Hey all,
Paulharvey, you are correct, $60/hr is the rate the owner and I agreed on. After doing this job, I think $75/hr is closer to what I should be charging. That would put me at around $300/acre to grub and rake. My plan is to charge by the hour as conditions will be different on every project. This exercise will give me a way to estimate the land clearing cost as most customers I have dealt with want to have some idea of the costs up front. I will also need to recover daily travel costs for a project this far away (138 mi round trip/day). Toward the end of the clearing project, I did break a final drive chain on the left rear of the skid. I opened the chain case, removed the broken chain and was still able to drive the skid up onto the trailer and take it home. I wound up replacing a short section (12”) of the RC100HD chain and used two master links to put it back together. So far it seems to be working just fine. Only time will tell. As to your question about using my skid as opposed to using other types of equipment, I would use my skid again for Mesquites the size I am working with now and smaller. If I was dealing with full sized (mature) Mesquites, I think a dozer/grubber or an excavator/grubber would be better. For raking the skid with a root rake or a grapple rake worked very well.
Kyle, I don’t have any pictures of the grubber in action, however I am still grubbing some in other fields. Tomorrow I will be moving some dirt with a friend’s help. I will try to get him to shoot a short video of the grubbing action if you guys are interested.
Fastowl, good idea about checking with the ASCS office on reimbursement rates for land clearing. I had not thought of that as I have not ever dealt with them before. I will give them a call. What kind of equipment are the guys using to clear land around Menard? $100-$200/acre sounds like a very good price (for the landowner) for land clearing. I am not sure I would want to subject my machine to the abuse for that price. +1 on the moisture content of the soil making a big difference. When I started this project the pasture had not seen any rain for months and the soil was very dry. About halfway through, we got ½” of rain on the pasture and for a week or so after the rain pulling the mesquites was significantly easier. It was much easier to pull them out taproot and all as opposed to cutting them off below the nut.
C4Ranch, I rented a grapple rake last Monday to move some previously cut brush and trees that had been deposited in creek beds several years ago. The owner wanted them moved out into open areas so he could burn them without damaging live trees. I had never used a grapple rake before and boy was I impressed! It is on my list of tools to acquire. I am not sure how well it would work pulling up mesquites. I think you will have better luck using something that will allow you to catch the plant 6”-12” below grade and then pull it up. I have not tried this method so if you get a grapple rake and try it, please let us know how well it works. I am removing quite a bit of scrub Oak from the pasture I am working in now. I did try the grapple rake on the Oak and it worked very well as the root system for the oaks is close the surface of the ground. I suspect that the grapple rake would also work well on Cedars. I see you are in Eastland Co. not very far from me. The grapple rake I rented last Monday came from Abilene Rental Center in Abilene. I paid $72.00 (tax, insurance and all) for the day’s rental. It may be worth renting one for a day or so to try it before you buy it.
All the best,
Tim
