Ask An Expert: Kaleb Cooper on working with contractors
Working with contractors is part of modern arable farming – but getting the best from that relationship isn’t always straightforward.
In our latest Ask An Expert video, farming contractor Kaleb Cooper – known to millions from TV’s Clarkson’s Farm – shares no-nonsense advice from years of working with UK farmers.
If you use contractors – whether for drilling, spraying, combining or cultivation – this is well worth five minutes of your time.
Clear communication saves time, money and frustration, especially as contractors are constantly balancing competing priorities.
Kaleb covers:
What contractors wish farmers told them before a job starts – like how to find the right field!
How contractors juggle jobs through the busy season and how farmers can help keep operations running smoothly
The questions farmers most commonly ask contractors beyond the job itself – and the advice Kaleb usually gives
The practical things farmers can do to make contractors want to come back for more work year after year
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This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the content at the time of publication, Hectare Trading makes no guarantee regarding the data provided.
Transcript
Question: What do contractors want to know before turning up?
Kaleb Cooper
Which fields exactly that I’m going to. I’ve got a new app now called Ag-drive, which I’m doing all my paper-keeping on. And now I can put your field onto this app that I’ve got and, therefore, if you tell me the name of the field, I can search it up and know exactly which field I’m going to.
Normally I get an instruction like, right Kaleb, if you go down the road, turn left, when you hit the oak tree, take a right and then a left and you’ll see an ash and then that’s the field on the right-hand side, but it’s not the wheat field, it’s the barley field behind the wheat field. And I’m like, OK, well I’ve just forgotten all of that! So, therefore, maybe more information of, like, field sizes and names of fields.
So, as a youngster, I want to try and keep going forward with the future and that’s, of course, going more onto your phones and more onto laptops and so on. So, therefore, I can record the fields now, put it onto my app and all my tractor drivers and myself will know exactly which field we’re gonna go to. So maybe more information.
Question: How do contractors line up jobs and juggle their time through the season?
Kaleb Cooper
Now, I could say an answer of, like, I plan it, put it in the diary and I turn up and so on but, actually, what I do is I don’t manage my time. I just wing it.
And, you know, I just say yes to even stuff that I can’t get to, but at the same time I think what I realise now is that my job as a contractor is to take the stress and the pressure off the farmer and, therefore, if it’s easy to say yes, I’ll be there, I’m gonna be there. I might be there at, like, 10 o’clock, I might be there at 11 o’clock but that’s the contractor’s way, isn’t it? But I know for a damn fact that I’ll always be there on that day that I say I’m gonna be there.
Unless I have a breakdown and I can’t change that. But I do wing it the majority of the time!
Question: What advice are contractors asked for outside of the actual work?
Kaleb Cooper
Weirdly, as a contractor I assume that I’m going to turn up, do the work and then leave. Actually, I normally turn up, then the farmer asks me, what sort of rate would you be going on? For example, I’m spreading chicken muck and they go, what sort of rate would you be putting this chicken muck on the field? And I can go, right, OK, I advise to do this or I normally do it at this rate.
As well as then, of course, buying livestock. How does a farmer actually go out there and know exactly who to speak to about buying some more calves or sheep or so on? Well, I know, SellMyLivestock is the place to go, I would say. Or, for example, if farmers go, Kaleb, where can I buy some fertiliser or seed from? I can normally give them a contact to speak to this person or speak to that person.
As well as then, selling corn. I hate selling corn. I physically hate it because I don’t know if I’m selling at the right time, if I’m selling it for the right price. But I would then say, go to Hectare Trading because of course that’s what I do. I go on there, I market all my grain on Hectare Trading. This is not like an advert and like, “go Hectare Trading!” I’m just saying, this is what I do and this is my day-to-day living.
So I would definitely say, go and visit these sites and go and actually speak to these apps. Because actually, again, we’re 2026 now and these apps are coming more and more into the real life and world.
Question: As farmers, what can we do to ensure you’ll want to work with us time and time again?
Kaleb Cooper
Oh, that’s a good question. Of course I’m going to say, as a contractor, pay your bill quickly! But actually I think what it is, I think it’s just talking, just doing a lot of talking to your contractor.
I mean, what stresses me out the most is when a farmer rings me up last minute and goes, can you please get there tomorrow to do some muck spreading. Of course I’m going to say yes but, if you’d have told me a week before, it’s much easier to plan the whole aspect of when we’re going to turn up to do the work and then of course I’m happy as a contractor because I know exactly what’s going on that week and the farmer’s happy then, of course, because they know exactly, on Wednesday, Kaleb will be there with the muck spreaders to do the muck spreading.