# 15' Batwing hourly rates



## JD3430

I'm in the process of rebidding all my contracts for field mowing 2016. I don't have a lot of fellow farmers who also bush hog to compare rates with. There's no "field mowing" forum, so this was the one I picked to ask the question:

What do you charge per hour to run a *15' batwing *over fields?

I'm not talking heavy brush here where you go slow-just fields resembling overgrown hayfields.

I currently shoot for $85/HR under 25-30 acres. Higher acreage would be a lower hourly rate(quantity discount), but honestly, I usually dont do more than 30 acres at once anyway. If its heavy brush & saplings, I charge by the job.


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## PaMike

Check out the Penn State Rates

http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Pennsylvania/Publications/Machinery_Custom_Rates/CustomRates%202014.pdf

Looks like $20-$30/acre would be in the ballpark, or as high as $50/acre..


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## somedevildawg

I'd keep shooting for $85........ifn it was me


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## JD3430

Makes sense at $20/acre. I go kinda slow. At $85/hr, that's a little over 4 acres/hr.


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## Vol

PaMike said:


> Check out the Penn State Rates
> 
> http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Pennsylvania/Publications/Machinery_Custom_Rates/CustomRates%202014.pdf
> 
> Looks like $20-$30/acre would be in the ballpark, or as high as $50/acre..


That would be most logical and beneficial.....to charge by the acre.

Regards, Mike


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## glasswrongsize

How fast do you mow?

3(mph) x 5280 x 15'/43560=5.42 acres per hour. Even at $20 per acre, you're at about $108.47 per acre.

...that's IF you speed IS 3mph and never turning or having down time.

73, Mark


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## JD3430

glasswrongsize said:


> How fast do you mow?
> 
> 3(mph) x 5280 x 15'/43560=5.42 acres per hour. Even at $20 per acre, you're at about $108.47 per acre.
> 
> ...that's IF you speed IS 3mph and never turning or having down time.
> 
> 73, Mark


I'd guess on average in the 3-4 MPH range. I'm not mowing "kansas" type fields. Fields I mow are hilly, trees, turns, backing up, retention ponds, embankments, etc.

4-5 acres per hour is probably the best I can do figuring all that plus pee breaks, etc.

I actually would like to charge $100/hr, but you've got some guys out there who will do it for $50/hr and that's always a consideration.


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## glasswrongsize

JD3430 said:


> I actually would like to charge $100/hr, but you've got some guys out there who will do it for $50/hr and that's always a consideration.


I don't know your figures, but I don't see how I could compete with 50 per hour competition. Figuring the cost/depreciation per hour of the tractor and equipment, fuel, your wage, etc... It might, you'll just have to sharpen your pencil...down to EVERYTHING. For example, if you change engine oil every hundred hours, then every hour costs a 1/100 of the the cost of the oil change, same for hydraulics, tires, blade sharpening, etc...

I tried to figure every little thing for hay...made my head hurt!!

73, Mark


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## PaMike

If I could find someone dependable and good to bushhog my fields at $20/acre I would gladly pay that at certain times of the year to reduce my workload.


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## Greasy30

Here the average rate is $50 an acre or anywhere from $50-$85 per hour.

The few accounts I have I charge $50 an acre plus fuel. They are horse people so they want it mowed 2-3 times a month.

I run an 8ft mower (looking for a batwing) and all my accounts are 50 acres or less, with most averaging 10 acres.


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## JD3430

So you get $500 to mow 10 acres?

Before we got snow, I mowed 12 acres in a little under 2-hr. 
I wouldn't have the courage to ask the customer for $500.

Before winter hit, one of the conservancies I bid for asked me if I could mow 55 acres for them. I priced it at $22/per acre (because there was 1 hr road time each way) so I told them $1,200. Guy basically told me I was way high. I thought it was a very competitive bid.


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## Bob M

JD, I don't think you are out of line at all on pricing. If someone is doing it a lot cheaper my guess is they run too fast and do a poor job.


