Use the bush hogging cost calculator to turn acreage, cutter width, speed, terrain and your hourly rate into total hours, a job price and a cost per acre. Enter the acreage first, add your cutter width and a speed, choose the terrain and growth that match the field, enter your rate and any travel fee, then read the outputs.
What the Bush Hogging Cost Calculator Gives You
The Bush Hogging Cost Calculator answers one question, how much does it cost to bush hog a field. Enter the area, cutter width, terrain and your hourly rate. The calculator works out total hours, job price and bush hogging cost per acre.
Use this guide as a walkthrough, not as a pricing guide. The live guide on bush hogging cost per acre owns the general method for estimating and pricing a job. Enter your own rate, because the $85 rate in the page examples is an example rate only, explicitly not a market rate, and every dollar figure from that rate is labelled as an example figure at the page example rate.
Step 1 Enter the Acreage
Enter the acreage to cut first, because every output that follows depends on it. Total hours equal acreage divided by acres per hour, and the job price follows from those hours, so a wrong acreage moves the hours, the price and the cost per acre together.
Measure the area you will cut, not the whole property. Leave out ground the cutter will not cross.
If you only know the field in square feet, divide by 43560 to get acres, since one acre is 43560 sq ft. A field of 871200 sq ft is 20 acres.
Step 2 Enter Cutter Width and Speed
Enter the rotary cutter width next, in feet, plus a realistic speed in miles per hour. Width and speed set the acres per hour, the cutting rate behind every price the calculator gives. A wider cutter and a faster speed each cover more ground, so both pull the cost per acre down when they rise.
Enter the width of the cutter you will use. If gates, trees or tight corners force a narrower cutter, enter that narrower width.
Pick a speed you can hold, not the top speed of the tractor. For safe speed in thick brush, see the guide on how fast to bush hog thick brush.
The calculator also uses efficiency, the part of cutting time that cuts fresh ground at full width, after turns, overlap and stops. Small or irregular fields use 55 to 65 percent. Average fields use 70 to 75 percent. Large rectangular fields use 80 to 85 percent. Ideal fields with GPS guidance use 85 to 90 percent. The ideal band is 85 to 90 percent, never 88 to 90 percent. See the guide on understanding field efficiency for the bands in full.
Step 3 Choose Terrain and Growth
Choose the terrain and growth that match the field, because the choice sets the efficiency. In the page price table, open ground runs at 80 percent, average ground at 75 percent and rough ground at 65 percent.
Open ground is flat and clear with light growth. Average ground is ordinary pasture with some uneven ground. Rough ground is overgrown, uneven or obstructed, and the time per acre climbs.
Walk the field first, since hidden stumps, wire and rocks are the biggest risk to time and equipment. If the field is mixed, price each part on its own, with its own terrain setting, and add the two results together.
When growth is unknown, quote rough ground per hour, since an hourly rate protects you when time is uncertain.
Step 4 Enter Your Hourly Rate and Travel Fee
Enter your hourly rate next, plus any travel fee, then press Calculate and compare the job price with your minimum charge. Your hourly rate turns time into money, so enter your own rate. The $85 rate in the page examples is an example rate only, explicitly not a market rate.
Add up your costs when you set your own rate: fuel, blades and maintenance, equipment payments, insurance, vehicle and trailer costs, plus your labor as a cost, with a margin on top. Check local custom rate surveys on the custom farming rates page, and use a survey rate as a check on your own rate, never as a price to copy.
Enter the travel fee as a flat figure for the visit. Small jobs far away need a travel fee or minimum charge, because the drive can cost more than the cutting.
Apply your minimum charge as the lowest price you will accept for a visit. If the time based price plus travel falls below the minimum, use the minimum as the job price. When the time based price sits above the minimum, the minimum changes nothing.
How the Job Price Is Worked Out
Cost per acre equals hourly rate divided by acres per hour. Acres per hour equals cutter width in feet times speed in miles per hour times efficiency divided by 8.25. The figure 8.25 equals 43560 divided by 5280. Use unrounded rates for second calculations and round only at the end.
The page worked example is a 20 acre pasture, with a 6 ft cutter at 4 mph in average conditions at 75 percent, at an $85 per hour example rate. First, 6 times 4 times 0.75 equals 18, and 18 divided by 8.25 equals 2.181818, shown as 2.18 acres per hour. Second, 20 divided by 2.181818 equals 9.166667 hours, shown as 9.2 hours. Third, 9.17 times $85 equals $779.45, shown as $779. Quote $779 as shown. Do not use 9.2 times $85, which equals $782 and is not the page figure. Fourth, $779 divided by 20 equals $38.95, shown as about $39 per acre. All four figures are example figures at the page example rate.
