???? on giving a bid on alrge acreage........

[TFL]

My company was contacted today to give a bid on a 6 acre job. it is approxiamately 6 acres in size over roguh terrain with the grass being about knee high the whole time. any input is appreciated. thanks

[smburgess]

I like to use the formula;

YOUR hourly rate X YOUR man-hours = Bid.

It's always the formula that works. It keeps you consistant in bidding work and will make all your jobs profitable.

[TFL]

does anyone charge by the acre??

[Evan528]

Alot of guys charge around 40 dollars per acre. there are alot of variables though...... cut weekly? salot of trimming? can you ride the whole thing?

[Finecut]

TFL,

If your knees are as far from the ground as mine, it would put that grass at about 20" high. It would seem like you could sell that to a farmer at about 40 dollars an acre have him bale it and get it out of there and your 240.00 to the good and ready to mow in about a weeks time.

In order to give a per acre price you need to know what it costs you to mow an acre. If it take you two hours per acre to mow, the cost would be much different than mowing two acre per hour. That is why it is imperative to know your production time and cost per hour to run your equipment. I have seen bids where people charge 19.00 per acre all the way up to 75.00 per acre. If you were mowing 3.5-4.5 acres per hour 19.00 per hour might not be a bad price.

[Vibe Ray]

Originally posted by Finecut
TFL,

If you were mowing 3.5-4.5 acres per hour, 19.00 per hour might not be a bad price.

HUH???!!!!

[Eric ELM]

Finecut, could you put in your location in your profile? If you don't know how, email me and I'll put it in for you. All we need is the state.

BTW, I think he meant $19 per acre, not per hour. ;)

[joshua]

i would from $240- $300 a cut once you get it to where it needs to be. from the sounds of it this guy has only cut his lawn 1 or 2 times this year. i use the formula of what it would take to cut the lawn on a weekly basis x how many cuttings i am into the year. and thats my price. hasn't failed me yet, so i would say you will be doing 7 cuttings worth of grass in 1 cut, meaning it should of been cut 7 times by this time. so the price is from $1680-$2100. i know most of you guys might think this is very high, and i'm out of my mind. i'll explain, most likely he will have to cut this whole 6 acres 3-4 times, to get it down to the height it needs to be, 1 cut having to bag if he wants the property looking good, 6acres of turf is a very lot to bag, no matter how you look at it, the wear and tear on the mower is (in my book) 3-1 if not more, meaning for every 1 hour you cut tat place you might as well say 3 hours on the machine, the blades,and your body being so rough of a ride, the blades will not be the same after you cut this place, the shute will clog time and time again, unless you go so slow, you feels like your going backwards , the risk of hitting stumps and rocks is very great, meaning damage to to mower is a very big risk. hjope this clears things up a little bit.

[Mowingman]

TFL,
I am not too far from you and I do mostly large properties (2-8 acres). Most of mine are rough and only get mowed twice/mth, so grass gets pretty high. I ALWAYS bid these by calculating the hours estimated to do the work and then multiply that by your hourly rate. I use a 60" ZTR on this type of property mostly and can do only about 1 acre/hr due to rough ground. If I use my 72" ZTR I can get 1.5 acres/hr. I will not mow faster as it will eventually tear up your machines.

[sgreanbean]

i have a lot that is about 3 to 4 acres, i mow it once a month for 100.00, its low but i do a ton of work for the guy and get full price for every thing else. i did this also knowing that soon ill be picking up my new (to me) 545 ford tractor with a bush hog on it! no more ztr feild mowing! i usually charge 46.50 an acre for field mowing
no trimming or anything else, just knocking it down:D

[TFL]

thanks for the input guys looks like we will get it for around 250 a week. thats right he now wants it mowed once a week
:D