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## PaMike

I don't think you are way high on 55 acres. Guy probably just wanted to beat you down. Maybe he found a farmer to do it as a sideline job to come in cheaper, but in your neck of the woods I doubt it...You have a lot of fuel, time and wear and tear to mow that much ground...


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## Greasy30

JD,

My two loyal customers I charge by the month and is way cheaper than by the job. Everyone else is $50 an acre.


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## JD3430

OK, so I just bid (and my bid was accepted) on about 23 acres of stickers and light brush of $1,200.

Thats $54/acre.

I was pretty happy with that, but it will be slow going compared to grasslands. I think it will take 12-15 hours when its all said and done and that fits in my $85 + hourly rate objective.


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## PaMike

I think that's fair money, Not to mention its a lot more taxing on the equipment and operator when mowing that type of stuff.

Its a lot harder to see the golf clubs the kids left behind, and the cinder blocks for the homemade firepit...


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## JD3430

Interestingly, about 15 of the 22 acres is a "hawk & falcon viewing area"


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## urednecku

PaMike said:


> I think that's fair money, Not to mention its a lot more taxing on the equipment and operator when mowing that type of stuff.
> 
> *Its a lot harder to see the golf clubs the kids left behind, and the cinder blocks for the homemade firepit...*


And barbed wire or woven fences that got taken down & left, those are fun cutting out of a bushog, lying on yer back, in the middle of a brier patch or sandspurs, and around here you know yer gonna stop it in a fireant bed.


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## 8350HiTech

JD3430 said:


> Interestingly, about 15 of the 22 acres is a "hawk & falcon viewing area"


It's not Heinz refuge is it?


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## JD3430

8350HiTech said:


> It's not Heinz refuge is it?


LOL heck no! I'd probably be required to have govt clearance and a backround check to cut that swamp!


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## 8350HiTech

JD3430 said:


> LOL heck no! I'd probably be required to have govt clearance and a backround check to cut that swamp!


I couldn't remember is they had any dry ground.


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## labdwakin

I have a 10 footer that I've been charging $40 hr for just whacking grass and very light brush back, if it's grown up with saplings and is a bear to get through that gets bid by the job. I foam-filled the front tires and have a 1/8 inch steel belly pan on the tractor I use for that though. Thorn trees (black locust/honey locust) are terrible around here.


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## slowzuki

I know the prices in the south can be a little soft but 40$ an hour on a 10 ft'er?

If heavy grass, that 10 ft is using 15$+ of fuel an hour. The depreciation/repairs on that size tractor could be what near 40$ an hour.


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## JD3430

I recently lost a contract job I did for a rel b*tch of a skin flint woman. The guy who took the job over from me is a friend in the farming business. I now charge $95-100/hr. He charges $125/hr!!!


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## Colby

JD3430 said:


> I recently lost a contract job I did for a rel b*tch of a skin flint woman. The guy who took the job over from me is a friend in the farming business. I now charge $95-100/hr. He charges $125/hr!!!


Looks like I need to start doing some more custom shredding. Last time I did it I charged 70 an hour


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## labdwakin

slowzuki said:


> I know the prices in the south can be a little soft but 40$ an hour on a 10 ft'er?
> 
> If heavy grass, that 10 ft is using 15$+ of fuel an hour. The depreciation/repairs on that size tractor could be what near 40$ an hour.


Actually, it's using about $8 per hr, I'm only using a 75 HP tractor. Repairs are pretty minimal and the whole brush hog is into me for about $800 at this point.


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## slowzuki

My little 50 hp on a 5 ft is using 2.5 gallons per hour.

Repairs might be minimal now but the tractor has a limited life and will need repairs and replacement eventually if you don't account for that you will be under pricing the work.



labdwakin said:


> Actually, it's using about $8 per hr, I'm only using a 75 HP tractor. Repairs are pretty minimal and the whole brush hog is into me for about $800 at this point.


