Farmers Fuel Costs

[D7E]

I was chatting with the farmer who did our hay last year - he said much the same thing. Fuel prices were a nuisance. Prices of fertilizer and roundup were a problem. Said glyphosate, any brand, had more than doubled in price from a year ago.

Of course, my investments (via a mutual fund) in Potash CP, Mosaic, and some other fertilizer companies are doing great...

My god some-one who thinks like me....Fuel is terible but of all our inputs is the smallest....But we are enjoying some reasonable crop prices some of which are pushed up by fuel prices.....???

 

[D7E]

I have a friend that runs a large grain / cattle setup. If I recall correctly he told me his 8XXX series JD uses 10 gal per hour when working. Apparently 10 - 14 hour days, in the season, are not unusual. All the equipment is radio equiped & DW brings finger food and sandwiches so they never have to stop except for pee breaks.

As for Fertilizer he is looking to add the GPS guidance sytstem to cut down waste from overlap.

I do not see an overlap issue ..If you have a 40ft seeder and 80ft sprayer or whatever it's easy to shut off individual runs and "tramline"..As we do .
And if the sprayer is too wide blocking off nozzles is easy so accuracy is easy...$36 to change a manifold or $3500 dollars for a ligh bar...?
8000 series deeres go up to what....260hp...?, Our 350hp cummins will do 10gal an hour running up to 20hr days...(But JD are known to be guzzlers)...?
Many farmers do not "need" GPS but yet feel the "need"to be in fashion...?
What that christmas light show cost will fuel my tractor for a year (or more)...?
This field is 1 mile long with no "GPS"...Do you see overlap..?