wtnhunt Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? Got to agree with Al and Martin here. No way around here anyone would give that kind of money for hired out farming services. $35-40 an hour would be a fair rate. If you have to go out and buy a new tractor that cost you 40 grand with the idea in mind that you have to pass on that cost to your consumers and try to recover your costs too quickly, you might find yourself without any work and eating it all on your own. Even keeping an open mind and figuring for hauling the equipment in, $600 an acre still seems pretty high to me, especially if you have the latest and greatest equipment that will help you get the jobs done more efficiently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LETMGROW Posted February 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? Figure in the cost of: soil test, herbicide, lime, fertilizer, seed, fuel and depreciation on your equipment. Plus if you are going to do it yourself you have to have some investment in equipment. IE: sprayer, discs, tractor, or atv, lime and fertilizer spreader, seed spreader roller or cultipactor maybe a tiller or corn planter. I would be interested in how much people expect to spend on creating food plots. How many hours would you expect to spend creating a 1 acre food plot? Now I mean doing a good job, not tossing seed on the ground and walking away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? Ive seen guys running around up here with a truck and equipment doing food plots...what really made me notice was the mud caked tires...now enyone knows you dont get much of a plot when you mud in your seed..what that tells me is this guy does not care what the results are..he's just out to do as many plots as possible..and he is out for the $$$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? I will stand by what I said here Lynn, a guy does not have to have a $40,000 tractor like you mention, and if he has to figure that expense in when justifying his pricing out to a consumer, then he will likely not stay in business long. Really the bottom line is that if it were a $5000 used ford or a brand new $40,000 kubota, the same results can be accomplished. So if the person doing the job is using the lesser valued equipment and getting the same results, does that then mean he/she should ask for less money? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bownarow Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? [ QUOTE ] Figure in the cost of: soil test, herbicide, lime, fertilizer, seed, fuel and depreciation on your equipment. Plus if you are going to do it yourself you have to have some investment in equipment. IE: sprayer, discs, tractor, or atv, lime and fertilizer spreader, seed spreader roller or cultipactor maybe a tiller or corn planter. I would be interested in how much people expect to spend on creating food plots. How many hours would you expect to spend creating a 1 acre food plot? Now I mean doing a good job, not tossing seed on the ground and walking away. [/ QUOTE ] These are the things that most people seem to be overlooking here. It's not just heading out and throwing some seed on the ground, and working it in. There is a ton of work and costs that are associated with correctly planting a food plot. A lot of things get overlooked when estimating the costs of such an operation. If anybody would like to run the costs themselves and compare them with the numbers I have compiled I would be happy to discuss. I have a fairly detailed spreadsheet so if anybody wants to bounce some questions off me I will respond with my findings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowhtr1 Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? Great Info from all. I have been thinking about starting a side buisness doing this on the weekends and afternoons. I will have to get larger equipment but I wont buy new. I thought about charging a flat rate per hr. for the work and then let them decide how much they wanted to spend on the rest. I could do as much work as they want and have high quality seed to low quality seed. The same with the lime, fertilizer and roundup. To save on roundup myself I till my plots then wait two weeks put out my lime and fertilizer then till and plant at the same time. Lime is another options depending on what seed you plant as to what you need. Fertilizer is the same depending on what seed you want you may be able to cut back on this. I think I could customize the plots for the needs. This could have a big effect on the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bownarow Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? [ QUOTE ] Great Info from all. I have been thinking about starting a side buisness doing this on the weekends and afternoons. I will have to get larger equipment but I wont buy new. I thought about charging a flat rate per hr. for the work and then let them decide how much they wanted to spend on the rest. I could do as much work as they want and have high quality seed to low quality seed. The same with the lime, fertilizer and roundup. To save on roundup myself I till my plots then wait two weeks put out my lime and fertilizer then till and plant at the same time. Lime is another options depending on what seed you plant as to what you need. Fertilizer is the same depending on what seed you want you may be able to cut back on this. I think I could customize the plots for the needs. This could have a big effect on the price. [/ QUOTE ] Like I said, I have a pretty detailed spreadsheet. So if you want to share ideas feel free to ask me any questions and I can tell you the figures that I came up with for different situations. It becomes fairly complex if you really want to get serious about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LETMGROW Posted February 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? [ QUOTE ] Great Info from all. I have been thinking about starting a side buisness doing this on the weekends and afternoons. I will have to get larger equipment but I wont buy new. I thought about charging a flat rate per hr. for the work and then let them decide how much they wanted to spend on the rest. I could do as much work as they want and have high quality seed to low quality seed. The same with the lime, fertilizer and roundup. To save on roundup myself I till my plots then wait two weeks put out my lime and fertilizer then till and plant at the same time. Lime is another options depending on what seed you plant as to what you need. Fertilizer is the same depending on what seed you want you may be able to cut back on this. I think I could customize the plots for the needs. This could have a big effect on the price. [/ QUOTE ] I don't want to blow holes in your theory but you had better re think your strategy a bit! If you are going to have a business you have to provide a superior service or product. NO EXCEPTIONS!!! Don't let the customer dictate how you will or won't do things. If you were to plant a plot to a cheap customer spec. that is just what you will get. Then the customer spreads the word, " Nothing grew, it looks like H... Etc." Your reputation hangs on the overall quality of the finished product. If the customer isn't willing to pay a fair price, turn the job down and move on. Cutting corners will cut your own throat. Any job worth doing is worth doing right! Use low quality seed and you are guaranteed a low quality job. Don't lime and again low quality results. Wrong fertilizer, same story. In my experience two qts. of Roundup or other like herbicide isn't going to break anyone. Spray it on , let the weeds die and they work up much faster. Now you have saved fuel and wear and tear on your equipment as well. [ figured on an acre plot ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? Would kind of have to agree with Lynn here. Think by cutting corners for one customer, you might end up getting yourself a bad rep. Only place I see where there could be marginal differences in supplies and cost variances for you to pass on would be in the type of plot and seed, and how much work it requires to get the soil right as we all know some land will require little while other land will require a great deal of work and soil prep to get the same results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cowpoke Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? Seems to me if you are looking at doing custom food plots for people you better figure out what your annual cost of ownership of the equipment is, get some reasonable estimate of number of acres it will be used on, so you can determine your cost per acre build in some profit (cost for your time), how much is up to you. then for direct expenses like seed, fertilizer etc, just bill direct to the landowner the cost, including a handling fee it you so choose. Then findout if landowners are willing to pay that price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? the landowner can cut alot of costs if he has the ability of doing some of the work themselves, spraying, liming, fertilyzing,.... all important but time consuming....being a farmer..I know what ya mean by doing it right..there are NO shortcuts! Would I buy new and go into this business?? NO WAY! You can only get to so many customers and get the job done right...weather is often the problem here..getting into the plots is sometimes tough or impossible...all Im saying is big $$ dont make great plots, and we have people here that prove it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowhtr1 Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Re: How much would you pay?? Still good info. What I mean by cheap seed is that if they wanted to plant soybeans with corn mix this would be alot cheaper than a plot of Lab Lab. Also if you plant a seed that can take low PH soil you may be able to do without the lime. Same with crops that put nitrogen into the soil. Of course I would have the soil tested. You can also burn off the plot if the situation is right to add nutrients back to the soil. There are lot of options to concider. My problem with roundup is after I kill everything and plant I expose more weed seed that will come up. I know if I do this several times I can knock out the weeds but that takes time. You can use roundup ready crops but again you will have to come back and do this. This could be an option also if they want. I would do this for a fee per hour and then they pay for what they get. If you are up front with them most people will not put your work down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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