Price per acre - bush hogging

[QwikDraw]

Looking for a ball park number per acre for tall field growth, no shrubby stuff just weeds and such. I will be using an ASV RC100 and 72" or 78" rotary mower, up here in the New England area.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[LoneCowboy]

not enough.

how many acres?
what's the land look like?
how far away from your shop?

 

[Renovator]

I charge $80/hr with a 7 foot brush hog. I can do about 2 acres / hr. If ther is alot of brush or extemely tall 1 to1.5 acres/hr. Shorter smooth feilds 2.5 acres/hr. I usually charge $80 to $90/hr travel time.
Renovator.

 

[QwikDraw]

Wow, that's lower then I thought. This is ony a 3 acres field that gets mowed every other year. I was thinking $350-$400

A 72" rotary mower, like a Bradco will be in the 4K range.....I'd have to do alot of cuttiing to pay for that @ $80 an hour, I be using $15 an hour in fuel. Maybe It would be better to leave the bush hogging to the tractor guys.....

Thanks for the help.

 

[madpogue]

Unfortunately, we didn't have our tractor when the field needed its first mowing. Our neighbor woulda done it for $30-35 an acre, but we couldn't reach him. We ended up calling the prairie restoration company we've been consulting, and they charged us $50 / acre. Another local guy uses a 6' King Kutter, and charges $50 / hr, which, in this topography, works out to about $25-35 / acre. (1.5 - 2.0 acres / hr). He says he just resells the KK every two years and buys a new one (he works at a retailer, so prob'ly gets a discount).

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Small jobs (under 10 acres) and all bets are off. It's more a matter of what the individual job is worth. 10 acres and above, around this part of the country, and you'll get roughly $20 to $25 an acre, mowing grass, tall weeds and such, depending on conditions. Some jobs pay more, some less. But that covers the "average". Travel time has to be figured in, as well as risk involved. (Are there houses close? Roads? Ect.)

Heavy growth brush and trees isn't priced per acre around here for the most part. It's mostly hourly. Charges from $80 to $500 hr depending on type of equipment. Skid steer w/mulcher gets about $150 hr. on average.

 

[DCS]

How much are others in your area getting? I try to get around $40 an hour here. I can mow about an acre an hour with a 5' mower.

 

[lawn_king]

We charge around $150. per acre here in S.E. massachusetts.

 

[heymack]

Most charge $40-50 per acre down here in South Texas for relatively clean fields.

 

[Slacker]

I charge $65 per MACHINE HOUR when I mow. I'm not trying to make a fortune, but i always come away with some extra spending cash. I like the machine hr method because it allows me to take lots of breaks...the customer likes it because he isn't paying me to swap shear bolts or walk an area looking for stumps and rocks. I'm using either a 5 or 6 foot Howse RC, depending on the terrain. Smaller one works better for cutting thick stuff. The larger one does the weeds and tall grass.

 

[Timber]

Wow, some of you guys like to work for free.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Wow, some of you guys like to work for free.

+1

 

[john_bud]

Sounds like "lawnking" is a business man.

The others that have lower rates sound like it's more of a side deal for a little folding money.

jb

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Sounds like "lawnking" is a business man.

The others that have lower rates sound like it's more of a side deal for a little folding money.

jb

You have to look at the entire equasion. Charge $150 per acre here and you do exactly $0000.00 business per year. You'd get laughted straight out of town. Look at cost of living where Lawn King is at. Compare that to here in rural Kentucky. Consider the type of work we're talking about. I don't do small acreage. Other than a couple I do as favors, nothing I'm currently contracting is under 20 acres. Several jobs are well over 100 acres. Per acre rates on a 1 acre job isn't aplicable to 100 acres.

I'm charging at the TOP END of the going rate in these parts, and making VERY good money at it currently. My "side deal" currently employs 5 people full time, pays me a weekly salary of nearly double what I expected in year one, and in addition, has paid for one new Deere 6430/15' batwing in 4 months.

A "businessman" finds a way to succeed in his market.

 

[Dougster]

Looking for a ball park number per acre for tall field growth, no shrubby stuff just weeds and such. I will be using an ASV RC100 and 72" or 78" rotary mower, up here in the New England area.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Any mowing or bush-hogging that needs to be done with an RC-100 and a Bradco needs to be charged by the hour. I say $75.00 an hour minimum.

Dougster

 

[LoneCowboy]

I didn't catch that you were doing it with a SS and a bradco front mower
The cheapest thing by far is to hire it out.
Teh guy behind me did his own (hes' got a Bobcat business)
it took him 7 hours over 2 days and goodness knows how much fuel. and it was HOT this weekend.
It would have taken me 2. (i've done it before, it's a rental house)
and i would have given him a smoking deal (same as last year) since i don't have to trailer up.

 

[john_bud]

You have to look at the entire equasion. Charge $150 per acre here and you do exactly $0000.00 business per year. You'd get laughted straight out of town. Look at cost of living where Lawn King is at. Compare that to here in rural Kentucky. Consider the type of work we're talking about. I don't do small acreage. Other than a couple I do as favors, nothing I'm currently contracting is under 20 acres. Several jobs are well over 100 acres. Per acre rates on a 1 acre job isn't aplicable to 100 acres.

I'm charging at the TOP END of the going rate in these parts, and making VERY good money at it currently. My "side deal" currently employs 5 people full time, pays me a weekly salary of nearly double what I expected in year one, and in addition, has paid for one new Deere 6430/15' batwing in 4 months.

A "businessman" finds a way to succeed in his market.

Sorry to have pushed a button. Didn't mean to demean anyone for pricing strategy.....

jb

 

[the6shooter]

$40.00 per hr. 2 hr min. here in oklahoma. I charge by the hr. I have been to some places that, 5 arces that take 4 hrs. and some real rough stuff 5,6,7. hrs to do. mow 1, move on to the next. I have a full time job, but still make an extra $1000.00 a week. pays for the tractor, and clears my head. no srink needed here.
david

 

[horse7]

A few years ago a neighbor quoted 75/hr (on the books, insured, workmans comp) but that was before fuel went way up. Local hobbyists tended to be 1/2 to 2/3 of that, cash, back then. But those cash and carries have exposures if there's an accident (those things circling above are not hawks, but trial lawyers).

Unless there's something special with the job, it seems like an RC100 with a mower isn't the right tool for a regular bush hogging job. Friend has an ASV 4810 with hydraulic PTO but he uses a JD4020 for bushhogging (he has 500 acres variable terrain nearby). I almost bought a 4810 with PTO.... but decided it wouldn't work out.

 

[JeremyL]

It has been a while since anyone has asked about current bush hogging pricing. The new growing season is upon us and I am starting to get calls for "How much to..."

What are others charging for bush hog jobs? I know, a lot depends on location, terrain, obstacles, etc., but what do you charge for a plain vanilla job (say 10 acres of flat land with no obstructions, 15 miles from your prking place)?

- Jeremy in Kentucky