Farmers who depend on custom work or provide custom services can review rates reported by others across the state in the latest Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey.
For over 50 years, the survey, conducted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, has provided guidance for Iowans who hire custom work and those who do custom work for others. According to the most recent Iowa Farmland and Tenure Survey, only 3% of Iowa farmland is fully operated under custom farming agreements. A much greater proportion of farm operations within the state utilize custom work for occasional operations throughout the year.
The 2026 Farm Custom Rate Survey is based on 205 responses and 4,698 custom rates provided by Iowa farmers, custom operators and farm managers. Thirty-two percent of respondents perform custom work, 20% hire work done, 47% indicated doing both and 2% did not indicate whether they perform or hire custom work.
Farm tasks in the report range from field preparation to planting to harvest, with cost data that reflects the average, median and range for each task. Rental rates for select machinery, grain bins and hourly machinery operating wages are also included. New operations surveyed in 2026 include drone spraying and side-dressing anhydrous ammonia.
Ann Johanns, program specialist with ISU 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.
“This survey report is heavily used by Iowans and across the Midwest, as the 116,000 downloads in the past year show,” she said. “The 2026 survey report shows increases across all categories of operations surveyed, ranging from 0.3% for bin and machinery rental rates to 8.5% for pre-harvest operations, which include tillage, spraying, fertilizer application and planting.”
The custom rate survey is intended to serve as a guide. Actual custom rates may vary according to the 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.
Fuel
Diesel fuel was estimated at $2.89 per gallon when invitations to complete the custom rate survey were sent in early February. However, fuel prices have increased since then; as reported by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Iowa Production Cost Report (Bi-Weekly), No. 2 Diesel (farm) went from an average of $2.59 in January to $3.12 in the most recent March 2026 report.
A $0.50-per-gallon increase in fuel prices will raise total machinery costs by approximately 5%. Another way to adjust custom rates is to use Fuel Required for Field Operations, which contains estimated fuel consumption values per acre for many common operations. Multiplying the fuel used per acre by the change in fuel price since the survey was conducted can provide an estimate of the most recent cost increase per acre.
Estimate machinery costs
Custom work rates should account for all ownership and operating costs associated with the equipment being used. Custom operators and those who hire custom work done are encouraged to utilize additional resources, such as Estimating Farm Machinery Costs, for specific operations. New web-based calculators and downloadable decision tools are included to allow users to enter their own estimates and calculate machinery and implement costs.
A price comparison series for fuel, fertilizer and crop prices is updated regularly on the Ag Decision Maker website.
The information available in the 2026 Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey is only possible due to the responses provided each year. If you are interested in joining the 2027 Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey mailing list, send your mailing or email address to Ann Johanns at Iowa State University, Borlaug Learning Center, 3327 290th Street, Nashua, IA 50658 or aholste@iastate.edu.
Ann Johanns, Department of Economics
aholste@iastate.edu, (515) 337-2766
