Rotary Cutter Acreage per hour question

[foreman Etexas]

Isn't that the truth, we did a 12 acre?? property that had not been mowed in over three years (also new field to us)

We hit large pieces of broken concrete, and at least 5 truck tires ( Now those do make a racket) and then the rotted fence posts and 6 x6 s-also lots of tansy-

I wish we were averaging the MPH that most are talking about but for us it didn't happen... even though we used 2 tractors with 5 and 6 foot brush hogs . and @ or above 40 hp ptos

this was our last mow, I think the biggest problem is mowing a (NEW to you field) and any that have not been mowed at least once every year. my:2cents:

3acres an HOUR,in good conditions,that my friend is not good conditions. I would have left it laying

 

[irsmun]

Thanks for all the warnings...got it. New cut = lots of unknowns. I think thats a given. Its seems the nature of this business. That cannot make it not need to be done. It can dictate the pricing. I think if you are going to do it professionally then you need to be all in. That means having proper insurance, and cash on hand for repairs. I do understand not wanting to do it with your "personal" tractor. I don't own my tractor, my company does and he is bent on starting this. :laughing:

With that said, the technique I plan to use is to run the FEL or grapple low to hopefully hit hidden things first. I am not sure of the problems with this technique. Most people I see doing it either don't have a loader on or its up.

 

[LD1]

Well, I am a little late, so forgive me if I say something someone else already said, but I'll give you my :2cents: based on my experience doing commercial mowing.

As mentioned, TOO many variables. I have done jobs that I cant muster more than an acre an hour with my 6' cutter. And other jobs I have been up to 3 acres an hour. Those 3 acre/hr jobs are wide open, nothing to go around, smooth, and done once a month.

The jobs that are under an acre an hour, is overgrown stuff that hasnt been done in years, lots of thick briars that need backed into, tons of trees to go around, and/or odd shaped lots.

So first and foremost, you have to know what you are dealing with. Is it going to be mowing a field? Or clearing brush from a field?

On an average job, that gets cut maybe once per year, and the average 2-3' weeds and grass, I average about 2 acres per hour. I would imagine you could muster 2.5-3 per hour on an average job. But smaller lots will slow you down too. So keep that in mind, you need to have a minimum charge.

Pricing is very location specific. My target is 50/hr. from my drive back to my drive. So if a customer calls, we discuss acreage, condition, obsticals, etc. I can figure in my head a ballpark time, and multiply by 50 and give them a quote.

My quotes have ranged anywhere from 35/acre (10 acre field that was corn last year, so smooth, and not much grass). That job took me 4 hours to do, and an hour travel each way. I charged 350 cause they wanted a small pile of dirt feathered out too.

My highest was 300/acre. It was a 1/2 acre job around a foreclosed house. Tons of garbage, old tires, fence, etc laying everywhere. My minimum is $150. So just be weary of those small jobbies around a house thats been foreclosed. Those arent fun jobs.

 

[foreman Etexas]

That program (freemaptools.com) is great! thanks for the posting, I just mapped out all my pastures and it told me a lot about my farm.

Glad it helped out...

 

[coss]

I just got done bush hogging the overgrown fields on my new property. I used a 6 foot cutter. Here are my average productivities:

1.7 acres/hour: flat field, hadn't been cut in 3-4 years. That was fun, except for the area where a neighbor had thrown some 10" thick firewood logs into the field. That made for a memorable noise.

1.2 acres/hour: flat field, hadn't been cut in 5-6 years. Some of the white pines were 8 feet high. You can burn up a lot of fuel on terrain like this. At least I felt a sense of accomplishment when I finished. No mishaps in that field.

0.25 acres/hour: sloped field that hadn't been cut in 8-10 years. The alders were about one foot apart and 1.5 inches in diameter. The evergreens were about 3 inches in size. My estimate did not include the time I drove into a ditch you couldn't see from 3 feet away and required a neighbor to come pull me out with his tractor. It also didn't include the time I spent walking multiple paths up and down the field to make sure it didn't happen again. (I found another ditch even deeper and more hidden than the first.) It doesn't include the time I spent replacing shear pins, which happened several times. That was really no fun at all, and at least a little dangerous. Someone would have to pay me plenty to do this job for hire. I did it because I was maintaining my own home and hearth, which makes a difference. When it comes time to mow it again, it is unlikely I can exceed 2 acres/hour if only because the bumps in the field make for a hard ride at ground speeds above about 3.5 MPH. Pounding along faster than that is bound to break something, perhaps me.

The take home message is similar to what others have said. On ground that hasn't been maintained, all bets are off. You might be wise to quote an hourly rate. Once you've paid your dues and the terrain is cleared, then a per-acre charge would be reasonable.

 

[ksbrdmkr]

Sounds like a dozer and a roan disc would have been a better tool for the that last field.

 

[coss]

Sounds like a dozer and a roan disc would have been a better tool for the that last field.

Yes, that field falls into the category of "hindsight is always 20/20".

Finding the ditch the hard way was the one part that gives me the most pause. It would have been pretty easy to get hurt or worse. I now have a much greater wariness about a new field with thick cover and unknown hazards lurking beneath the tangle. If I were doing bush hogging for a living, I'm not sure I would be willing to take on projects like that. When you multiply the daily risk by weeks, months, or years, the cumulative chance of a big problem gets awfully high.