How much is it worth to brushhog 10 ac?

[Farmwithjunk]

It is the same in S. IN. However, it seems that a lot of guys are trying to make some money to pay for their batwing cutters and competition is fierce. If it was an area relatively clear of obsticles, I'd bet I could get it done for $150. Heck, they'd have it done in an hour.

About the only thing I know of going DOWN in price is bush hogging. Like you mentioned, seems to be a bunch of guys with batwings, even smaller mowers, trying to make payments by working for peanuts. My wife cares for a family trust, which owns 112 acres. We've been negotiating a fair price for me to mow the place, then charge the trust. I was looking to do it for just a few bucks over true cost. We found someone who'll cut it for us cheaper than I can do it myself. Pretty much a no brainer.

There's even a rental business that just opened in town with a NH TC33 w/loader/5' Bush Hog Squeeler that rents for $110 pr 1/2 day, $165 full day. In 3 weeks, I haven't noticed it out of the rental yard yet.

I don't see how people make payments at those rates.

 

[Grant1]

There's always someone that will do a job cheaper and I say let them have the work . I dont get all the jobs I bid but I do make money on the ones I do.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

There's always someone that will do a job cheaper and I say let them have the work . I dont get all the jobs I bid but I do make money on the ones I do.

I feel the same way about most anything I do, outside what goes on within the family. If someone wants to work for nothing, let 'em do it. The thing is, guys mowing for $50 an hour (with 40 HP/6' cutter) are making fair money. That'll cut 10 acres in about 4 to 4-1/2 hours. ($200 to $225) Not Bill Gates material, but decent money. I wouldn't expect to buy and pay for a brand new tractor that way, but most of the guys mowing around here use older, less expensive equipment anyway. A decent 30 year old 40 HP tractor will cut just as much, and just as well as a brand new 40 HP machine. Like any good business, it's all about keeping overhead down AND income up. If the object is to "make payments" on a new machine, you can still break even and stay competitive at those rates. And there's far too many people cutting at that level to spark interest in anyone paying more. (at least around this part of the country.)From what I've seen, someone who's needing their ground mowed generally won't care how proud you are of a new tractor. They just want CHEAP.

While seeking estimates on cutting 112 acres for the wifes family, I found there is no shortage of willing contractors who mow larger acreage for $16 to $18 per acre. That covers the "batwing" crowd here.

 

[lawn_king]

16-18 dollars an acre, im sorry thats insane. Im going to tow a 30 thousand dollar tractor with a 40 thousand dollar dumptruck to location, dot legal, health card ,for short money.$1000. may be high to hog 10 acres & we would do it for $800. But if you are offering 3-4 hundred for that job, i will stay home.

 

[Dargo]

16-18 dollars an acre, im sorry thats insane. Im going to tow a 30 thousand dollar tractor with a 40 thousand dollar dumptruck to location, dot legal, health card ,for short money.$1000. may be high to hog 10 acres & we would do it for $800. But if you are offering 3-4 hundred for that job, i will stay home.

We aren't doubting you, just saying that nobody around here would pay half that for the most part. I didn't realize that there is such a huge difference in pricing. FYI, I'd be hauling a 40k tractor rig on a 60k truck and trailer and still would have people laugh if I quoted $500.

 

[bdog]

It is all about how many acres you can do per hour. $16-18/acre is about the going rate here for large acreage shredding. These guys with the big tractors and batwings are mowing 10 acres per hour and $160-$180/hr ain't bad.

Heck I have a buddy who does spraying. He has a $175,000 spray rig and charges $4 per acre. That right four dollars. The thing is it is no big deal for him to spray several hundred acres per day.

That being said small acreage can not be compared to large acreage in terms of $/acre. I did commercial shredding full time for about 4 months last year with a 47hp/6' combo and it was dang hard to make any money and I am VERY glad I am not doing it anymore. The problem was on the larger jobs I could not compete with the guys with bigger mowers because they could do the jobs so quickly. They come in with a 12' or 14' mower, and do the job in half the time it takes me so they make a lot more per hour. Most of them had 70's model tractors, and probably less investment than me.

On the other hand the small jobs were no good either. It literally took more time to hook up the shredder, hook the trailer to the truck, load the tractor, chain down the tractor, drive to job, unchain and unload, load when finished, chain down, drive home, unchain and unload, unhook trailer, unhook shredder than it did to mow and acre or two. Figure in all that time, $3 fuel,etc you can not afford to do anything for less than $150 and most people are not going to want to pay that to mow their one acre.

Back to the original posters question, let me ask you this: Do you want to do mowing for these people on a continual basis? Do you really need the $$? I don't know about you but I value my time. I don't want to be sitting on a tractor mowing someone elses place for ten hours the whole time thinking about how I am making peanuts. If it were me I would tell them at least $300, probably $400. If they say ok, then cool, if not who cares. What have you lost? Don't sell yourself short.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

16-18 dollars an acre, im sorry thats insane. Im going to tow a 30 thousand dollar tractor with a 40 thousand dollar dumptruck to location, dot legal, health card ,for short money.$1000. may be high to hog 10 acres & we would do it for $800. But if you are offering 3-4 hundred for that job, i will stay home.

Hmmm. I guess you'd be starving to death if you were in any other part of the country where people didn't throw money away. Lawn care operators don't get $800 for 10 acres of manicured lawns here, much less 10 acres of bush hogging weeds. If I was paying to have 10 acres cut, I wouldn't want to pay for someones $70,000 rig for a couple hundred bucks worth of work.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

We aren't doubting you, just saying that nobody around here would pay half that for the most part. I didn't realize that there is such a huge difference in pricing. FYI, I'd be hauling a 40k tractor rig on a 60k truck and trailer and still would have people laugh if I quoted $500.

The guy who quoted me the $16.75 per acre price runs a pair of new Deere 7000 series tractors (didn't see what EXACT model), 2 fairly new Bush Hog 20' batwings, a Kenworth road tractor and hydraulic tilt lowboy, a fairly new Ford F-350 dually pick-up/service/fuel tender, pays 2 full-time operators, has DOT #'s on all his trucks, furnished me with insurance certificate, and lives in a nice part of town. My guess is he's making money or he wouldn't have all of that. (over-extended credit will only carry you so far) He WASN'T the cheapest price we got, but the other contractor was booked for the year and didn't see an opening 'till next spring.

Our church owns 24 acres just north of town. I've been mowing it since we bought the ground. I gave notice that I'm getting kind of busy and might not be able to mow it next summer. They've got over a dozen bids, 10 of them UNDER $450 per cutting.

$1000 for 10 acres sounds like Haliburton pricing

 

[Gatorboy]

16-18 dollars an acre, im sorry thats insane. Im going to tow a 30 thousand dollar tractor with a 40 thousand dollar dumptruck to location, dot legal, health card ,for short money.$1000.

I would drive my tractor with batwing attached to the jobsite.

 

[ToddW]

Too bad you wouldn't get the job. This isn't lawn care for a 10 acre yard -- it's acreage mowing with a brush hog.

In fact, I'm going over to my property this morning to mow my top 12 acres. It will take me less than 2 hours -- you mean I could actually get paid $500/hour to mow up in Mass? Goodbye software engineering, hello Mass Mowing!

Gotta love that 15' batwing!

/Todd