Hourly Rates - $9/ft of Cut Width ?

[rbargeron]

I've been wondering recently about what hourly rate is right for tractor mowing work. Many of us cut our neighbors' open land. It's a little tricky finding a fair value - but it's good to establish one so everyone feels right.

For mowing fields, the condition of the field is a big factor. Maintenance of a regularly-cut somewhat flat area is easier than one that is hilly or rocky or has started to return to woods. The condition factor tends to level out because a reclamation job takes more hours than a clean mowing does. Another factor is the equipment size and power. A 50 hp tractor cutting 6 or 7 feet at a time costs more to operate and maintain - but gets more done per hour than 25 hp cutting 4 or 5 feet.

I'm thinking it might be reasonable to ask $9 per hour, per foot of cutting width. An hourly rate that's also keyed to cutting width would tend to establish a uniform mowing cost for each land parcel, whether larger or smaller equipment is used. The easier parcels would take less time so the inequities of a flat per-acre rate would be avoided. Time would be measured by the tractor's hour meter.

I'd appreciate thoughts or experience anyone may have.

Thanks, Dick Bargeron

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Would it be reasonable to ask $9 per hour, per foot of cutting width?</font color=blue>

I wish! It may be reasonable, but there's no way you ever get it in my area. $5 a foot would be max and very, very little work at that.

Bird

 

[rbargeron]

Hi Bird - wow, I didn't know things were like that in Texas. Here in Mass the rates vary a lot - the higher ones being charged by the lawn-maintenance outfits with the fancy joystick mowers. But one regular tractor guy in the next town has a 1955 Allis-Chalmers with a 5' JD rotary. He charges $40/hour and gets a lot of work.

 

[Gatorboy]

$9 per foot/ hour! Boy, I could really be rolling in dough with my 15' batwing -- that's $135/hour. If I could get 40 hours a week in at that rate I could bring in $270,000+ a year!

Seriously, if someone asked me to mow their fields, I'd charge $60-65/hour mowing time, and some charge (i.e. $25/hr) for transportation to/from the site. I can mow about 5-6 acres an hour on a maintained pasture, but it would take me double the time if I had to cut 4-5 foot tall stuff.



Regards,
Dave "Gatorboy" Hoffmann
Fallston, Maryland

 

[Bird]

If you were in, or near, the big cities, prices are pretty high. A fellow told me awhile back about paying $75 to have an acre and a half vacant lot mowed with a brush hog in Ft. Worth. But out here in the country, all the farmers have tractors, some of the small landowners have little tractors and some very old tractors, no one has much money, etc. The only mowing job I've done for pay this year I charged $25 an hour using a 5' brush hog, and I'd love to have more work like that, but it just isn't available when there's a few folks around with old, ragged equipment who will do it for half that or less.

Bird

 

[MChalkley]

That's the problem around here, too. I think I once mentioned the experience I had of being offered new home fine grading jobs for a certain price, then having the construction try to cut it by almost half because it was taking me 1 day instead of the 3 days the other guy they'd been using had. The thing was, he was using a old piece of a Ferguson, and doing a lousy job. They raved about the work I was doing until they found out it only took me one third the time, then they couldn't sleep at night because it worked out to three times the hourly rate. I told him I should be getting more because I could do it faster, as he'd soon realize the next time it rained on the other guy before he got the job completed. As they say, the biggest difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits...

Bushhogging isn't quite the same thing, generally, but I refuse to quote other kinds of work by the hour unless I've done work for the person before and he understands what he's bargaining for. Of course, now that I'm getting a different kind of tractor, that means I have to go back to by-the-job quotes for everybody for a while.

MarkC

 

[Bird]

I understand that completely, Mark. Those things happen. I know one guy in this area who has about a 150hp 4WD John Deere and his business card says "Custom Farming" and he charges $100 an hour from the time he leaves home. I don't know how much work he gets, but a neighbor had hired him once to come pull a stuck tractor out of the mud. And I hired him to move a little mobile home about 50' and move a couple of buckets of dirt with his front end loader when I first bought this place.

I also checked with the local rental place and they rent a little John Deere with a 5' brush hog for $170 a day (8 hours on the meter), plus fuel, plus $10 a day if you need their trailer to haul it on. And I don't think they have it rented out much of the time; not many people around here willing to pay that much.

I also know the best dozer operator in the area (actually 2 brothers with one other employee), and they stay so busy that you usually have to wait a month or more to get them on a job, but when they do get there, they go at the job fast, take no breaks, and do great work, whether it's digging a new stock tank (pond), building terraces, or clearing trees and brush. I just marvel at the work they can do, and they only charge $60 an hour, with a minimum of $250.

Bird

 

[MChalkley]

Bird - 60 bucks an hour for a dozer and 3 people??? I'll bet they are busy. I don't know how they can survive off that.

MarkC

 

[john4nh]

Hi,
Iam down here in Houston well about 30 miles to the east. Everyone around here charges between 65 and 75 dollars an hour will get you a farm tractor or small to medium size dozer with operator. I just landed a contract with a commerical landscaper who doing a couple of new dealerships etc. I think he had something like 500k worth of work on the books.. I let him talk me down to $55 an hour. I was willing to go less but was definitely glad settle there. Ill be doing all the finish grading for his landscaping, cutting drainage, and according to him augering hundreds of holes for trees. Of course you got insurance, which for 1m a year is $750. For mowing Ive got a couple of lots I get $125 for which I felt like it was kinda high at first because I can finish in an hour or little less. But then I factor in getting everything road ready Iam back down to about $55 an hour.. Going off your 9$an foot Iam getting that(give or take) Also on Hourly work most folks including myself do a min. of four. I actually talked this guy into a min. of 6hrs, because all his work will require me to drive a min. 20 miles one way.. Good luck to you...

 

[Bird]

Mark, I may not have made that very clear./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif There are 3 people, but the $60/hr. is one of them and one piece of equipment. They have two big dozers (I've forgotten the models), a lowboy tractor/trailer rig for hauling them, and two or three other farm type tractors and backhoes. But I've only personally watched them on jobs with the dozers.

When the 27 acres next door sold, the new owner wanted all the cedar trees removed in the yard, and all the trees removed from the pasture, except the pecan trees, and a new stock tank dug, plus he wanted two more big stock tanks dug on adjoining land he owned. The two brothers arrived in the truck, one got on the dozer, drove it off the truck and without stopping, went right to work while the other guy left in the truck. In a little while, he came back with the other dozer, got on it and did the same thing, straight off the truck and went to work. They did the whole job in two days and I never saw them shut off the engine on a dozer or take a coffee break even, except for when they shut them down in the evening. Their one employee showed up by himself at my brother's place, and put in a steady 10 hours; sure moved a lot of dirt for $600.

Of course, I do know that besides these "little" jobs they do around here, they do a lot of work for big construction companies, so I don't know what they get paid on those jobs.

Bird