Discing and leveling 2 acres

Grant1 · Sep 10, 2005

Ive been aked to quote a price for discing and leveling 2 acres. This is an old pasture that has overgrown with dog finnels and weeds. Im going to bush hog mow it first. I gave them a price of 150.00 for the mowing and they said that was what the previous tractor operators had charged. The problem is I dont know what to charge for the discing and leveling as I very little experience with those processes. I also will have to buy a set of disc harrows. What should I expect to pay for them, what size can I pull with a Kioti CK30 gear and what will I need to level the area. If they want it seeded what would that entail. Thanks in advance for all the help.

beenthere · Sep 10, 2005

For sure, IMO, come up with an hourly charge for your time and equipment. Discing to 'level' may be one thing in your mind, and not enough in the 'receivers' mind. If say you quote $150 for the leveling, and after you think you are finished, they say no way, hose', it ain't 'level' yet.
If you have an hourly fee, then they will be able to decide if they want more, or stop with less leveling.

I'd set it at $50 and hour with a $150 minimum, and go from there.
But it is up to how you feel about it, that is for sure.

RonR · Sep 10, 2005

I learned a lot about pricing my first job or two.

1. I bid a job to spread some dirt and level a new house yard for seeding. I thought: Hummmm, $80 should cover it. WRONG. Double would have been closer.

2. Second job was similar. Bid a job to knock down the weeds, grade a slope behind a house, and plant some fescue. Ground was wet, so after I mowed and ripped it with the scarifiers, made two more trips to grade and till it for planting. Double that job would have been closer. R U seeing a pattern developing here?

And both customers were thrilled with my bid! So next job I'll cipher out what I think, then I'll double it or triple it and should do ok.

Agree that figuring out when you are done is significant. If its 10 extra minutes or 30, its no big deal. If its add another three dump trucks loads of dirt, that's significant. One job I did, I bid the price of 8 yds of topsoil, to be spread and leveled, for a fixed price. Did ok on that one. Had they said "we need more dirt", that opens the talks for renogotiation.......

Best wishes,
ron

DannyD · Sep 10, 2005

If it is overgrown quite a bit, then you probably made their day with your intial work cost. Think about how long it took to get back in that shape. If someone did this even 4 years ago, you have done it for less than they did, since costs have went up.

For the rare occasion I do charge someone (if I have to trailer the tractor) I get 65.00 an hour.

Slamfire · Sep 10, 2005

Lets see now first you'll have to price the available harrows, figure their depreciation, the cost of insurance, the wear and tear on the tractor, fuel, and maybe add a little for yourself. I'm not qualified to tell you every thing you'll need to know to run a business, but around here it varies on the size of the tractor. The bigger ones charge more. Oh year they usually have a minimum also. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Highbeam · Sep 12, 2005

Do the whole job hourly with a minimum. They shouldn't have to pay to buy your equipment but pay an hourly rate that they are happy with.

I did a job over the weekend and discovered that I should have charged about half again as much. Plenty of time to do math when on a 6 acre brush hog job, lots of big circles.

If you can figure your hourly rate then the rest is just a guess at how long it will take. Commit to the hourly rate only.