayed then it won't pay. If you're not going to shop around or negotiate chemicals then you're not gonna get much ROI. No different than owning your own planter, combine, etc... If you're not going to utilize the eqiupment to its fullest extent or do a poor job with it then you better have it custom done.The cps's and trupointe's have pushed it into HAVING to own a sprayer here. They've closed down all the smaller satellite plants, gotten rid of half the help and equipment, and cannot possibly do everything that needs to be done in a timely manor. They bought out and closed all but one independent plant here. I saw fields of no till corn planted that were not sprayed for almost a month. Yes we had rain at times but I've never seen the lack of service being experienced now. In my opinion "here" you'll own your own sprayer or your crop will suffer greatly.I've bought chemicals from a wholesaler (I'm lucky there are still 3 left near me to keep the retailers honest ) for over 30 years, so the chemical cost is the same for me whether I do it myself or hire it done. The last few years I switched from spraying all my own myself to hiring a friend of mine with a JD self propelled sprayer.......I traded tractor pulled sprayers every 4 years so I always had a sprayer payment to factor in my costs. Fuel was always a cost of .6/gal/acre on top of the sprayer loan and maintenance costs. My holding tank, mixing tank and transfer pumps were all close to needing replaced so that was another reason I went to custom hire. He charges me $6.50/acre per application on row crop acres. I figured it was costing me $3.50/acre per application to do it myself as my time is worth some thing too. So basically its costing me $6/acre times acres to have it hired done. Again, the chemical cost is the same for me whether I do it myself or if I hire it done by the guy I am lucky to get. So, strictly in a dollars answer, I could save $ (x$6 ) a year by not hiring acres custom sprayed.Couldn't ,t get it done this spring , corn really took off growing . Was putting sure start on , height restrictions . really bother me for a few days that I should be doing it. What I spent in custom spraying charge allowed me to timely spread urea . Without hating life. All depends on the year,s weather . Spraying beans currently and honestly I catch myself thinking that I should hire this done to and do the other project,s I have lined up for this summer. I,m sure I,m not alone but just think how many hours spent pulling a sprayer around . 30 '. To a 90' in 40 years ,more than thripling the acres. I no l,m saving quite a it of coin but I also spent a lot of my life. Just thinking on a Rainey late afternoon.
Getting by

SE MNwww.agmanager.info/farmmgt/machinery/Tools/OwnSprayer.xls


Copy and paste that into your url bar or google that. This is as complete at it can get for accounting for all costs of spraying, Right down to budgeting repais as the machine ages. But, I wish they had numbers for a pull type as well. Every number i punched into it came back at 5 per acre to operate a SP sprayer wich i would need in our rolling terrain. I dont feel its worth owning if you think the savings over comercial app is going to be your retirement savings plan. Getting cheap chem and timing is what makes it work.

Central NDYes you can save and yes you can get to spraying when you want and yes you can shop for better prices .
I spray most of my own of my own.But Ill hire if it makes me money to do it that way too and help me catch up.Why not?
I see where guys cut rates and use a cheap formulation and think they don't need this or that in the tank and/or miss the target weeds and timing all because they cant get to it themselves . There is nothing wrong with saving.....but...THERE is nothing saved then the weeds are eating up your fertilizer and yield.
On the flip side..... when you hire it you are at the mercy of their schedule and prices So it can go both ways.


Edited by School Of Hard Knock 6/17/ 23:45