Custom farm rate results released for Iowa

HAMPTON, Iowa – In order to help producers and custom operators examine the custom farming service market, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach publishes the Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey.

This year’s survey, published in March, includes 94 responses and 2,621 custom rates for tasks related to tillage, planting and seeding, spraying, harvesting, farm labor and more. Additions to the survey for 2023 include ground (broadcast) spraying with a selfpropelled, tall-crop sprayer and liquid fertilizer high clearance application with drop hose and Y spray nozzle.

Most custom rates saw an increase of 10-15 percent. Custom planting ranges from $12.50 to $45 per acre, depending on the type of planter and setup. Combining corn shows an average of $41.30 per acre and combining soybeans averages $39.90 per acre, an increase of 12.4 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively. Table 1 shows historical prices for select operations.

This year’s publication — as well as previous reports — can be found at https://www.extension. iastate.edu/agdm/crops/html/a3-10.html.

The survey may lag increases in diesel prices and other inputs that change more frequently. This means that for custom farming practices which involve these inputs, the cost may be even higher.

Table 1 — Average farm custom rates reported for Iowa

Source: Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Iowa farm custom rate surveys, FM1698

The current survey assumed diesel prices would be $3.39 a gallon in 2023, based on forecasts from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The information in the survey is meant to be a starting point for farmers and agribusiness to engage in conversations and negotiations. The survey is not meant to set the rate for a particular practice or operator. This is an opinion survey and represents the responses of participants.

If you wish to join the survey list for 2024, email

Extension Economist Alejandro Plastina at plastina@iastate.edu, or Ann Johanns at aholste@iastate. edu

This article was submitted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

Gravel road is the road home

TABLE TALK, from pg. 4 tors. They bring neighbors together for fun, help and in times of need. They can bring an ambulance and a fire truck, which also brings neighbors together ahead of that billowing cloud of gravel road dust.

They are places where farmers gather to discuss the day’s grain and livestock markets and weather, and where they rubberneck to evaluate someone else’s crops, compile and orate their commentary and analysis, and note that someone got a new tractor or truck … all while Mrs. Farmer wipes the drool which fell out while she napped during much of that process.

Gravel roads can become cow paths in the spring — necessitating four-wheel-drive or horse travel to get to work — and can be dangerously dry and dusty in the summer.

But mostly, a gravel road for many is the road home. When I left home, trips back would lead me over a hill, where I could finally see the white barn that told me I was home … something kids don’t always appreciate until they are grown.

They are the roads less traveled; but for many a farm family, gravel roads lead to the people they love the most — who often wear calf-high road grime on the backs of their pants.

That and … well, other things.

Karen Schwaller writes from her grain and livestock farm near Milford, Iowa. She can be reached at kschwaller@evertek.net.