Farmers are beginning to join forces online to share combines and tractors. Custom harvesters also are participating in a sharing movement. Wheat is the crop most profitable for them to harvest. But Kansas and other wheat-growing areas have diversified into corn and soybeans, which are not as profitable for custom cutters. Some custom cutters now rent their machines to farmers for fall harvest, Kastens says.
Joint ownership is another scenario for sharing equipment.
Kastens points to two northeast Iowa farmers who created a corporation solely to share ownership in equipment. They pay the corporation for the hours they put on the machines and capture economies of scale without individually owning equipment. Sure, sharing equipment is fraught with problems-schedules, maintenance costs, legal questions. But farmers are inventive creatures. If they look for ways to share equipment, they will find them.