Combine harvester: buy a grain combine or hire harvesting for your crop
Buy a combine or hire one
For a small farm, owning a combine often does not pay: it works for a few weeks a year, but you must maintain it all year round. So many farmers hire operators and pay per acre. Buying makes sense when your area is large or the season can be stretched across different crops.
In your request, say straight away what you need: a machine of your own or a harvesting service. Different people will answer, so do not mix the two.
What decides the choice of machine
- Class and power: from compact to large machines. For an area of a couple of hundred acres, an expensive high-power combine is not always needed.
- Type of threshing unit: drum or rotary. Rotary ones cope better with damp or heavy crop, while drum ones are simpler to maintain.
- Header: for grain, for maize, for soybean. The header is often sold separately from the combine, and this changes the sum a lot.
- Engine hours and the condition of the thresher, augers, straw walkers and hydraulics. These are the costliest to repair.
- Availability of parts and service for the brand: Claas, John Deere, New Holland, Kubota and others differ in how easy they are to support.
What to put in your request
- purchase or service — a machine or harvesting of the crop;
- crop — wheat, paddy, maize, soybean, mustard;
- area to harvest — in acres;
- header — width and type;
- model, year, engine hours, if you are buying;
- district of the field and approximate timing;
- budget or a rate per acre, if you want to name one.
Example: “I need wheat harvested on 120 acres near Karnal, around mid-April. A combine with a header of about 4 m (13 ft), delivered to the field. Budget up to ₹1,800 per acre. I can also consider buying a used John Deere combine, not older than 2012.”
How to compare replies
For a service, compare what is in the price per acre: fuel, moving the combine to the field, grain transport, idle time because of weather. Ask about timing and whether you get a written agreement. For a purchase, ask for photos and videos of the thresher, the engine-hour reading and a list of replaced parts. It is better to see a combine working than standing in a yard.
If you buy used, do not wait for harvest: just before the season there is often little time left for inspection and repair. If you hire a service, agree on the approximate date of arrival and what happens if the weather shifts it.
Common mistakes
Most often people haggle only over the rate per acre and forget to ask who pays for idle time in the rain, for moving between fields and for taking the grain away. Another mistake is not describing the state of the crop: a lodged or weedy crop is harvested more slowly, and the operator builds that into the price. It is better to describe the field at once than to agree extra charges later.
How the search works
Instead of hunting for machine owners through adverts, you write one request. Sellers and operators reply with offers, prices and terms, and the system compares them and shows the best one first. Your phone is hidden, and it is free for the buyer.
For preparing the soil before sowing, look at tillage equipment, and for pulling power, farm tractors. Everything together is in the “Farm machinery” section.
