Need some bush hogging advice

[jezebel123]

I don't know if this is in the right category but I figured I would try. Boyfriend can drive a bush hog and has done it in the past. Just got hired to bush hog 11 acres in Georgia. Property hasn't been cleared in 10 years so lots of scrub trees, pine trees. Want down, a lot of brush, thickets and thorns. Also, they want a fence line cleared on both sides and they have a 100-yard chicken coop which has been abandoned but want all the vines, brush, etc cleared out from both those areas And the bush hog won't be able to get that close. So we understand the closer work's going to have to be done with fiska's weed eaters, rakes The fence line is really on two sides and the coop has all four sides which need to be done. Terrain is fairly flat and he will be using the gentleman 's brush hog which is a John Deere tractor. I'm not sure of how long the blade is. Could anyone ballpark how much that would be charged per acre including the? I guess it would be called trim work? There are approximately 60 pine trees that'll be taken down with a saw. So I know that I'm throwing a lot out here and asking for a price per acre. If you can give it to me that'd be great. If not, could you just provide as much info on any of these mini projects within a project? Thank you in advance

 

[bcp]

It sounds simple: "60 ten year old pine trees taken down" can be done in half a day or less. But the cleanup can take days. Same with fence lines.

Is this for a friend or relative, or for a stranger? Who pays if the tractor or bush hog breaks? Is the job close enough so you can spend nights at home?

Sounds like maybe all you will be providing is labor. What is labor worth in the area?

So many questions.

Bruce

 

[dodge man]

Sounds like several days of hand work. I’d want to charge by the hour.

 

[RjCorazza]

There are several land cleanup guys here that can provide some insight, hopefully they will come along.
I've done some smaller jobs than what you describe, and they almost always end up being more work than I anticipated. The charge by the hour recommendation above is likely the best approach imho. My rates are $60/hr manual labor, $75/hr chainsaw, $100/hr tractor work, and $200/hr for stump grinding. For most jobs I use a stopwatch app with four timers - one starts, the other stops. Sounds overly complicated, but it keeps me from under charging for a project.

With using the owner's tractor, you're basically manual labor. so I would likely end up charging $330 for the brush hogging assuming a 5-6' cutter. 60 chainsawed trees, cut and stacked on site maybe 4-6 hours = $450. Trimming say a 300' (?) overgrown fence line say 3 hours = $180. Cutting and dragging vines off of a 300' long chicken coop? Never done that, but it sounds time consuming. Cut, drag off & out, mulch with tractor, I would WAG that at 12 hours, or $720.
So all in, my estimate would come in at $1600-$2000, one man show with no overhead. I suspect a landscape company wouldn't even look at that job for less than $5k.
Take all that with a grain of salt though.... It's hard enough to bid a project on site, let alone sight unseen!

 

[2manyrocks]

There is no good way to price that work by the acre because it depends on how much time will be needed to clear what has grown up which could be a lot. Fence rows are very hard to clear because the wire means a lot of tedious clearing by hand. The rest of the open areas depend on how much material has grown up? If it is out of hand, might require a forestry mulcher instead of a rotary brush cutter.

 

[dlctcg]

Who pays if the tractor or bush hog breaks?

^^^ - This is a very important thing to consider... If you are on the hook for damages this project could easily become a huge loss for you...

Also who is holding the liability insurance for damage to property or person?

 

[Hay Dude]

I do this work for a living along with farming.

Price it by the JOB, not by the hour or acre.

Don’t fall into the acre/hour trap.

 

[JRG1223]

I don't know if this is in the right category but I figured I would try. Boyfriend can drive a bush hog and has done it in the past. Just got hired to bush hog 11 acres in Georgia. Property hasn't been cleared in 10 years so lots of scrub trees, pine trees. Want down, a lot of brush, thickets and thorns. Also, they want a fence line cleared on both sides and they have a 100-yard chicken coop which has been abandoned but want all the vines, brush, etc cleared out from both those areas And the bush hog won't be able to get that close. So we understand the closer work's going to have to be done with fiska's weed eaters, rakes The fence line is really on two sides and the coop has all four sides which need to be done. Terrain is fairly flat and he will be using the gentleman 's brush hog which is a John Deere tractor. I'm not sure of how long the blade is. Could anyone ballpark how much that would be charged per acre including the? I guess it would be called trim work? There are approximately 60 pine trees that'll be taken down with a saw. So I know that I'm throwing a lot out here and asking for a price per acre. If you can give it to me that'd be great. If not, could you just provide as much info on any of these mini projects within a project? Thank you in advance

First. Do you have the responsibility of removing trees or simply cutting them down?
Second Stumps will the customer want stumps ground.
Vines and weedeater cost time and money. Be sure you have a blade on the device. Lots of labor.
I would figure number of people needed to do the work
Figure a fair hourly wage for each laborer
You can take that number and do the job by the hour. You have unknowns.
A 7 foot mower can do two acres an hour provided it's not full of debris
Look for things that will damage tires and equipment.

 

[jezebel123]

Thank yo

 

[jezebel123]

Thank you very much. The trees they want taken down can more or less be taken down with a chainsaw. We're in the South so it's saplings and Small pine trees. I'm glad you bought up the labor because they have a 100-yard Chicken Coop, that's no longer used for chickens, they're using it for storage. Storage. But the coop is covered in Vines. Thickets, thorns etc. And it comes out so much. All this growth is coming out so much further from the coop about another 10 ft that the way I'm looking at it people are going to have to be going in with fiskas and weed eaters and things like that. So while I kind of been thinking about it for the final cost, you definitely gave me some information to chew on

 

[airbiscuit]

There are lots of variables to the work they want done. I would bid a job and do a job. Then bid another job and do another job. Start with the ones you are most comfortable with first. Tat way, you won't get too far over your skis.

