Nick Kopkey owns and operates Kopkey Manure Management out of North Manchester Ind., where he sells Bazooka Farmstar liquid manure application equipment and provides custom manure application services. 

Kopkey says in his area growers are trending toward owning their own liquid manure application equipment vs. contracting it out. Last year, he says he sold 2 Bazooka Farmstar agitation boats and averages roughly $1.5 million in annual sales.

“I think in our industry, the future is farmers buying their own systems,” he says. “I'm for hire, and I work for 25 different farmers. I think the future is those farmers buying their own systems to do what I do.

“This year I have two farmers buying their own dragline equipment. It’s used, small, really cheap, but they only need it to do their own application.”

However, where Kopkey says he’s going to lose gallons in custom application, he’s going to possibly pick up some equipment sales. He adds that for custom applicators, horsepower and speed requirements are increasing.

“On the custom side, it’s trending toward bigger horsepower engines, bigger hoses, bigger tractors, it's all compounding,” says Kopkey. “If you buy a bigger hose, you’ve got to buy a bigger pump, then you’ve got to buy a bigger tractor. That's happened to me in the last 10 years. We're doing the same amount of manure in half the time. 

“For the custom guys, it's bigger and faster, and I think for the farmers, it's just going to be buying their own equipment — small systems, not all of them, but a handful.”

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