The Rural Voice, 1982-04, Page 8Sharing equipment
Joint ownership or sharing could be one way to save dollars
and maybe have better equipment.
by Sheila Gunby
Sharing equipment, by one method or
another. is one way to reduce farming
costs. It's a way of getting two or more
farmers established, or enabling separate
farm operations the use of a larger piece of
machinery than they could afford
otherwise.
Agreements to share can vary from a
verbal agreement or a formally - written
statement, depending on the farmers
involved and the size of their operation.
The Phillips brothers, Fred and Ken.
have a casual agreement but it works for
them. Each has a 150 -hp tractor, smaller
tractors and their own plow. After that,
Fred says. there is no duplication of
machinery. Fred owns the cultivator, corn
planter, swather, combine and sprayer.
Ken owns the disc, seed drill, big truck
and the gravity boxes and wagons.
The Phillips started with nothing and
built their farms on borrowed money.
Fred, after two years at Centralia. started
farming in 1973, purchasing his own land
in 1978. He and his wife Brenda own 250
acres and rent another 80 acres. Ken and
his wife Mary, live on Highway 86; they
own 100 acres and rent 120 acres. Ken, a
licensed A heavy machinery mechanic,
started farming 1974, purchasing his own
land in 1979. Together, the Phillips rent an
additional 500 acres, for a total operation
of more than 1,000 acres, in an eight -mile
radius from Lucknow.
Machinery purchases are a joint
decision; they talk it over. "Do a little
pencil work," Fred says, "Cost it out. We
wouldn't be able to farm alone
otherwise."
The brothers have no formal written
agreement. Nothing on paper. Each looks
after his own repairs and maintenance;
each is responsible for machinery damage
they do themselves, though Ken, being
a mechanic, does a lot of the repairs.
"Wear and tear is the responsibility of the
owner of the equipment," Fred says.
All the land is farmed together, even if
it's not owned together. Light land is done
first; Ken cultivates and discs, Fred
plants, harrows and packs. Stone picking.
they usually do together.
The advantages in this arrangement,
PG. 6 THE RURAL VOICE/APRIL 1982
Fred says, is less machinery and less
payments. They don't worry about the
amount of labo r each does.
But sometimes. they are not in
agreement. "We have arguments." Fred
says. "But we try to forget about it for
awhile and maybe talk about it the next
day. It seems to work out."
Grey County farmer Keith Kirk. his
brother-in-law Glen Meuser and Glen's
father obtained an FCC machinery
syndicate loan of 45,000 dollars. eight
years ago. at 6'/4 per cent for seven years.
It was a written agreement.
Keith owns 420 acres and Glen 700
acres. Just to make it more interesting,
their farms happen to be 25 miles apart.
They own smaller equipment. separately.
but after years of trading and updating,
their combined line-up of farm equipment
is impressive: a combine, 190 -hp. four-
wheel-drive tractor, three -row forage
harvestor, 120 -hp. tractor, six -row corn
planter. 32 -foot cultivator, a small
cultivator, a jiffy dump wagon and a stake
truck.
Fred and Ken Phillips
"We're careful with the machinery".
Keith says, "But accidents do happen.
Last year Glen's father was doing some
plowing but he happened to run over a set
of harrows that had been left out in the
field. Well, it ended up, we had to put
tubes in a couple of tractor tires. and they
had to be patched up. So, the syndicate
paid for t -. tubes because they were
always g•to be there; Glen's father
paid for the patching. But we haven't
really run into too many things like that."
Machinery purchases are decided
jointly but Glen's wife, Marie (Keith's
sister), is in charge of the syndicate books
and income statement. and a separate
bank account is kept.
"In theory." Keith says, "This is how
it's supposed to work. If I was planting
corn on Glen's place I may have my own
tractor on the corn planter. Glen would
pay five dollars an acre to get his corn
planted, the same as if he was having it
custom done. I would receive five dollars
for my time and I would bill the syndicate.
We try to keep track and at the end of the