Farm Custom Rate Survey Valuable Guide for Iowans on Custom Operations and Machinery Rent in 2025

Mar 18, 2025

By Ann Johanns

Farmers who depend on custom work or provide custom services can review rates charged by others across the state in the latest Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey.

The 2025 report was published in the March edition of Ag Decision Maker and includes 193 responses and 3,703 custom rates provided by Iowa farmers, custom operators and farm managers.

Farm tasks in the report include everything from planting to harvest, with cost data that reflects the average, median and range for each task.

The rates in the report are expected to be charged or paid in 2025, and they include fuel and labor (unless otherwise noted). The average price for diesel fuel (highway-retail including taxes) was assumed to be $3.66 per gallon (as projected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration in early February 2025). Rental rates for some machinery items are shown in the last section of the report, along with a worksheet for estimating rental rates for other items.

Ann Johanns, program specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach and editor of Ag Decision Maker, said this report is a valuable resource for custom operators and those who hire custom work done in our state.

“This survey report is heavily used by Iowans and across the Midwest, as the 170,000 downloads of the 2024 publication in the past year shows.” said Johanns. “The survey found there was a 5% price increase across all surveyed categories. The change from 2024 to 2025 varied across categories, with complete harvesting and hauling for corn and soybeans increasing by 9% and hired labor going up by 4%.”

The rate survey is intended only as a guide. Actual custom rates may vary according to availability of machinery in a given area, timeliness, operator skill, field size and shape, crop conditions and the performance characteristics of the machine being used.

“The survey is a valuable starting point in custom rate discussions, but any custom rate charged or paid should cover the operator’s cost of owning and operating the machinery being used,” she said. “If operators don’t have a good handle on their individual costs to own and operate specific machinery, there are helpful resources on Ag Decision Maker.”

There are 133 operations, rental rates and wage reports shown in the 2025 report. Additional insight into who responded to each operation is also shown. Of the 3,446 usable responses on custom operations: 54% are service providers, 25% are service users, 6% are both service providers and users, and 15% are unknown. The sources of the 92 rates reported for machinery rentals are: 56% machinery owners, 23% machinery renters, 8% machinery owners and renters, and 13% unknown. The sources of the 165 rates reported for wages are: 86% employers, 5% employees, 2% employer and employee, and 7% unknown.

Historical custom rate data is summarized in Ag Decision Maker File A3-12, and past publications of the Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey back to 2000 are also available online.

Source : iastate.edu

Video: From Conventional to Regenerative: Will Groeneveld’s Journey Back to the Land

"You realize you've got a pretty finite number of years to do this. If you ever want to try something new, you better do it."

That mindset helped Will Groeneveld take a bold turn on his Alberta grain farm. A lifelong farmer, Will had never heard of regenerative agriculture until 2018, when he attended a seminar by Kevin Elmy that shifted his worldview. What began as curiosity quickly turned into a deep exploration of how biology—not just chemistry—shapes the health of our soils, crops and ecosystems.

In this video, Will candidly reflects on his family’s farming history, how the operation evolved from a traditional mixed farm to grain-only, and how the desire to improve the land pushed him to invite livestock back into the rotation—without owning a single cow.

Today, through creative partnerships and a commitment to the five principles of regenerative agriculture, Will is reintroducing diversity, building soil health and extending living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible. Whether it’s through intercropping, zero tillage (which he’s practiced since the 1980s) or managing forage for visiting cattle, Will’s approach is a testament to continuous learning and a willingness to challenge old norms.

Will is a participant in the Regenerative Agriculture Lab (RAL), a social innovation process bringing together producers, researchers, retailers and others to co-create a resilient regenerative agriculture system in Alberta. His story highlights both the potential and humility required to farm with nature, not against it.