# BOOM job opportunity for bush hogging what do you charge?



## JD3430

Don't have it yet, but it looks good. Got a call from local hoa from a big established communityi've been bugging for about 3 years. It was once a great farm. They have about 30-40 acres of open meadows and pastures left. Probably too far gone for hay. 
Looks like with a fair bid, it's mine for the taking.

Do any of you bush hog for contract (not on your farm, but for money)?
If so, what do you get per hour? 
My goal is $75 hr on my 8' and $90 hr on my 15' .
Mind me asking what/how you charge? Acre, hour, entire job, etc.?


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## slowzuki

I do some bushhogging with my little 50 hp Kubota, works out to about 50-60$/hr on a 5 ft mower.


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## whitmerlegacyfarm

That be some nice acreage to turn into Hay lol. I'm working up the courage to go out and talk to a neighbor with big farm that he leases out to dairy farm. Probably close to 10ac there, hoping i can pick that up, i think i can get a some decent grass hay out of it that i can sell for cow hay or to horse people that are to cheap lol. Heck i'd feed it to my horses, good luck with the contract for bush hoggin.

I have a buddy that picked up 30ac bush hoggin i think they offered him $3k to mow it. It's supposedly decent grass to, my wheels were spinning until i found out it's 35 mins away. I'm thinking they pay you 3k to mow it, if we baled and and got a ton and half to the acre at 3.50 a bale we are looking a almost 7k in hay plus the 3k just for cutting property, but im not hauling everything that far.


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## JD3430

Seems like an obvious question.....but bigger HP = more $$ per hour, so what's a 15' batwing worth per hour?


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## Teslan

I think you should figure out a good value per acre based on what you think your time would be worth plus the speed you could complete the job and also considering what your machinery costs to run and own. If you can get it done faster with a 15' foot then you will get more per hour. If you decided to tackle it with a 5 foot brush hog well your per hour would be down. If I was to hire someone to custom cut my fields I wouldn't want to pay per hour. What if they have a 15 foot sickle swather, but I could pay the same for someone with a rotary 15 foot swather and it would be done sooner. For a 30 acre field if I wouldn't have to go to far I would charge $15 an acre. For an 80 acre field maybe $12.50 an acre. For 160 acre field $10. I have been asked to cut a 7 acre field of grass before and thankfully the guy found someone closer. I would have had 2 hours of driving time with the swather round trip while it would take about 30 minutes to cut the field.


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## JD3430

Good points you make, thanks. I guess if I charge by the acre, I could pretty easily cut 4 acres in an hour. I once saw a formula someone did that calculated what an 8' mower would cut at x mph. I've been bush hogging fields for years and I'm embarrassed to say I never really tracked how much I could cut in an hour! 
I have access to a 15' batwing that could probably cut 2x fast. If I price it at 15/acre, that probably sounds a lot more "gentle" to the customer than $80/ HOUR. 
I always found it tough to explain to someone " I can cut 4 acres in an hour". Then they hope you cut as fast as you can.


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## Teslan

JD3430 said:


> Good points you make, thanks. I guess if I charge by the acre, I could pretty easily cut 4 acres in an hour. I once saw a formula someone did that calculated what an 8' mower would cut at x mph. I've been bush hogging fields for years and I'm embarrassed to say I never really tracked how much I could cut in an hour!
> I have access to a 15' batwing that could probably cut 2x fast. If I price it at 15/acre, that probably sounds a lot more "gentle" to the customer than $80/ HOUR.
> I always found it tough to explain to someone " I can cut 4 acres in an hour". Then they hope you cut as fast as you can.


 Also what if something breaks. We used to hire a guy to do all sorts of custom work. Such as combining, plowing, 4x4x8 baling. It was expected that he would show up and spend the first 3 hours or so changing oil and making sure the machine would start. Then another 1-2 hours fixing whatever broke. And it always would since he was always buying the most used and cheap equipment he could find. So we always would tell him to come a day before the work really needed done. He always charged per bale, acre, or whatever. If he charged per hour I know the bill would have been way more.


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## JD3430

whitmerlegacyfarm said:


> That be some nice acreage to turn into Hay lol. I'm working up the courage to go out and talk to a neighbor with big farm that he leases out to dairy farm. Probably close to 10ac there, hoping i can pick that up, i think i can get a some decent grass hay out of it that i can sell for cow hay or to horse people that are to cheap lol. Heck i'd feed it to my horses......


I actually mentioned that to her today. I also mentioned that to put it in hay, it would require some noxious weed control. I knew I was in trouble when she said "some residents wouldn't go for that" . I knew right there I was talking to someone with no experience in these matters. PA has laws regulating the control of weeds and she thought hay was "whatever grew up out of the ground". Lol. 
Probably better off not trying.....might pay better to bush hog it....


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## urednecku

I cut about 5 acres for a friend a couple times a year, & I've been getting $150. Takes me about 3 hours. I only have a 6' bushog. I've been trying to find an 8 to 10 footer, & would probably charge the same. It would take less time, but use more fuel per hour. With the fuel going up like it is now, I'd go to at least $60/hr (using my M7040) Figure out how long it would take to cut an acre & go from there. Keeping in mind the rougher the ground and the more trees, etc. to mow around will slow ya down.

