Written by Andrew Holden
After collecting data over the summer from growers at LERGP events, mainly our Coffee Pot meetings, I have compiled the results of the custom rate survey. The results have been published in a one-page handout that will be attached below this article. Please take a look at the results below and feel free to share feedback with me.
Custom rate is a term used to describe the price that is paid for work to be completed by someone off the farm. This custom work often looks like a farm hiring their neighbor to do a task with the neighbor’s equipment on their farm. Custom work is done for many reasons, small farms may find it more economical than buying large equipment, a farm may not have the labor to complete their task that season, older farmers may use it as a way to keep farming by hiring the more difficult tasks out, and many other scenarios. One of the best and most common examples of custom work in our region is custom harvesting. While I have had discussions with growers this year about how the number of people doing custom work, especially harvesting, has decreased over the years, I often receive calls asking what the going rate is. This survey sought to answer those questions, to find what the region’s average “going rate” for custom work is, AKA custom rates.
The 2025 Custom Rates handout shows the survey results that were collected from over thirty growers during the 2025 growing season and represents over two thousand acres across the Lake Erie Grape Region in both New York and Pennsylvania. The results show fourteen operations, including Hand pruning, Hand follow up, Tying, Trellis Maintenance, Other skilled labor, Mowing, Machine pruning, Herbicide, pesticide, and fertilizer application (not including material), Harvesting, and Trucking. Some activities that were surveyed were not reported due to a low response rate. While not technically custom work, I included pruning labor cost, as prices can vary across the region, and many growers ask what the current going rates are.
The rates reported in the above handout should serve as a reference for making custom work pricing decisions. These numbers are averages and will vary depending on your location, specific needs, equipment, and more. As responses came from across the grape belt from many diverse operations, more nuance must be applied when considering what you should charge or pay for custom work. My hope is that these numbers get growers in the ballpark for pricing and give us a snapshot of current rates in our region. Ultimately, the cost for custom work will be what someone is willing to do the work for and what someone is willing to pay to have that work done.
Growers provided useful information for this survey as well as valuable feedback on what operations they are hiring or being hired to do. To make the data more useful and specific in the future, I have been asking for feedback on this survey. So far, if this survey is repeated, I plan to make some adjustments to collect more data that I and growers would find useful. First, to account for location in the belt, and examine if there are NY vs PA differences, and get a better number on trucking cost vs distance to delivery. Second, the grape variety, so that data can be broken down by variety. Finally, a more in-depth look at custom harvesting is warranted, as many have reported that they used to do custom harvesting but no longer do. I am interested in quantifying the trends in custom harvesting and analyzing the situation further.