 

[BlueKnife]

There are lots of variables to the work they want done. I would bid a job and do a job. Then bid another job and do another job. Start with the ones you are most comfortable with first. Tat way, you won't get too far over your skis.

I would agree, except she's talking about using the client's machine to do the job. That changes everything. Given the circumstances, an hourly rate seems like it would make the most sense, for both parties, assuming the client trusts the OP's boyfriend.

 

[rumwrks]

Also there can be a lot of unexpected trash along fence lines (kind of akin to the problem you're seeing around the chicken coop). Things like down wire, electric fence lines, old wood/metal posts, etc.. I found a dozen throwing horseshoes along one.. along with the stakes, some random rebar and a handful of golf clubs. This can all get into the equipment and gum up the works, break things, take way longer to clean up than you'd think, like exponentially longer.

 

[airbiscuit]

I don't know if this is in the right category but I figured I would try. Boyfriend can drive a bush hog and has done it in the past. Just got hired to bush hog 11 acres in Georgia. Property hasn't been cleared in 10 years so lots of scrub trees, pine trees. Want down, a lot of brush, thickets and thorns. ****
Terrain is fairly flat and he will be using the gentleman 's brush hog which is a John Deere tractor.
Assuming it's a 5' rough cut mower - Estimate 8-10 hours mowing time (slower because overgrown and unfamiliar area)

Also, they want a fence line cleared on both sides. *** So we understand the closer work's going to have to be done with fiskers, weed eaters, rakes
How many linear feet of fence line? Sounds like it would be worth renting a walk behind brush cutter,

And they have a 100-yard chicken coop which has been abandoned but want all the vines, brush, etc cleared out from both those areas. The coop has all four sides which need to be done.
A chicken coop is a building. What the heck is a 100 yard chicken coop? Do you mean a fenced in area around a chicken coop? What are those dimensions?

Could anyone ballpark how much that would be charged per acre including the? I guess it would be called trim work?

There are approximately 60 pine trees that'll be taken down with a saw.
How tall are the pine trees? Diameter of the trunks? What do you do with the cut up wood and branches? Do you have to cut the stumps off at ground level? (If so, expect to dull a lot of chains). Those answers will help you estimate time per tree (I assume you are using your own chainsaw(s))

So I know that I'm throwing a lot out here and asking for a price per acre. If you can give it to me that'd be great. If not, could you just provide as much info on any of these mini projects within a project? Thank you in advance

Because these are such different tasks, and difficult to estimate precisely, for the customer's benefit and yours, I would bid one and do one and see how well that is working out for both parties.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

Because these are such different tasks, and difficult to estimate precisely, for the customer's benefit and yours, I would bid one and do one and see how well that is working out for both parties.

I like that idea a lot. So both parties be happy with the cost, quality of work, effort needed to be made etc.... the smaller break down into a step by step approach can help keep all parties happy and no surprises. If not happy then simply part ways with minimal losses or surprises. Also when unexpected stuff happens adjustments can be realized and handled before something gets out of hand.

If for whatever reason 1 party not happy not a huge loss either way, Shake hands, part ways still as possible friends versus a big project where hard feelings may arise if something unexpected happens.

that way no one gets bum hurt.

 

[Williy]

IMHO a tractor and brush hog is definitely not the answer a cat with a blade angled so all the crud gets sent away from the fence line and keep going until you have a big pile in the middle of the field then find a place thats low and dump it. Dig out the good dirt first for top fill. With a lot of rocks, logs, wire, etc you will spend a lot of time with repairs use the cat to run around the chickencoop...........
my 2 cents

Then again you can walk it to check for anything that would
damage the brushhog and remove it no matter how you look at it its going to take some
time then again you you can run the tractor with the bucket very low to the ground to catch any thing that would be a problem like a log or rock

willy

 

[airbiscuit]

Pics would help. BTW, the words vines, thickets and thorns add to the aggravation factor and cost.

 

[Sportsman762]

So I just cleared 5 acres that had not been mowed since 2009. It took about 14 hours with a 5' brush hog mowing at 2 mph. The brush was over the tractor cab (8' tall). I was having to mow with the bucket just hovering over the ground as there were random dirt piles that I did not want to go over. I had to back into 150 yards of stream to mow the brush, as the 8' gully was not visible due to the dense brush. Many areas had to be double mowed due to the dense brush not getting cut. I put some new dents in the brush hog and lost an exhaust weather cap.

It took me 8 hours to cut up a 77' tree that was around 26" DBH. I still need to stack the wood.

I am currently cutting down the brush that was too large to mow over and digging out the stumps. Most of the brush that needs cut is 4-8" in diameter. Next is trimming back 200 yards of tree line on the field. I cannot tell you how long it will take to do your work as your conditions are most likely different than mine. I would expect the job to be on the higher end of hours.

Price it by the JOB, not by the hour or acre.

Listen to @Hay Dude as he is very experienced in this type of work, and experience makes for better estimates.

 

[BlueKnife]

I do this work for a living along with farming.

Price it by the JOB, not by the hour or acre.

Don’t fall into the acre/hour trap.

If you hired someone to run one of your machines, you would pay them by the job? Around here, that sort of thing is almost always by the hour or by the piece in some unusual cases.

 

[Hay Dude]

If you hired someone to run one of your machines, you would pay them by the job? Around here, that sort of thing is almost always by the hour or by the piece in some unusual cases.

What I pay my employees is completely irrelevant compared to what I charge a customer for mowing.
I have about 100K in mowing contracts with about 20 customers for 15 years.
Not one of them is charged by the hour or the acre.
When I was inexperienced, I mowed by the hour. The reason I stopped doing that very early on in my career is because theres so many differences from field to field.

I know what I’m doing.