Price per acre - bush hogging

[LoneCowboy]

My costs? or your costs?

I never included payments in my analysis. What I did include was replacement and depreciation.

Im not depending on it for a lively hood. As such it affords me certain freedoms im shure you dont have.

yeah, you can work for free.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

My costs? or your costs?

Ive followed your threads closely Lone....Im understand at how you break down your costs.

I would say the biggest difference between me and you would be our equipment. Yours being brand new (or relatively) with payments.

All of mine is used. My brushhog i use is a $250 jobber off of craigslist. Even if it fell off the back of the trailer and got wadded up in a ball by a passing freight train, replacement cost for a similar unit is of little concern. should something break on the tractor, i dont have to load it up and take 2-3 hrs out of my day to haul it to some craptastic dealer for warenty work. I just buy the $30 hose or ______ part and put it on myself.

Shure my time is worth something, but i spent the same amount of time fixing my tractor as you did running yours back to the stealer to have them work on yours. so IMHO its a wash. (with out all the stealer aggravation)

And at the end of the day, the more you make the more they take. So it might be a wash at the end of the day, so what. What else would i be doing, sitting around reading the newspaper or swat'n flys? Or i could be out enjoying doing what i do.
Im not depending on it for a lively hood. As such it affords me certain freedoms im shure you dont have.

YEP.


Overhead.....It can kill a business. At the very least, it can be the difference between just barely being competitive, or, turning a healthy profit while pricing your work at an attractive rate.

There are a BUNCH of expenses that are basically the same for all of us. Fuel and taxes come to mind there. Insurance can vary. This season, I'll have 5 tractors/mowers, 2 truck/trailers, and 6 employees operating full time and my insurance is only a few bucks more than what has been quoted in this thread for a much smaller operation. Billable hour for billable hour, my insurance cost is probably 1/2 of what has been mentioned by some. 2 tractors are older models with a replacement value of 1/4th of what a NEW one the same size would run. Still, I'd match them against anyones NEW tractors for reliability and economy of operation. Trucks are a few years old. The 3 newer tractors and mowers weren't bought until there was no way around it. They had work lined up, contracts signed sealed and delivered before shelling out that money. I refuse to go buy a bunch of new equipment, THEN go out and try to find a way to pay for it. We do ALL our maintenance and repairs in house if they aren't warranty repairs, even tire repairs. I COULD pay $100 an hour shop time OR pay an employee $17.50 an hour to stand and watch oil drain out of a tractor. I choose the cheaper route. Since this is a seasonal business we're talking about, there's PLENTY of off-season time to do maintenance and repairs. Most of my employees are full time, year 'round. They spend time in the shop during the winter changing oil, fixing little details, and in general, keeping my equipment away from the dealers much more expensive shop rates. In that regard, I'M an employee too. No ski trips, no sitting around watching TV all winter. I'm in the shop too, replacing seals, changing oil, welding cracks in mower decks, or whatever needs attention. Sure, that's not PROFITABLE, but it's not a dead expense either.

A small 1 or 2 man operation should not reasonably expect to run like MicroSoft. Smaller operations can't operate at the same economy of scale as a larger business. You can make a good living, but it's absurd to expect a one horse operation to allow the "CEO" to live like a king. There are a few hugely profitable small business ventures.....Mowing weeds ISN'T one of them. Keep your expectations in line with reality.

It's not always what you MAKE, it's often about what you SAVE.

It's WONDERFUL having all new tractors, trucks, mowers, paying someone else to change your oil. It's far more WONDERFUL to have plenty of business, happy customers, and turn a healthy profit, all the while making your competitors scratch their heads and wonder how you can work so cheap.

I avoid 1 or 2 hour mowing jobs like the plague. Those are hauling jobs with a few minutes of mowing thrown in for effect. Most of my work is in the 10 hr to 40 hr range. Those little jobs just aren't that profitable and they're an aggrevation. However, hauling time to and from the job is billable hours. SOMEONE has to pay for that, why not the PAYING CUSTOMER?

No customer of mine gives a hoot how new or high tech my equipment is. They want a good job at the lowest price. Period.

