A machine that covers 10 acres per hour does not cover 100 acres in a 10 hour day. Start up, travel, servicing and breaks all take time that is not counted in acres per hour. Acres per day planning starts with the hourly rate, then subtracts every hour that is not spent working in the field.
In acres per day planning, acres per day equals acres per hour times productive hours per day. Productive hours are the hours actually spent in the field working. Everything else in the day must be counted and removed before you promise a finish date.
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Acres Per Day Planning: From Hourly to Daily
Acres per day equals acres per hour times productive hours per day. The formula is short, but the second number is where plans fail. Productive hours are not the hours you are away from home. They are the hours the machine is working ground.
Subtract morning preparation: fuelling, greasing and checks. Subtract road travel between fields. Subtract meals and breaks. Subtract waiting for dew to lift or for trucks and supplies. Each of these is real time, and none of it covers acres.
A 12 hour day might include 1 hour of preparation, 1 hour of road travel and 1 hour of breaks, leaving 9 productive hours. At 13.96 acres per hour, from a 24 ft cultivator at 6 mph and 80 percent efficiency, that is 125.7 acres per day, which rounds to 126 acres per day, not 168 acres. The 42 acre gap is the time the machine was not working, and no amount of optimism puts it back.
Use the Acres Per Hour Calculator to try your own rate, and use the how to calculate acres per hour guide for the full method. The calculator includes an optional hours per day field that converts any job into working days, which is the same conversion this guide works through by hand.
What Eats the Hours in a Day
| Part of the day | What it costs | How to shrink it |
|---|---|---|
| Morning preparation | About 1 hour | Fuel and grease the evening before |
| Road travel | Varies with distance | Group nearby fields on the same day |
| Meals and breaks | About 1 hour | Plan breaks at natural stops, not mid pass |
| Waiting for dew or supplies | Varies with weather | Start on dry ground and keep supplies ready |
| Servicing and small repairs | Varies with machine age | Service on schedule, not when it breaks |
| End of day clean down | About half an hour | Clean as you go where you can |
Morning preparation is the most predictable loss, so it is the easiest to shrink. Fuel, grease and checks done the evening before turn a slow start into a fast one. The same applies to loading seed, chemical or parts the night before a planting or spraying day.
Road travel is the hardest loss to shrink in acres per day planning, because distance is fixed. Grouping nearby fields on the same day is the main saving, and so is choosing the right machine for the field: a wide machine that needs a slow escort on the road can lose more in travel than it gains in the field. Plan the route the way you plan the passes, and count the travel hours in the day before you promise anything.
Waiting time is often invisible in a plan because it is nobody’s fault. Dew, frost, a late delivery or a blocked gate can each cost an hour. Keep a note of waiting time for a week and you will see how much of it there is. Once you can see it, you can plan around it by starting on the driest ground first.
A Second Worked Example: Bush Hogging
Take the homepage example: a 6 ft cutter at 4.5 mph and 75 percent efficiency covers 6 times 4.5 times 0.75 divided by 8.25, which is 2.45 acres per hour. A 20 acre pasture at that rate takes 20 divided by 2.45, which is about 8.2 hours of cutting time. That time is cutting time in the field. It does not include travel, fuel stops or time spent clearing debris.
Now turn it into a day plan. With 8 productive hours in a day, the same cutter covers 2.45 times 8, which is 19.6 acres per day. The 20 acre pasture is therefore about a full day of work, not a morning job, once travel and breaks are counted. With only 6 productive hours, the day covers 14.7 acres, and the pasture needs a second day.
The lesson is that small rates make acres per day planning matter more, not less. At 13.96 acres per hour, a lost hour costs about 14 acres. At 2.45 acres per hour, a lost hour costs only about 2.5 acres, but the job is already a full day, so there is no spare time to absorb the loss. Either way, the plan must count productive hours honestly.
Acres Per Day Planning at Different Rates
| Acres per hour | 6 productive hours | 8 productive hours | 10 productive hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.45 | 14.7 acres | 19.6 acres | 24.5 acres |
| 5.45 | 32.7 acres | 43.6 acres | 54.5 acres |
| 13.96 | 83.8 acres | 111.7 acres | 139.6 acres |
| 21.82 | 130.9 acres | 174.6 acres | 218.2 acres |
Read the table down a column to see what longer days buy, and across a row to see what a faster rate buys. A 10 hour productive day at 21.82 acres per hour covers 218.2 acres, which is a planting day with a 16 row planter. The same 10 hours at 2.45 acres per hour covers only 24.5 acres, which is a rough cutting day. The rate sets the scale of the day, and productive hours set how much of that scale you actually reach.
