Hey TopCropper - thanks so much for posting all this. It's super interesting and I love reading it and seeing the photos!
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Hey TopCropper - thanks so much for posting all this. It's super interesting and I love reading it and seeing the photos!
Agree - your threads are my favourite. Always enjoy them.
OMG - that's is one awesome photo - and puts Australian farming in perspective. I counted 23 harvesters
I love this thread!
topcropper - Keep the pictures and updates coming
How long does the harvest season go on for cotton ? These machines must take a bit of finance . Need plenty of work lined up and hope there are not too many slow payers !
How much do they charge to come in and do a job like that ? So much an hour for a light crop or per bale etc ?
I haven't got the bill yet? I asked a mate who's an irrigated grower but also grows dryland as well. He said they charge about $250 a hectare in irrigated and can do 40 hectares a day. So that's about $10,000 a day, so that sounds about right for a million dollar machine that needs a lot of maintenance. The grower has to provide the plastic wrap. Apparently they do charge a bit less for the dryland crops?
A typical irrigated crop yields 12 bales to the hectare. So at $500 a bale that's a gross of $6000. So at $250 a hectare that's not really much of a cost?
The harvest season would start in early Feb in central QLD I'd think and ends about now in the southern areas.
The bloke who picked ours has 3 machines.
See ya's.
How much of that cost do you think relates to maintenance versus fuel versus travel time/costs versus labour?
Farming sounds like an interesting business.