IN the end, I can mow with a 45hp/6' mower at $50 to $55 an hour and turn a nice dollar. 15' batwing behind a 95hp tractor for $110 to $125 an hour and pocket 1/3rd of that.

And best of all.... The more contractors that don't live by the low overhead theory, the higher the "going rate" seems to be. Then, the easier it is for me to get all the work I want, and the less I have to trim my prices to stay competitive.

 

[WarrenF]

UHHH well said FarmwithJunk. VERY WELL SAID!!!

 

[krackerjack9]

I do some mowing and brushhog work everynow and then. Generaly getting $30-50 a acre, Just depends on how thick it is, I got one job coming up this weekend its half a acre, lots of little mesquite trees, but the grass (Coastal) is well over 4 to 5ft in some areas. I told the guy $180.00 and he said great. If we didnt have the burn ban here I just tell him to go buy a 5 gallon can of fuel and torch the place. We do need some rain thats forsure.

 

[kbuegel]

Would you ever consider using a sickle-bar type mower instead of a bush-hog type for regular mowing (assuming the field is flat, no rocks, and you've mowed it before)?

And, have you ever run across a situation where the field you are asked to mow had decent grass and not too many weeds so it would be possible to cut and bale rather than bush hog it?

Perhaps here in California its different, but we have lots of "volunteer" Rye grass here, and wild oat grass, and right now its leafy and green and looks pretty good for cutting and baling. But I don't know if the customer would want to put up with the equipment coming and going from the property, the week or so of drying time in windrows and waiting for bales to be picked up. Most people with property seem to like the mowing service to get in and out quickly.

 

[johnnydel29]

A 72" rotary mower, like a Bradco will be in the 4K range.....I'd have to do alot of cuttiing to pay for that @ $80 an hour, I be using $15 an hour in fuel. Maybe It would be better to leave the bush hogging to the tractor guys.....

.

Your machine is a lot more effcient and is much better (IMO) than a typical tractor and brush cutter for brush clearing, I have seen them in action. Therefore, I would say that it would cost more to run your machine, which makes sense.

For example - to run a CAT D4 dozer to spread and level dirt is typically $100 - 150 per hour. A tractor w/ a loader and box blade would be around $50 -60 per hour. The D3 is much more faster and efficient w/ a good operator.

You get what you pay for.

 

[LabLuvR]

Man I wish we could get $385 an acre here. Most guys charge $75 an hour which just about equates to on hour with my equipment(6ft. bushhog). But I understand what FarmWithJunk is saying. To load my tractor and drive an average of 30 miles would take about an hour rounded up. To drive that 30 miles would cost around $1.50 a mile using depreciation, fuel etc. So right there you have $60 in expense just for the trip,not counting a wage for that one hour. So using what " I believe" to be the average, a small two acre job would not be worth loading the tractor unless you kick in at least another $100 for the travel portion. Not sure the market here would stand that price.

Great points made by FarmWithJunk and Lone Wolf. If more people used those types of analysis their business would be much healthier. Too often though I think people forget depreciation and repairs. One day that tractor will have to be replaced, can you do that at $75 an acre I seriously doubt it.

 

[JDAOWNER]

We have flat ground here too.

It may be VERTICAL, but it's flat

Just got off the phone with a rep for a homeowners association with 22 ten acre tracts to be mowed 4 times this summer @ $380 each per cut! All reasonably level, no obstructions, no exposed rock, not the first tree in the way, and payment upon completion.

Wish they were all so nice!

THE PROBLEM WITH SMALL BUSINESS WORKING FOR BIG BUSINESS IS COLLECTING THE MONEY. GET PAID FOR ONE LOT BEFORE STARTING THE NEXT--AND SO ON. JUST SAYING

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

THE PROBLEM WITH SMALL BUSINESS WORKING FOR BIG BUSINESS IS COLLECTING THE MONEY. GET PAID FOR ONE LOT BEFORE STARTING THE NEXT--AND SO ON. JUST SAYING

Do you realize this thread is from over 11 years ago?

 

[cathy liebchen]

prices have gone up in the past 11 years