crop consultants

[Ron]

Does anybody use a crop consultant? not a free with fertilizer guy but a firm such as green drop, or agritrends? I am considering hiring one but want to be sure they are worth the money. Please give input with reasons not just bashing, (why do you like or dislike the idea). I work off farm and dont have enough time for my family so would like to delegate some work but it still has to make $ense. Thanks for any input

[craig]

I have been using independent crop consultants for about 3 years and I think we are on the right track although I would also suggest that might not apply to everyone. In my situation we have only 2 of us putting in a fair number of acres and found we were running out of time for crop mangement in the busy times of the years. The changes that have happened since we started using the consultants. We were like many who never had faith in soil testing but now think the system we are using is working. We have access to liquid hog manure and found we were actually applying Phosphate when we didn't need to. While we didn't do a bad job scouting weeds we were poor at checking to make sure the herbicides did the job they were suppose to. Critical if you want to catch wrecks or get compensation for the chemical companies. Bottomline in our situation was that we are in a high production area and use lots of inputs. The consultants gave us the confidence that we are maximizing the benefits from the inputs. If we didn't feel they were making us money we wouldn't be doing it.

[rodb]

We are going into our second year of using a consultant. I believe that they pay but start slowly and make them earn your business.

[Cal]

Just curious to what the going rate is for a consultant? Are most based on a per acre rate depending on the level of service offered?
Any response would be helpful.

Thanks

[les]

I heard bucks an acre