Renting vs Buying Farm Equipment

2. Abstract Agricultural machinery and equipment is one of the high priced investments that you make in order to carry out your daily operations. It becomes easy to differentiate between branded machinery and used farm equipment depending on their efficiency and reliability. A wise move for farmers is to make purchases of used farm machinery rather than buying new ones. Likewise, there are lots of farmers who opt for renting farm machinery in order to carry out their agricultural operations. Introduction The discussion on buying new or used farm machinery or renting agricultural equipment will never end. It all depends on your budget and farming requirements. Buying makes you the owner of your farm machinery while renting ties you into a short term contract for weeks, days or months. Make a smart choice and have a sound sleep at night. 1.Essential Farm Equipment that Help Increasing Productivity From many years, the agriculture sector has been seeing an increase in the use of farm machinery and technology. Farm equipment is changing continuously and helping to increase the efficiency of the farmers worldwide. Actually, nowadays farmers produce more food products with fewer efforts, seeds and fertilizer with the help of farm implements than they used to back in 1950. Advanced farm equipment is continuously helping improve the livelihood of a farmer, animal, and consumers. In this article, we are going to talk over a few but significant farm equipment that farmers easily have access to nowadays to increase productivity.

3. Tractors – With this advanced transport machinery, basically designed for farming, farmers can easily take their produce to the sell-in markets near or far from their farm. The tractor makes it easy, quicker and easier for a farmer even if needs to be done daily. Easy transportation helps a farmer in increasing profit and growing customer base. Also, as modern transportation, tractor allows a farmer to easily transport heavy equipment and products around the farm. Farm equipment or machinery: The use of farm equipment and machinery has helped farmers to accomplish more farming activities in the minimum time. Lots of heavy farm equipment like tractors and harvesters make the time taking the process of seeding, conserving, and harvesting more easy and efficient. For a large scale farmers time is very crucial and running behind the schedule, can ruin their crop. But with the use of different types of farm equipment and machinery a farmer can ensure the on-time productivity and delivery of the grains. A farmer must buy farm equipment to save time and increase efficiency. Several significant farm machinery used majorly nowadays are mentioned below– Landscaping equipment – Leveler, Slasher, Box Blade Harvesting Equipment – Combine Machine or combine harvester, Mower Tillage Equipment – Plough, Rotary Tillers, Harrows, Subsoilers, Cultivator, Disc ridgers, Power harrow, Ripper Seeding & Plantation – Planter, Post hole digger, Seed drill Crop Protection – Fertilizer spreader

4. Post-Harvest Equipment – Square baler, Round baler, Sugar cane loader, Rotary mulcher Haulage- Trailers With the increasing mechanization in the farming industry, multiple pieces of equipment are continuously changing and upgrading. The advanced and improved farm equipment helps in increasing profitability and productivity of the small as well as commercial farmers. 2.Making Big Decisions: to Rent or to Buy Farm Machinery? A few decades ago, farming seemed like a simple job. World hunger was a fairly unknown problem and farmers were able to produce enough food to feed the entire global population. Due to the rapid increase in population, the situation has drastically changed. Today, world hunger is affecting 815 million people, which is 11% of the global population. Besides that, the climate change is seriously affecting natural resources, thus interrupting the process of food production. Faced with world's most pressing problems, farmers are challenged to produce more food with fewer resources. This is the point where a simple crop production turns into a complex business that requires efficient and sustainable farm management. In order to be productive, profitable, and at the same time sustainable, farmers have to carefully manage even the slightest detail in crop production. This also includes making big farm management decisions; for instance, whether to rent or purchase farm machinery, production facilities, farming implements, and other types of farm equipment that require serious investments.

5. Adequate Machinery Is Half of the Work Farming is not an ordinary job. It's a way of life. However, farming requires a lot of sweat and hard work. For this reason, adequate farm machinery and equipment significantly facilitate every farm practice. Today, farmers can use various machinery, production facilities, farming implements, and many other types of equipment, during the entire farm season; for instance: Soil preparation; plows, discs, and harrows Sowing or planting; sowing or planting machines Crop protection; agricultural sprayers Crop nutrient management; fertilizer spreaders Crop maintenance; mowers, soil cultivators, irrigation system, protection nets, hail protection technology. Crop and field monitoring; weather stations, yield mapping, sensors, drones, satellite imagery Harvest; harvesters and combines Post-harvest management; machines for hay raking, packing machines, storage and processing facilities, transport equipment Besides aforementioned farm equipment, tractors and trailers are an integral component in almost every crop production. Since all of this costs a lot, purchasing farm equipment is a serious commitment of capital, which can have a major impact on a farmer's business. In some cases, it's safer to rent farm machinery than to risk high and long-term investments. However, both purchasing and renting have their own advantages; for example: How to Make the Proper Decision?

