Contractors how did they start off

[MF-ROB]

As most of you know  im in car sales (hate it  ) but its a job  at the end of the day like most people on here there dream is to work with tractors or start contracting things like that and it is one of my dreams to be a contractor but back to the real world. This is a thread for people who are contractors or who know of contractors and would like to tell us on here (HOW DID THEY START OFF) in the real world 

[powerrabbit]

A freind of mine of many years worked for my Father on our farm for a period of time after leaving school and then left to work around the local farms on a 'casual' basis in order to gain wider experiences and for the variety. This led him into buying some basic secondhand kit, a tractor, plough and later a baler and hired himself out so became a contractor of sorts. He then upgraded his kit as and when finances allowed and got a little bigger and took on more work as time went on. He eventually gave up the contracting as there were too many others in the locality with too much competition. He is now farming a Duchy farm on Dartmoor. I think that's how most start off and others normally start off by getting a smallholding with a couple of sheds for their equipment and hiring themselves and their kit out and working up from there. I suppose that a lot start off because of their interest in the farming profession but would not otherwise have the opportunity if family was not previously or currently in the profession.

[Jdeere6910]

well we do some bailing contracting, that came from us having a baler at home and being asked to go and bale neigbours etc silage/straw with it.

Mant people start off by using either a family farms equiptment or buying used equiptment and doing jobs that people needed at the time. i.e starting off with a trailed forager and slowly working up to a large self propelled.

However the flipside is, a lot of lads buy loads of new kit, put people on them to drive and then can't get the work to keep up the payments, in short its a hard buisness to crack

[AlexMF]

there's a lot of quarries near where my parents live, and my friends dad bought enough equipment 2nd hand to do dust suppression work in them, then built from there into running all new kit (Herbst, MF, JD, Merlot, JCB) for industrial and agricultural applications, at all scales. Now my friend has taken over the business and it's flourishing.

it's all about what is needed in your area and a bit of luck i think!

[powerrabbit]

there's a lot of quarries near where my parents live, and my friends dad bought enough equipment 2nd hand to do dust suppression work in them, then built from there into running all new kit (Herbst, MF, JD, Merlot, JCB) for industrial and agricultural applications, at all scales. Now my friend has taken over the business and it's flourishing.

it's all about what is needed in your area and a bit of luck i think!

That's what it's all about, market research and what's lacking in that market, demand for the service or services you intend to offer, competitive pricing, building good customer relations. Only downside to agricultural contracting is that the majority of contracting jobs are seasonal and all your customers want your services all at the same time. Freind of mine has just started a bit of contracting and the 'niche' that he has found is in direct drilling of which is less seasonal and he's doing quite nicely thank you, mostly direct drilling grass seed as not many around here are ploughing and re-seeding in the traditional way now as field size tends to be on average under 12 acres and it 'freshens up' the pastures.

[harvey123]

my dad started out self emplyed with the family farms case 580 super m (1990)

and since then he's bought 15 machines (in total) and he now owns a group of 2 case cx 22b's about to be swapped for the 2011 cx 26b and a 2010 cx80 and then he hires out 2 volvo 8.8 ton machines and has 9 dumpers! most of them are on hire apart from 2 which are his for site use only!

But since he started construction he started to miss the farming side of things so he bought a mchale fusion 2 baler 3 years ago and a JD 6920s and since then he's owned god knows how many tractors! He says the way to have a tractor is replace it every 6 months then the deprecitaion doesn't hurt you as much say 1 or 2 years down the line! the same with all his kit!

[rich.new holland]

my boss's dad started contracting in 1972 ,he bought a brand new ford 5000 and topper and went round topping for farmers and has since progressed to being the biggest contractor in wales acreage and by equipment ,having 3 self propelleds at one time but the sons have now changed the line up and now have the 2 biggest forage harvesters that john deere do- 7950 10 plate and a 7850 09 plate, runs 23 tractors cat challenger new holland massey and john deere. has 2 sqaure balers and a fusion . 4 mowing outfits. 4 claas rakes. 4 umbilcal slurry kits and one injecter . 3 tankers from 2500 up to 3700 twin axle with injecter and thats just some of the kit    i think your success depends on area and your timeing i think    thinking about it id love to write up exactly what they have  \  bet theres millions worth

[archbarch]

i worked for a contractor who bought the business from the contractor he was working for and built up from there. I must say it was interesting but extremely long hours, loads of stress, narrow margins and you see a different side to farmers.

[rich.new holland]

i worked for a contractor who bought the business from the contractor he was working for and built up from there. I must say it was interesting but extremely long hours, loads of stress, narrow margins and you see a different side to farmers.

now that is very true !!! nice and chatty when you visti or talk somwhere but turn up with equipment totaly differant person  \