bush-hogging rates?

I've got to go see a couple of fields tomorrow to give a price on bush hogging for someone. They said that it is 30-35 acres of a hay field that was last cut 2 years ago. I have never been the kind of person good at giving pricing so I was wondering if I can get some ideas on some going rates. Price per acre I guess is what I'm looking for.  

If it hasn't been mowed for 2 years I'd price it by the hour.....you never know how tough it will be to cut.  I generally get in the range of 30-35 per acre with my 175D and JD MX8 mower (hourly rate of 75)...but can get down as low as $20 an acre on a big field that cuts easy....yesterday it took almost 4 hours to cut 3 acres, but that field was full of hidden stumps, rocks, piles of horse manure and 6' tall weeds. I charge $50 an hour for my 170D and 6' mower, so I would think your rate would be around $40 an hour with a 5 footer...maybe less since you might not have anything better to do :(

Brian I agree. Around here most want to charge $50 an acre to pay for their little 'botas and 5 ft mowers....

Here is a link to Custom Rate/MO 2009

Edited by JoeO(CMO) - 05 Oct 2010 at 10:22pm

Jamie, I agree with Burgie. If possible,an hourly rate is fairest. I use my D-14 with a 5' bush hog but don't do a large enough field to compare what you will be doing. $35/hr gives you gas money, a little for wear and tear as well as an hourly wage. If you do $20/acre and it is slow going, you might be giving your time away. Just my $0.02 worth
Bob@allisdowneast

I think the only way someone would only charge $15/acre is if they were using an 18' batwing mower.  I'd go for $35-$40/hour using a 5' mower.  

I'm not sure the charge per acre should be any different whether its an 18' "batwing" or any of the smaller brush hogs when one considers the investment cost of the equipment.

Whenever I'm doing work with whatever equipment I have for someone I figure I've got to have a minimum of 50.00 an hour. Something had to buy the equip. and somethings got to fix it when it breaks. And thats still dirt cheap. If you do accasional work for people like I do, you could rack up a pretty hefty repair bill on a 100.00 job and not see enough work to pay for it for years to come. The only way it works out is if nothing goes wrong. Also distance to the job may effect pricing. Very far away I would charge a min say 5 acre charge so you can recover time and gas to get there and back.

My neighbor operates a company that clears right of ways for the power company. He charges 250/hr. If not he couldn't afford to buy new teeth for the chopper that are wearing done every second its on the job. And when it breaks (and it does) it cost thousands, never just a few hundred to fix.

So when somebody asks why you charge so much, ask them whos going to buy me that new 500.00 tire and tube when I run over something in the field that tears it up.

 I figure labor rate is minimum of $20.00 a hour for operator. So cost of equipment is next. If you can run your equipment for $10.00 a hour ? then charge $30. I figure my tractor is worth $35.00 a hour plus travel time. So looking at $55.00 minimum per hour.

Edited by Coke-in-MN - 06 Oct 2010 at 6:32pm

For a newer tractor it costs me about $.18 per pto hp per hour give or take if I rent a tractor, so these 200 hp tractor is around $35 an hour,  the 120-150 pto hp tractors run about $25 an hour.  I'll rent one in a pinch if we are short on the baleing or combine crews, the one I have now I'll buy a twin to it from the dealer and then they wipe the rent off.  When I go to trade one of the tractors it costs me roughly 40% of the rental rate per hour to trade tractor for tractor and then I can factor in the old tires vs the new tires on the new one and my costs per hour go down.

Put that in perspectiv for a 40 year old allis with 40 pto hp.

Thanks guys. I haven't looked at the land yet. It's very dry here so I'm going to wait until it rains before I even do it. We've had a couple of farmers loose tractors and combines due to machinery setting fire to bean fields and stuff. It just ain't worth sparking on a rock and burning down the field, tractor, bushhog, neighbors farm, etc...

I've never bush hogged a large enough field to know how long it takes per hour. This is actually the first bigger job that I may be doing. I've never done it for money before because it was just my place that was being cut. I have 3 1/4 acres and the majority of it is mowed with the ZTR mower.