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## JD3430

slowzuki said:


> My little 50 hp on a 5 ft is using 2.5 gallons per hour.
> Repairs might be minimal now but the tractor has a limited life and will need repairs and replacement eventually if you don't account for that you will be under pricing the work.


Such a great point. 
There's so much competition out there using their dad's equipment, not carrying insurance, or unaware that equipment needs to be replaced. They can cut cheaper than I can.
Heck I got a guy who struck it rich building cell phone towers and he cuts fields with $150,000 green tractor and mower for FUN or very minimal money.


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## PaMike

Maybe you just need to be the "sales agency" and subcontract the work to him...

Around here custom work is cheap due to all the competition from all the dairy guys trying to make an extra buck. That suits me just fine though. I don't do custom work, and when I need some done for me, which is rare, its cheap and easy to find someone. Works for me..


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## pede58

Bottom line is their will always be someone cheaper so ask yourself do you want to make money or just supplement your income. To make money you really need to figure in everything from wear to Insurance to travel time, and this is not easy math, 15ft are you really mowing that much, what about cleaning between fields, don't want to spread some nasty weeds. Now if you just want a little extra green bid on the low side. Good luck!


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## endrow

Same here in my area at one time we did a lot of custom work we just weren't sharp enough to compete everybody's too cheap and we don't go to the right Church


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## PaMike

You got that right Endrow. I don't have anything against the "conservative" people in our area, but they really do stick together and take care of their own...


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## Hayman1

endrow said:


> Same here in my area at one time we did a lot of custom work we just weren't sharp enough to compete everybody's too cheap and we don't go to the right Church


Thank goodness we don't have that problem here. The potential customers all to the church of "I work all day in DC and have no time"- so if you have time, it works out. on small sqs, I am getting more and more requests out of the blue. Seems like lots of guys have stopped making sqs, just can't get the labor.


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## MScowman

We had a county cattlemen's meeting with pasture and grass professor here in Mississippi and he gave the figures on bush hogging that MDoT uses it over a five year average. It encompasses everything from fuel to wear and tear and maintenance on equipment. It was $43 per acre. Funny thing was that he also published that the state could and has contracted it out for $35 an acre. Now, tell me why would you as a state ever use your on equipment and workers.


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## slowzuki

The only reason to use your own would be if those workers do other tasks to absorb fixed costs into other projects.

For example, our DOT owns graders and bases the next years internal rates on the previous years costs. So if there are cut backs and very little road grading happens, the fixed costs are spread over less hours so the internal rates go up. Once they get higher than private rates, the district managers often start hiring private as they have a limited budget. Trouble is that cuts the DOT grader time to even less, and the following year the rates are higher again.

So an overly simplistic formula for grader rates has led to us paying for parked graders and idle employees while private companies do the work at a higher cost per hour than if the actual internal costs were used.



MScowman said:


> We had a county cattlemen's meeting with pasture and grass professor here in Mississippi and he gave the figures on bush hogging that MDoT uses it over a five year average. It encompasses everything from fuel to wear and tear and maintenance on equipment. It was $43 per acre. Funny thing was that he also published that the state could and has contracted it out for $35 an acre. Now, tell me why would you as a state ever use your on equipment and workers.


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## labdwakin

Diesel is about $1.85 per gallon here. $8 per hour for fuel is being pretty generous. I don't buy new equipment and have almost my own full-up fab/machine shop which also helps keep my costs down. I'm very well aware of the cost of running equipment because I also have a dirt business alongside the farm.


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## JD3430

I do 25-30k of batwing mowing per year so I am able to pay off a new $18,000 15' batwing in less than one year. That seems pretty good. Until you start factoring in tractor wear and of course fuel, insurance and paying yourself. 
I wish we could all earn lots more than we do, but hope is not a plan. I charge as much as my customers can bear. If I'm getting every job I bid, I'm too cheap. 
No sense working only to end up with worn out machinery and nothing to show for it.


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## PaCustomBaler

JD, you're in the hunt. Guys around here are $40-$85/hr here.


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