How do I prepare a custom harvesting business for sale?

A custom harvesting outfit is a service business that works on other people’s farms. A buyer has no crop or land to inspect. They look at what you have built: who books you, what you run and who runs it. Much of that lives in your head today. Preparing to sell mostly means getting it onto paper, in a form a stranger can follow.

Customers by season

Build a simple table: each customer, the crops you cut or the services you did, the acres, and the years you have worked together. Add notes on who rebooks without being asked. Buyers want to know how steady the work is, and a clear history answers that better than a promise. Think about which customers know you personally and how you would introduce a successor.

Equipment records

List each machine with its hours, repairs and servicing, and mark whether it is owned outright, leased or financed. A lender with a claim on a machine will matter at closing, so find out early what is owed on each one. An independent appraisal can help you understand condition without relying on your own memory. Tidy the maintenance logs now rather than during the buyer’s review.

Crew and handover

Explain how you find and keep operators each season, including any seasonal workers you bring in. Buyers will ask whether the crew will stay, so speak to key people before the process becomes public, if you can do so in confidence. Then plan a handover: riding along on the first jobs, introducing customers in person and answering questions for an agreed period. The guide to selling a farm business covers a related path.