How much to plough a field?

Morning all.

Earlier on, my dad introduced me to a chap with a tractor and plough. I'm after my top field (roughly quarter to half an acre) ploughed over ready to fill it with potatoes.

I've grown spuds before, but never on this scale, so this will be the first time a tractor and plough has been involved.

How much should I offer to pay the man? Bearing in mind that in addition to the actual work, he will have to drive his tractor round trip about 20 miles. I'm guessing for a little Fergy, that'll be about 3 gallons of fuel and an hour's driving not including the actual work.

 

Ask Him Wot He Wants?? Then Play Bidder Note Try And Knock Him Down Econmic Times & Everthing Rearsuring Him You Will Allways Use Him In Future When The Need Is Requird :WINK1: I Love To Barter

 

I like bartering too. In fact few things give me a buzz quite like a good hard faced negotiation.

Thing is, this guy is just an ordinary guy. He doesn't plough people's fields for a living, and while I don't want to get ripped off, I don't want to make some aged retired bloke work for nowt. I'm not exactly loaded, but at the same time I wont hire anyone unless I can afford to make it worthwhile for them. I think if I was to give up a saturday or sunday for total stranger, I'd be wanting anything from £20 plus expenses (if it was something I enjoy doing) to £200 plus expenses for something I really didn't fancy doing. I'm not willing to pay more than £160 to have my top field ploughed, just because its not a commercial enterprise, so I'm not going to get my money back.

 

half a days pay plus diesel etc .... expect to pay £150-£180

at one of my clients new homes in a village called manea (near ely), we hired a local farmer to plough the site when I planted grass seed ... The site is approx 800 square meters .... the farmer lives approx 2 miles from the site .... he ploughed 6 inches deep, and levelled the site .... he charged £150 and it took him a couple of hours

had we hired a rotivator, it would have cost a lot more with my labour costs plus the hire of the rotivator and it would have taken a long time to sort

 

There are some guys who own old tractors who would pay you for the chance to be able to practice using their plough,If it was me I would be watching with interest,pity its not a horse drawn plough or better still steam engine jobbie.
Ask him how much and see if he will let you have a go!

 

I agree with dim as well before I read it I thought £100 to £150
Be intresting to see what he does it for

Spruce

 

I'm intrigued - why so many spuds?

 

he wants to be a "chip of the the old block"

plus growing spuds on new ground is realy good at getting rid of the weeds/grass in its first year

Spruce

 

You learn something new every day! Thanks!

 

You're talking between £18 - £20 p/acre to plough commercially at the moment, depending on distance travelled and land etc. However, to do such a little space and with a little fergie, this is almost irrelevant.

Ask him how much he wants, he'll let you know. My bet, for what it's worth is he'll say £50. He might bring the tractor on a trailer, if not he'll need a bit more for fuel....not the most economical way of travelling on the road!!

 

Our little old fergie looks like a piece of scrap sitting in the meadow...but it will usually start and do a days work (even after a year or so) after minor tinkering.

P.S. Offer him a nice cup of tea and cake too.

 

I've done various bits with most of the land, but there is a flat bit that I call the top field (the only bit that you can really get heavy machinery onto, due to the shape of the land). So far, I've done nothing with that bit apart from trying to keep the thistles, nettles, gorse and bracken under control. By filling it with tatties, I can (hopefully) get the ground under control, so I have more freedom to decide on its longer term use.

A quarter acres worth of spuds is a lot of spuds. Far more than we can use in our household, but I'll have no trouble shifting them. I'll just give them away, starting with friends and family, and then friends of friends etc.

I'm not even certain that it will be just tatties yet. There is a problem with rabbits on deer on my land. They don't bother potato plants at all. I have thought about trialling a new strategy of a potato boundary several feet wide all the way round, and then more vulnerable plants in the middle. My logic being that if from rabbit/deer eye level it just looks like a field of tatties, they'll see no point venturing in.