How much to charge for an acre

[josh]

I am placing a bid on 45 acre area in Lawrencburg TN. The land is pretty much open and smooth. Should I charge by acre or by hour? Some of the area is mowed once a week and some is mowed every two weeks. I am figuring around 15 acres that is mowed every week and 30 that is mowed every two weeks. The bid requires a price for what is mowed once a week and a seperate price for what is mowed every two weeks. I will figure in the trimming on these areas after I get a set price on each acre or per hour. I will probably be able to mow 2.5 acres per hour with my 60" mower. Thanks for all the help.

[Kidsweet]

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I charge 60.00 an acre residential. you should get at least a dollar a minute.[^]

[josh]

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$60 an acre sounds a little high where I live. What area do you live in.

[Kidsweet]

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Springhill, Florida

[kutnkru]

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With the 60z your probably looking at about 7 hrs to complete the mowing portion of the 15 acres. At $28/acre thats $420 for the cut or $60/hr. The FL numbers I have seen are more inclusive of $35-40/hr so that would be $245-280 for the 15 acres at 7/hrs.

If you are going to be brush-hogging the other 30 acres thats basically going to be about $80/hr with a $250 minimum. If your going to use the Zs then your probably looking at roughly 18.5/hrs as you will have almost double the cutting to do half the year.

So if you take the $60/hr it would be $1110/cut. If you went with the $35-40/hr thats would come to $648-740/cut.

[Galashiels]

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Don't mean to knock the wind from your sails but cutting 45 acres with a 60" mower is like cutting a residential with nail sissors.
The price you will have to charge, suggested $1110, seams very high.
You should be looking at bigger mowers and Tractors, providing the area is suitable, such as gang mowers as used on golf links. You don't see them cutting golf courses here with 60" mowers. Then you are probably talking 2-3 hours with gang mowers.
A big Toro will cut 14 aces an hour, 16' decks
As a guess a tractor and gang mower would possibly charge $100/hour so thats $300.[8)]
Just something to think about [?]


John

[andersc1]

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josh,
If assumptions are correct in that you can mow 2.5 acres p/hr with your 60" ZTR, then you pretty much have the hardest part down. Now just figure up how much you need to charge p/hr to stay profitable.

Let's say your charging $35.00 p/hr for your labor, and your servicing 15 acres weekly at approximately 2.5 acres p/hr, then your charge should be somewhere around $210.00 per visit. The remaining 30 acres at the same cutting rate would be $420.00 per visit.

Galashiels did have a good point though in considering the amount of land that you will be cutting, bigger and better equipment may be in order. But try not to get in over your head with equipment cost. Large gang mowers like he was describing are not only expensive, they also have limited uses outside of these large contracts you have described. Do what you think will work best for you and your business.

Hope this helps,
Curtis

[Galashiels]

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Don't buy gear for one job unless its useful for something else, or the price will cover the gear. Gang mowers are very expensive down here, they make an excellent big though. The point is that Someone else is going to put a price in who has the big mowers and under cut you by heaps as they can get the job done in a fraction of the time.
Just the economies of scale.
If you get the job at your price then thats great, if its long term contract then possible you could look at bigger mowers then.
[8D]
John

[nohhousefire]

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You are looking at a day and a half mowing with 2 60 inch ztrs plus trimming, sounds like a 4 man job.
4 men $25/hr apiece x 12 = $1200.00
I think $1200.00 would be an I'm hungary and need the work bid with a 400 dollar bid on the odd weeks.

[rebel 60]

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Hey josh. I think you got the 15 ac. under control. I use a 72" Ex-mark. On the 30 acre every 2 weeks I would use a small tractor and a finishing mower when the grass really starts growing. Check around on some of the guys using them on big yards and farms and see what they charge and use. You might make a freind who you could sub out the job if needed. I use a 6' Woods. Plan on a back-up plan in case you get behind on your residental work.

[TerraCare]

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a general rule I use when doing labor that can involve using better/faster equipment:

nevcr charge by the hour! just because you have the better and more expensive equipment, does that mean that you should be charging less because you do it faster? NO! You bought that equipment to handle more/bigger jobs! Charge by the hour for manual labor, such as weeding and leaf removal, not mowing or jobs that are done by machine.


In NW Indiana, my business charges 50/acre residential and 60/acre commercial. I know that qualitylandscaping has a very decent pricing guide you could use...

todd