6. When making big decisions in farm management, one of the most important things is to completely be aware of your situation. Therefore, the choice of purchasing or renting farm machinery will depend on the following questions: How much will it cost to purchase or rent certain machinery, production facility, farming implement or some other type of farm equipment? What is your current financial situation; can you afford any investment? Do you need certain farm machinery during the entire farm season or periodically? Are you ready for maintenance and service when it's needed? Do you have the ability to operate the machine? Do you really need that machine, facility or equipment on your farm? Is there a possibility that you will no longer need this type or size of machinery, facility, or equipment? 3.Advantages of Buying Used Farm Machinery It can be difficult for a commercial farm business owner to accomplish farming operation without the right farm equipment, but these equipment need a good amount of investment. A large scale farmer can consider buying even expensive far machinery but a small farm owner or a hobby farmer will look for the alternatives. The best alternative to buying a new lot of farm machinery at original retail price is to buy used farm machinery or rent it on pay per use basis. There is a healthy marketplace for used farm machinery like the used cars. If you are also one of those farmers considering buying new equipment, you should have a look at the advantages of buying used equipment. Here are the facts one should know, before making a buying decision.

7. If you are starting a new farming venture, you might consider buying used equipment as it will save you from making a big investment at the initial level when a few things about a business are not certain. Financing may be easier to obtain new equipment but buying used equipment can save you from the extra burden of any loan. Small scale farmers may find advantages in buying used equipment as sometimes the new equipment owner does not find any specific new equipment economically efficient for a certain farming operation. Used farm equipment is suitable to buy for a back-up unit in crucial farming activities like harvesting. A tractor is the most expensive farm machinery and if maintained properly it gives improved performance with time, and in case of low usage can remain the same in looks and performance. However, it may not be possible for every farmer to purchase it. Used tractors can be useful to tow nut carts at the time of walnut or almond harvesting when a tractor needs to be run for a few hours seasonally. Used farm equipment can also be used for less-crucial or small annual usage jobs. A multi-crop harvester has made the entire harvesting job a kind of interesting activity for the farmers. Many farmers in the USA like to buy a harvester machine. Few of them later plan to grow something else, for which they need another harvester with the latest technology for the specific crop type. Such farmers sell harvester to switch to a new one. This can be an opportunity for another farmer to buy that efficiently used harvester for sale at a lesser price as compared to the new one. Finally consider all the factors that affect your buying decision like how frequently you will be using the machinery in a year and the crop type you grow, the land size etc. and then make a right decision as per your requirements. 4.Advantages of Renting Farm Equipment In the age of globalization and manufacturing industries, one would easily be made to believe that farming and agriculture belongs to the past or something that is only relevant in the outskirts of metropolitan cities. However, agriculture is a major industry in the United States. It may come as a surprise, but many people engage in farming not just for commercial purposes but also as a leisure activity. For some it’s their meal ticket while for others it’s simply a way to utilize time. Nonetheless, farming demands a little of one’s blood, sweat and tears and a good deal of equipment to assist in the activity. Efficient and productive agricultural machinery demonstrates that you have won half the battle. There are different equipments for different tasks that turn out to be an integral component of agricultural farming and crop production. However, these heavy tools and machinery prove to be a budget buster. Buying the equipment wouldn’t be the most intelligent choice in today’s time since technology is revolutionising like a flash and one wouldn’t want to be stuck up with conventional methods and techniques while others profit off of the new ones. In the present climate, if someone is a machinery/equipment hoarder, he is allowing money to slip away from the grip of his own hands which isn’t the most desirable situation to be in.