That worked example is the whole calculator in miniature: width, speed and efficiency give the cutting rate, acreage and cutting rate give the hours, hours and rate give the job price, and job price and acreage give the cost per acre.
What Each Output Means
Total hours is the cutting time for the job, worked from acreage divided by acres per hour. In the worked example it is 9.2 hours, shown from 9.166667 hours unrounded. If the hours look too low, check the terrain setting, the speed and the cutter width.
Job price is total hours times your hourly rate, plus any travel fee, with the minimum charge as a floor. In the worked example it is $779 as an example figure at the page example rate, from 9.17 hours at $85 per hour.
Bush hogging cost per acre is the job price divided by the acreage, the figure to compare between jobs and between cutters. In the worked example it is about $39 per acre as an example figure at the page example rate. Cost to bush hog per acre falls when the cutter widens or the speed rises, since the same hourly rate spreads across more acres in each hour.
To check a job total a second way, use the Cost Per Acre Calculator with the same inputs. The two tools should agree.
Cost Per Acre by Cutter Size at the Page Example Rate
The page price table shows how much the cutter changes the price, with the same $85 example rate and 4 mph in every row. All prices below are example figures at the page example rate, explicitly not market prices.
| Cutter | Open 80 percent | Average 75 percent | Rough 65 percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 ft | $44 | $47 | $54 |
| 6 ft | $37 | $39 | $45 |
| 7 ft | $31 | $33 | $39 |
| 10 ft | $22 | $23 | $27 |
| 15 ft | $15 | $16 | $18 |
Quote the table values exactly as shown. Every cell is the page $85 example rate divided by the unrounded acres per hour, rounded to the nearest dollar. A 15 ft cutter on rough ground at $18 per acre still costs less than a 5 ft cutter on open ground at $44 per acre, both as example figures at the page example rate. For the full cutter size comparison, see the cutter size guide in this cluster. For the rate behind the price, see the Bush Hog Acres Per Hour Calculator.
How to Check Your Result and Fix a Wrong Entry
Check the result against the table before you quote it. For a field near 20 acres with a 6 ft cutter in average conditions, the cost per acre at the page example rate should sit near $39, and the job price near $779 as an example figure at the page example rate. If your result sits far from those figures, check the acreage, the cutter width, the speed, the terrain setting and the hourly rate in that order.
Check the hours with a second sum. A 20 acre field at 2.45 acres per hour takes about 8.2 hours, since 20 divided by 2.45 equals 8.163265, which rounds to 8.2 hours. If your result gives very different hours for a similar rate, one input is wrong, and the acreage is the usual suspect.
Check the travel fee and the minimum charge last, since they move the job price without moving the hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What do I enter first in the bush hogging cost calculator?
A: Enter the acreage to cut first. Then enter the cutter width and a realistic speed, choose the terrain and growth, and enter your hourly rate and travel fee, then compare the job price with your minimum charge.
Q: How does the bush hogging cost calculator work out the cost per acre?
A: Cost per acre equals hourly rate divided by acres per hour. Acres per hour equals cutter width in feet times speed in miles per hour times efficiency divided by 8.25.
Q: What is the worked example on the bush hogging cost calculator?
A: It is a 20 acre pasture, a 6 ft cutter at 4 mph in average conditions at 75 percent, at an $85 per hour example rate. It gives 2.18 acres per hour, 9.2 hours, $779 total and about $39 per acre, all as example figures at the page example rate.
Q: Why is the worked example total $779 and not $782?
A: Because the page price uses 9.17 hours times $85, which equals $779.45, shown as $779. The figure $782 comes from the rounded 9.2 hours times $85, which the page does not use, so quote $779.
Q: What does the travel fee do in the bush hogging cost calculator?
A: The travel fee is a flat figure for the visit, added to the time based price. Small jobs far away need a travel fee or minimum charge, because the drive can cost more than the cutting.
Q: When does the minimum charge change the job price?
A: When the time based price plus travel falls below the minimum, the minimum takes over as the job price. When the time based price sits above the minimum, the minimum changes nothing.
Plan Your Next Job From the Calculator
How to use the bush hogging cost calculator comes down to four entries and three outputs: acreage, cutter width and speed, terrain and growth, then your own hourly rate and travel fee, with your minimum charge applied after. Read the total hours first, then the job price, then the bush hogging cost per acre. Use the cost calculator for your own field and your own rate.
