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Centralized Equipment Lightens Farmers’ Loads
By
Carol
Spence
CYNTHIANA, Ky., (Nov. 8, 2006) – Sharing farm equipment is a
simple idea that has its roots in the early days of mechanized
farming when neighbors shared their labor and equipment to bring
in each others’ harvests. In Harrison County, the University of
Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service is at the hub of a
similar program that is making the life of a cattle producer
more economically feasible.
“A lot of our farms are smaller farms, 130-, 140-acre farms,”
said Gary Carter, Harrison County Extension agent for
agriculture and natural resources. “You know, some of the pieces
of equipment that we have are something these folks really
couldn’t own themselves, but they can share in it and rent it
and be able to utilize it.”
For 15 years, the Harrison County Beef Cattle Association has
been working with Cooperative Extension to provide local farmers
equipment such as weed sprayers and livestock chutes and panels.
Farmers reserve the equipment and pay a small rental fee for its
use.
Tobacco settlement monies helped the program expand two years
ago. Carter said that with money from Phase I, three no-till
seeders were purchased to rent to beef producers with the intent
of improving pastures.
“The no-till seeders will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood
of $15,000 or $16,000,” he said. “And those are pieces of
equipment that they use once a year, so it’s not feasible to own
that piece of equipment to do a few acres of land. But they can
rent it from us and the money goes back into the system.”
Rental fees are used to maintain the equipment and replace
machines that have worn out. The office has just purchased
additional scales and chutes. And it’s not just beef producers
who benefit from the program. With the available sprayers and
vegetable equipment, farmers with crops in the ground can take
advantage of the savings on what could be a large personal
capital investment.
The program adds quite a bit to the workload of Extension
employees, Carter admitted. They keep all the records in the
office and produce reports for the Kentucky Department of
Agriculture to justify all the expenditures. All funds go into a
special account.
“We watch this real close,” he said. “I have a couple of
secretaries who really monitor equipment coming in and going
out. So it’s a total staff program. And farmers, too. Our local
beef cattle association board makes decisions on buying
additional equipment and replacing equipment, so there’s a lot
of people involved in this.”
Farmers are taking advantage of the program. More than 50 people
have rented the seeders this year “and it would have been more
if we had more equipment available,” Carter said.
There are no restrictions placed on farmers. They don’t have to
be a beef cattle association member to participate in the
program. Carter said all they have to do is call the Extension
office and sign up on a first come, first served basis.
For other counties that might be interested in starting a
program like this, Carter had a few words of advice.
“The first thing I would tell them is they want to look
themselves in the eye and decide if they want to be called on
Saturday afternoon to be asked whether the seeder is set right
or why the scales are not working correctly,” he said.
He knows of other counties that have a system similar to
Harrison County’s, except that they’ve put the equipment in the
hands of a farmer, who takes care of the rental and the
maintenance. He said that in Harrison County the program seemed
to work best when there was a central location for everything.
They’ve built storage facilities at the Extension office, which
allows all the equipment to be stored inside in a single
location.
Though it puts an extra burden on the staff, Carter said that’s
all part of the job.
“Part of our job is the service aspect of it,” he said. “That’s
kind of the reason why we’ve taken this effort.” |
Contact: : Gary Carter, 859-234-5510 |
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of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with teaching, research and extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
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