Pros and Cons of having a Contractor in?

[JoshParkinson]

i often wonder about this, from the farmers point of view, it saves buying equipment just to use for a couple of months a year, you don't have to employ the earth to get the job done and often it's quite cost effective and you get the job done right, however half the time it's done when it suits them, not when it suits you and just doesn't give you as much flexibility.

However from the contractors point of view, i once heard an old saying that went 'farmers always pay...eventually'

So i'm just wondering what everybody else thinks?

[Jdeere6910]

Well for us as a smallish family farm that does some contracting, yet conversely we use contractors as well we find pro's are as follows:

Don't need certain machinery, eg hedgecutter and bale wrapper

Cheaper because no outlay, depreciation, maintainance etc

Handy if we are busy with other jobs

Cons:

Have to work to the contractor at times

Can be annoying to watch the contractor working if you are kicking your heels waiting for him to do/start the job

Sometimes costly depending on the job contractor is doing

Hope this helps    Im sure other people will have more precise and accurate views