Good luck!


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## whitmerlegacyfarm

JD3430 said:


> I actually mentioned that to her today. I also mentioned that to put it in hay, it would require some noxious weed control. I knew I was in trouble when she said "some residents wouldn't go for that" . I knew right there I was talking to someone with no experience in these matters. PA has laws regulating the control of weeds and she thought hay was "whatever grew up out of the ground". Lol.
> Probably better off not trying.....might pay better to bush hog it....


Maybe try the pitch how much nicer the meadow would look with just a nice green grass. How spraying the weeds/broadleafs will keep it from getting overtakin by briars lol. Just a thought lol. Who knows maybe cutting it enough will thin the weeds out, but you got good experience with that you've been bring other fields up to par right?


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## ANewman

U of KY Custom labor rates say $15/ac is avg. I can see more potential downside for pricing by the acre, especially on ground I haven't been across before. It may look smooth, but looks can be deceiving... what if you can only run 3mph to keep from jarring your teeth loose?

$15/ac X 30ac= $450

If you think you can cover 4ac/hr it would take 7.5hrs to cover 30ac.

7.5hrs X $60/hr= $450

Same money. The main factor is time and what its worth


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## JD3430

I do one hoa property that's only 2 acres. Takes me 45 min. I charge $150. Takes 10 min to drive tractor there and and 10 to drive back. Easy quick money. Have another that's 9 acres and a little bit of lawn and weedwacking. Takes all day. I charge $700. I have others priced similarly. Average looks like about $75-80/ hour. 
I also need to make sure I get the number of cuts per year and factor that in. One cut per year is a slow, tough cut compared to two per year.


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## FCF

JD3430 said:


> Good points you make, thanks. I guess if I charge by the acre, I could pretty easily cut 4 acres in an hour. I once saw a formula someone did that calculated what an 8' mower would cut at x mph. I've been bush hogging fields for years and I'm embarrassed to say I never really tracked how much I could cut in an hour!
> I have access to a 15' batwing that could probably cut 2x fast. If I price it at 15/acre, that probably sounds a lot more "gentle" to the customer than $80/ HOUR.
> I always found it tough to explain to someone " I can cut 4 acres in an hour". Then they hope you cut as fast as you can.


General rule of thumb for acreage covered: Working width in feet X MPH = acres covered in a 10 hour day. This allows for about a 10% loss for non productive time.

HTH


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## rjmoses

FCF said:


> General rule of thumb for acreage covered: Working width in feet X MPH = acres covered in a 10 hour day. This allows for about a 10% loss for non productive time.
> 
> HTH


I had never thought of it this way, so I got out my digital slide rule and did the exact calculations and this approximation. This approximation came up just a little short, i.e., a little more than 10% down time. But it's a quick approximation, errors to the conservative side, and a lot easier to carry than my slide rule.

Thanks

Ralph


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## JD3430

So if a 15' batwing at 3MPH = 45 acres in a 10 hr day?
8' bush hog at 3MPH = 24 acres in a 10 hr day?


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## FCF

JD3430 said:


> So if a 15' batwing at 3MPH = 45 acres in a 10 hr day?
> 8' bush hog at 3MPH = 24 acres in a 10 hr day?


Correct! The 10% down time allows for turns, pee breaks, lunch, etc.


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## slowzuki

Something gets off in the smaller sizes due to the overlap, I bushhogged with a 5 ft'er at 4 mph, so 20 acres in a 10 hour day? Didn't happen, took over 14 hours. Took 8 hours to do 10 acres at 2-3ish mph (really rough).


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## FarmerCline

There's something about a 5 foot bush hog that seems to take forever to get done but if you go up to a 6 foot cut it does not seem to take half as long.


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## FCF

slowzuki said:


> Something gets off in the smaller sizes due to the overlap, I bushhogged with a 5 ft'er at 4 mph, so 20 acres in a 10 hour day? Didn't happen, took over 14 hours. Took 8 hours to do 10 acres at 2-3ish mph (really rough).


The key word you used is OVERLAP. The formula is WORKING WIDTH not machine width. If you overlap by a foot on a 5 foot machine your working width is 4 feet. At smaller machine widths overlap is a HUGE factor, bringing down the working width. For example with the 5 foot machine and a 1 foot overlap you have decreased the working width by 20% of machine width. Don't think the reduction in width in this example increases the time to do the job by 20%. In fact it increases the time by 25%.

Hope this allows you to better understand how to use the formula and gives you some things to think about when bidding or doing your own work.


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## JD3430

That makes a LOT of sense. Realistically, My 8' bush hog is really only gonna cut 6-6.5' per pass. I always overlap 8" to 1' on each pass. 6'x3mph is 18 acres per 10hr day. Thats probably the most I could see myself cutting in a 10 hr day.


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## deadmoose

Why not estimate both ways? Let them choose.

Time and materials or bid amount?


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## JD3430

LOL I actually thought this was a different thread. Still am in the running for this job!!! 
Man I need to get more sleep!!!!!


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