Affordable, used tractor-trailer rigs keep the combine running and help boost thin commodity margins.

On larger farms, there's a speeding trend to add an 18-wheeler (sometimes more than one) to the farm equipment lineup. Owning a semitrailer might seem economically "iffy," especially in light of the number of independent truckers who go belly-up each year.

"But if a farmer needs a truck, he can get into a tractor-trailer for about the same or little more than a straight grain truck would cost," said Ron Andresen, manager of Marion County Implement, the John Deere dealer at Palmyra, Mo. "That's a big reason farmers are going to semis."

"It's a real buyers' market in serviceable used trucks right now," agreed Mark Mendel, branch manager for the Murphy-Hoffman Company, the Kenworth dealer in southern Missouri. "We are selling trucks, but they're coming in all the time. Right now, you can buy a late model--1995 or 1996--truck with a lot of service left in it in the $20,000 range."

Or considerably less, when you shop around.

"We own a Kenworth and a Freightliner," said Bill Griffitt, who crops more than 1,300 acres just northeast of Lamar, Mo. "We paid $10,500 for one of them; $11,000 for the other. In fact, the hopper-bottom grain trailers we put on them cost more than the trucks themselves.

"Our main use of the trucks is to haul grain out of the field," he added. "With two trucks, the combine doesn't have to wait."

Griffitt grows corn, grain sorghum, wheat and soybeans--much of the beans double-cropped after wheat. He wants the pace of harvest to be set by the combine capacity, without any delays in getting grain from the field to the bins.

"Our fields are all within a 5-mile radius, but we have some storage that is several miles away," Griffitt said. "With trucks, we can make that haul faster and safer than we could with tractors and grain buggies. And, again, the combine doesn't have to sit and wait."

In winter, Griffitt's trucks become a marketing tool, as he watches for opportunities to sell grain out of his 120,000-bushel storage.

"We sell a lot of grain to poultry feed mills south of here," he said. "Those mills typically get grain by rail. But when their bins are getting low and the train is late, they need grain, and they'll pay a premium to anyone who can get it to them in a hurry. With farm licenses, we can haul into Kansas, too."

Last winter, Griffitt earned an extra 20 cents per bushel on 30,000 bushels of wheat trucked to Kansas City.

"The bid was a few cents higher at Kansas City, and the loan deficiency payment was considerably higher," he recalled. "It's a 125-mile haul, but we still made money by delivering wheat there."

In net terms, the wheat trucked to Kansas City earned about $75 per load over local prices. Griffitt figures his cost of operating a truck at about one dollar per mile, with diesel fuel at today's prices. He breaks down the cost this way:

Fuel, oil, maintenance and other out-of-pocket expenses total 50 cents per mile; repairs and replacement, 25 cents per mile; the cost of putting a man in the truck cab comes to another 25 cents.

"Either John Hancock or Phillip Allen does the driving," said Griffitt. "Phillip is a full-time employee, so his salary goes on whether he's in the truck or doing something else. I don't have to lay out any extra money for a driver.

"But you need to get into good, reliable equipment; repairs can eat your lunch," Griffitt continued. "I like to buy used trucks that have been operated by an over-the-road fleet--one of my trucks was owned by CFI, the other by QuickTrip. For one thing, trucking fleets generally do a good job of maintaining their trucks and usually have records of maintenance and repairs."

Mark Mendel agrees that a used truck should come with a maintenance history. If a truck has been well maintained, engine mileage may not be the biggest concern.

"Still, and particularly if you're buying a truck with 750,000 miles or more, you should see the record of maintenance and repairs," said Mendel. "Look especially at the cooling system and how it has been maintained. The engine coolant should have anti-cavitation additives at regular intervals, usually at every oil change. Otherwise, you could buy an engine that has liner pitting, and that can lead to expensive problems.

"If you'll need to pull heavy loads in soft ground--as in a crop field--you'll probably want a truck with at least 400 horsepower," Mendel added. "And I'd want one with at least 1,550 foot-pounds of torque."

"When you consider all the costs, owning and operating a truck is not inexpensive," said Griffitt. "But with crop prices where they are today, a farmer has to look at every nickel he can make, and my trucks let me earn a little more money than I could earn without them." n