8. It’s not just about working hard but also about making smart choices and the smarter choice is to rent the farm equipment that is needed for a particular task. The renting revolution is right here and now and it’s time to walk with time and make wiser decisions. Tight on cash flow? Don’t want to break the bank, but still want to pursue agricultural farming? If yes, then farm equipment rental services are for you! There’s far more, good than bad that comes out of it, and some of these advantages of renting farm equipment are: Empowering the cash-strapped: Renting agricultural equipment helps one to escape the clutches of exorbitant rates that accompany the purchase of new machines and equipment. Buying brand new machinery can hugely pinch your pocket. However, renting the same equipment for a certain number of days/months would support the ones who’re restricted by a certain budget. This would lower the initial costs and also promote better use of one’s financial resources since money saved is actually money earned. Catering to short term equipment needs: Rental farm equipment enables one to take up projects that require a certain tool for a short period of time. The farmer can choose different machines for different tasks without worrying too much about the cost it would entail. The farmer is at the winning end of the game since he would only pay for the machine when he’s in need of it and also get access to up-to-date technology which is more efficient, rapid and competent. Keeping up with the latest technology would be valuable in keeping the farm modern. There will come a time when a machine would become “not too great” in front of another new machine that is just launched in the market. And it’s not always wise to keep buying new machinery as it launches but it’s definitely wise to rent it. Task-specific rentals have granted one an edge over others who are still using traditional machinery and made the execution of their tasks easier and faster.

9. Dodging storage and maintenance cost: Avoiding long term commitment with agricultural machinery would help cutting the costs that one would’ve spent in storing the equipment. Storage and repairing costs are far greater than one can imagine which includes not just the monetary cost but also the psychological one. Huge machinery would require storage facilities that would merely be an added burden on the farmer. Constant stress about the equipment, its repair parts, servicing and record keeping can simply be evaded by renting the machine for a specific time frame. Letting the rental company worry about the long term storage, responsibility and maintenance of the machine is the perfect and ideal situation that a farmer would love to be in. Get a sneak peek at what you’re getting into: Maybe someone wants to try out a new equipment that just launched in the market and see if it fits into their plans and ideas for their future prospects or maybe someone just wants to try out a machine before buying it. Getting a glimpse of the equipment is now possible vis-à-vis rental services and if an equipment turns out to be incompatible with your needs, congratulations on saving big bucks. Bid farewell to transportation cost: Maybe someone is shifting or maybe someone has taken a project that he is expected to do in another city, how will he transfer his heavy machinery from one place to the other? Well, he doesn’t need to. Hiring agricultural equipment from the rental company closer to the destination would help cut the transportation costs. All of these advantages would be fruitful only if the company approached for your rental services needs is the right one and we at FarmEase understand that. We have made renting farm machinery easier for you, all you have to do is decide what equipment you need and leave the rest of the headache on us.

10. We shall assist you in finding the equipment you need, making your whole experience smooth and free of complications with so many options to choose from. Some of them are tractors, seeding equipment, harvest, and post-harvest equipment. We understand the ambiguity that comes with using a second- hand machine and so we make sure to connect you with only those renters whose machines are faultless and are in great condition. You’re just a click away from your desired farm machinery that is waiting to reach out to you, anytime and anywhere. Conclusion Every farmer, as well as every crop production, is unique. For this reason, it's hard to give a unique recommendation whether a farmer should purchase or rent farm machinery. However, keeping in mind advantages of both purchasing and renting, as well as being aware of your own situation and needs, is definitely a good way to make a good decision. On the other hand, there are many farmers who already have certain farm machinery, whether it's purchased or rented or used farm machinery. For them, it's important to track machinery utilization in order to decide whether their original decision was good enough. Having a clear insight into farm machinery usage and costs, a farmer can easily decide whether to continue with renting or buy new or used farm machinery, as well as decide whether to keep purchased equipment or sell it and then move to renting. References Feb 2020 | Advantages of Renting Farm Equipment | blog.farmease.app | Retrieved on 22.04.2020 from https://blog.farmease.app/advantages-of-renting-farm-equipment/ March 2020 | Essential Farm Equipment that Help Increasing Productivity | agriandfarmtalks.wordpress.com | Retrieved on 22.04.2020 from https://agriandfarmtalks.wordpress.com/2020/03/17/essential-farm-equipment-that-help-increasing- productivity/ April 2020| Advantages of Buying Used Farm Machinery | mylifeincalifornia.weebly.com | Retrieved on 22.04.2020 from https://mylifeincalifornia.weebly.com/home/advantages-of-buying-used-farm-machinery Ines Hajdu | Making Big Decisions: to Rent or to Buy Farm Machinery? | blog.agrivi.com | Retrieved on 22.04.2020 from https://blog.agrivi.com/post/making-big-decisions-to-rent-or-to-buy-farm-machinery Aug 2016 | What is the best option? Buying or renting farm machinery?| godings.com.au | Retrieved on 22.04.2020 from https://www.godings.com.au/buying-or-renting-farm-machinery/