Opinion: Eyewatering kit prices should prompt buying review
Chris Bennett © Johnny Houston We have some amazing video footage of our farm that my grandmother took on cine film in the 1959-60 season.
It is a fascinating and valuable record of the farm 65 years ago, showing the large number of people the farm used to employ and the wide range of animals and crops.
Among footage of sheaves of wheat being stacked, horse-drawn carts and clips of my dad and his siblings enjoying their childhood, it also features a little yellow Track Marshall crawler cultivating its way across a field.
I remember being told that when my grandfather bought that tractor it was the first time he had spent £1,000 on a single machine, and his hand was shaking in disbelief as he wrote the cheque.
See also: Opinion – my days of buying cheap heifers are over
About the author
Since then, my father’s career has seen a couple more zeros added to the price tag of new machinery, and I’m scared to think what kind of prices my career and my daughters’ potential careers could see.
Our main tractor’s warranty is due to expire this year, when it reaches five years old.
Our local machinery salesman, perhaps optimistically, approached us with options to replace it.
The numbers discussed were enough to make my eyes water.
Many farms will have had a policy of replacing their main machines on expiry of their warranties, allowing for worry-free operation, low maintenance costs and minimum downtime.
Prices are now at a point where it is hard to justify that kind of expenditure so regularly. It seems we must now consider new strategies.
Remembering back to my time at Cirencester, we were told you should replace machinery when the cost of repairs outstrips the cost of depreciation.
The price of repairs can seem extortionate when the invoice arrives, but it takes a serious kind of breakdown to come close to the high depreciation on a new machine.
More than ever there is clearly a need to have a good understanding of what a machine is costing to run.
Farmers are often very focused on controlling variable costs, using home-saved seed, finding the most cost-effective spray programme and buying through co-operatives, but when it comes to fixed costs, it is often much harder to be in control.
While working in New Zealand it became very clear that a tight control on fixed costs was essential to survival, as they have no form of subsidy.
Farmers over there have become proficient at trimming the fat when it comes to machinery costs, only running the minimum number of tractors and implements possible, not being afraid of older machinery and sharing with neighbours where possible.
The Basic Payment Scheme had given us a good excuse to invest heavily in machinery, but now that it has all but gone, we’re likely to find that a change of strategy is required.
Letting tractors age a little more, being open to sharing with neighbours, relying on contractors more often and finding ways to make one tractor do the work that two have done previously will all help.
It is inevitable the main tractor will need to be replaced eventually, and it is likely when it does the price tag will make you quiver as it did my grandfather.
Hopefully with a fresh approach to machinery, these nerve-racking purchases can happen less frequently.