Planning for Custom Work

One of the most frequent calls I get in the Extension office this time of year is about custom farming rates. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania has not published local rates since 2016. However, our neighbors to the south and west both update their custom farming reports regularly.

Custom rates can vary widely, for several reasons. Type or size of equipment; size and shape of fields; condition of the crop (for harvesting operations); skill level of labor; and cost margin differences for full-time custom operators versus farmers supplementing current income, all impact rates per acre, hour, ton, mile, or bale.

Keep in mind that the reported rates are from surveys collected from a small portion (50 to a few hundred) of farmers and are not established rates. However, these reports do give you a good starting place for comparing competitors or setting your own price as a custom operator.

I have pulled out minimum, maximum, and median rates for a few selected practices to share in Table 1. The median is the value separating the higher half of rates from the lower half. This is more useful than the average when there are any outliers in the data. This is a short list, and many more operations and more detail, including means, are presented in the full reports.

The most recent report from the University of Maryland was published in 2021 and based off data from a 2020 survey. The Ohio State University published its most recent report in July, 2022 based off data from a survey conducted earlier in the year. The shown rates do not include materials like seed or fertilizer.

Table 1. Sample of current custom farming rates from Maryland and Ohio  

Rates do not include materials like seed or fertilizer

Custom rates increased by an average of 9% in Ohio from 2020 to 2022, with some operation rates, like soil preparation, increasing more than that (up to 25%). Meanwhile, some operations, like aerial seeding, actually decreased (-13%). Of course, fuel prices have greatly increased since the Ohio survey was distributed in early 2022, meaning that, especially for fuel-intensive operations like soil preparation, rates will likely increase for this fall.

Remember to discuss all the details of a specific job with the other party before entering into an agreement, even if you have worked together in the past.

Custom rates can also be used to estimate machinery rental rates. Reach out to your local Extension office for assistance with these calculations.