Use the table to test acres per day planning before you promise it. Pick your rate, pick honest productive hours, and read off the acres per day. If the answer is short of the job, you need more days, a wider machine or a second machine, not a longer promise.
Working Days Versus Calendar Days
Weather removes days from any plan. Look at your own records or local extension data for the typical number of suitable field days in your season and month. If you expect roughly 60 percent of days to be workable, a job needing 6 working days needs about 10 calendar days, because 6 divided by 0.60 is 10.
That conversion is the difference between acres per day planning and a promise. A customer who hears 6 days expects the job finished in a week. A plan that says 10 calendar days is honest about weather, and it leaves room for a wet spell without a missed deadline. Put the calendar figure in writing, not only the working figure.
Workable days also change through the season. Spring and autumn often have fewer workable days than summer, and wet ground can remove days even when the sky is clear. Keep your own count of workable days each month. After a few seasons you will have a local figure that beats any general guide, because it describes your ground and your weather.
Planning a Multi Day Job
Work through the steps of acres per day planning in order. First, work out acres per hour for each operation. Second, work out productive hours per day. Third, multiply them to get acres per day. Fourth, divide total acres by acres per day to get working days. Fifth, divide working days by the share of workable days to get calendar days.
| Step | What to calculate |
|---|---|
| 1 | Acres per hour for each operation |
| 2 | Productive hours per day |
| 3 | Acres per day equals step 1 times step 2 |
| 4 | Working days equals total acres divided by acres per day |
| 5 | Calendar days equals working days divided by share of workable days |
Try it with planting. An 800 acre job with a 16 row, 30 in planter at 40 ft, 6 mph and 75 percent efficiency runs at 21.82 acres per hour. At 10 productive hours a day, that is 218.2 acres per day. Working days are 800 divided by 218.2, which is about 3.7 days. At a 60 percent share of workable days, calendar days are 3.7 divided by 0.60, which is about 6.2 days. The job needs a week on the calendar, not four days, and the planting window must hold that long. Read the planter and drill guide for the full planting window method.
Plan operations in sequence, not in parallel, unless you have the machines and operators for both. Tillage, planting and spraying each need their own days, and each has its own rate. A plan that adds them together without counting the days between them is a plan that will slip. Leave a gap between operations for weather, and put the gap in the calendar where the customer can see it.
Keep a Log
Write down acres completed and hours worked each day. After a season you will know your real numbers, and your plans will become much more reliable. The log does not need to be fancy. Date, field, operation, acres, hours in the field and hours away from home are enough to work out productive hours and real acres per day for every job you do.
Compare the log with the plan at the end of each week, not only at the end of the season. A gap that shows up in week one can be fixed in week two. A gap that is found in autumn is a lesson for next year, not a fix for this one. Small weekly checks keep a plan honest while there is still time to act.
Field shape belongs in the log too. A long rectangle and a short irregular field with the same machine will show very different acres per day, and the log will prove it. Read the field shape guide to see how turns and headlands set the rate, and the understanding field efficiency guide for how to turn log figures into efficiency figures you can reuse.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many acres can I cover in a day?
A: In acres per day planning, multiply acres per hour by productive hours per day. At 13.96 acres per hour with 9 productive hours, the answer is about 126 acres per day, not 168 acres from a 12 hour day.
Q: What are productive hours?
A: Productive hours are the hours actually spent working in the field. They exclude morning preparation, road travel, meals, breaks, waiting for dew or supplies, and end of day clean down.
Q: How do I turn working days into calendar days?
A: Divide working days by the share of workable days. If you expect roughly 60 percent of days to be workable, a job needing 6 working days needs about 10 calendar days.
Q: How long does it take to bush hog 20 acres?
A: At 2.45 acres per hour, cutting time is about 8.2 hours. With 8 productive hours in a day, that is about a full day once travel and breaks are counted.
Q: How many acres can a planter cover in a day?
A: A 16 row planter at 21.82 acres per hour covers about 218.2 acres in a 10 productive hour day. An 800 acre job at that rate needs about 3.7 working days.
Q: Why do my day plans always run late?
A: Most plans count hours away from home as working hours. Count only productive hours, add weather days, and check the log each week, and the plan will hold far more often.
Acres per hour tells you how fast the machine works. Acres per day tells you how much of the job gets done. Acres per day planning means planning with productive hours and workable days, and the finish date will be a promise you can keep.
