What would you charge....?

[yoyo]

The county I live in has a communication tower located next to my property. They put out a bid for mowing the site which is 15 acreas. The only thing out there is the tower which is fenced in and the guy wires also fenced in. Bush hogging is ok, and the fenced areas can be mowed or sprayed with roundup. They want it mowed four times , once each for June, July, August and Sept. I put in a bid for $1600. My thinking is that I would be getting a few tractor payments for my new Kioti 25 that I had just ordered with a 5 foot bush hog. I didn't get the bid and haven't found out yet what they are paying the guy won won the bid.Not figuring any transportation cost, what would you bid?

 

[shvl73]

If that's $1600 for the season, I wouldn't do it for that even.
$400 to mow 15 acres with your equipment, your fuel, your supplies (RoundUp), no way. Think how many hours you would have into it each time, divide the $400 by that & I think it's a little low for a person & equipment & supplies.

 

[gotrocks]

If it was next door to me I probably would have ask permission to cut some or all of it to get an idea of time involved.

Then with my b-2910 & 5 ft cutter.... bid around $25.00 per hour.

In our area, if it was an advertized bid the winning bid should be published in the local paper or you should be given that info. Unless someone has a cousin or uncle involved in the politics of the county. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
That does happen, sorry to say.

If the job is not done on schedule then I'd got to my county commission meeting and make sure the local news media was there and present my "case" with pictures.

If you can't tell I really don't have a lot of confidience in ALL elected or appointed "officials". Tried to be a good citizen several years ago and GAVE the city a right-of-way across my land with a verbal agreement as to how it would be maintained etc. They got the elevator and I got the shaft.

 

[Bird]

I'm sure prices vary considerably in different parts of the country, but in my area, I'd almost bet that someone bid no more than $1,000. But as has already been said, the bids should be public record that anyone could ask for and see.

 

[BillyP]

If it's easy mowing/hogging, I'd say $1,200 a year (or less). You should be able to do the 15 acres in 8 hours. That would translate to $37.50 an hour. $17.50 per hour for you and $20 an hour for the tractor and cutter.

Even $1,200 sounds a little steep, for my area anyway.

 

[Gatorboy]

I suspect the winner got it for about $750.

MAX 2.5 hours with a 15' flexwing mower at $75/hour = $187.50 times 4 cuts = $750

Let us know what the winning bid was.

 

[AndyMA]

The lowest I'll go with my Ford 2120 and any attachment is $50/hour. I usually try for $65. Any less and you won't even cover wear and tear and maintaince on your tractor.

Andy

 

[shvl73]

From the post's it seems the cost of living in different regions will affect the price of labor. Around here someone with a tractor enough to run a 15' mower would have a good laugh at the idea of hauling it anywhere, 4 times a year & then working it for $750.00 total. $1600.00 would probably not entice them either.

 

[sweettractors]

<font color="blue"> The county I live in has a communication tower located next to my property. </font>

I just recently was informed the the landowners in Ky get about 10K annually for the lease for the land in this situation. I would not be surprised that there is also a swweetheart deal going on with the landowner on the mowing? If so, You probably wont get the bid at any price? Of course, If it is a public utility and not privately held, the records and bids should be open for everyone to see.--Ken Sweet

SWeet Farm Equipment LLC *Just Added a Line of Livestock,Gates,Waterers,Feeders,Headgates*

 

[MarkV]

It was not mentioned so I was wondering if the bid required the contractor to have insurance? It would here to work on any government contract service. The contractor bangs up their fence gate, it cost half of the years take, they say screw it and the city is stuck with the bill. If you added in the cost of commercial insurance I could not come close to being competitive without much larger equipment and a steady stream of work.

It would be nice to come up with a little extra money if it was next door and a flexable schedule though.

MarkV

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Ken Sweet is probably on target. I have a 260' lattice tower on the rear of my warehouse property. It occupies a 50' by 50' piece of land, the cell tower is owned and built by the tenents who rent the land from me, they also deal with the property taxes on that 50'x50'. My rental income on that little patch of land is in excess of $10,000 per year, and the lease scales up the rent every few years.

If I would have built the tower and leased transmission space at various heights on my tower, then the rent would have be CONSIDERABLY higher to an exponential magnitude. However, my investment would have gone from $0.00 on an unused piece of land up to something well into the 6-figures.

I wonder if the utility company owns the cellular tower, of if they own the property the tower is sitting on?

 

[yoyo]

I haven't found out the winning bid yet, But I will. I did see the guy who won the bid has a MF 175 with a 7 ' bush hog. He started one day ( not sure what time he started), and finished it on the next day. I was told there were about 10 bids received. Reading another thread, I noticed the average price people are charging is around $45/hr. I think that we are in the same "economically challenged" boat as the fellow from Texas( Bird?). My wife says I bid way too much and she laughed at me. I don't think I was out of line with the bid of $1600, as It would take alot of seat time to mow this place with a 5' bush hog.I actually had the feeling of being too cheap after I thought about wearing out my new tractor on someone else's property. The average price regular grass cutting services charge is $35/hr. Can you Imagine cutting 15 acreas with a murray? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue">Around here someone with a tractor enough to run a 15' mower would have a good laugh at the idea of hauling it anywhere, 4 times a year & then working it for $750.00 total. </font>

If a local guy is bidding on it, they would just drive the tractor to the job.

 

[Phred]

If it was next door I would do it for free.....

Well not exactly, but it would be free to them. I would cut it bale it and sell the hay.

It would be easy since I would just cut it when I cut mine and bale it when I bale mine etc... Only cost to me is a little diesel and my time and I can make that up and some extra on the hay.

Fred

 

[MossRoad]

<font color="blue"> If a local guy is bidding on it, they would just drive the tractor to the job. </font>

And they would probably line up their jobs so that they could make the rounds and hit them in some kind of order so that they would minimize travel miles. That's called operating a business efficiently. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Ledgemere Farm]

Uh, he has a 5' mower. 1600 dollars is a considerable sum for bush hogging 15 acres four times...

 

[viking]

15 dollars per acre is common around here, 15 bucks times 15 acres =225 by four times =1000. I would be surprised if it went lower than that, but everything varies by region.