The Association of Farm & Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI) has published its Contracting Charges Guide for 2019.

FCI is satisfied that this averaged price guide will act as a fair and reasonable guide for both contractors and farmers.

However, it must be remembered this is only a guide.

These guide figures are produced on an annual basis and are compiled by collating an average figure for each operation from a panel of FCI contractor members from across Ireland.

Because of the local differences, the actual guide charge may vary considerably between regions, across soil types, distance travelled, size of contract undertaken, size and type of equipment used as well as the amount of product spread.

This year sees contractors quoting a 5% increase in charges, rounded off in order to meet with the increases in costs of machinery and higher labour costs since the start of 2019.

Helpful

FCI chief executive officer Michael Moroney said: “FCI always advocates working out individual charges based on the cost of the operation; this guide is helpful to both contractors and farmers in highlighting a national average.”

Costs such as depreciation, finance costs and machinery purchase costs will transcend all regions.