95 acre land clearing job

Hi there, i have to bid on a 95 acres land clearing job that consider of removing all the stumps after the trees have been removed from the site and hall all the stumps in a corner of the property. I would like to know if anybody have a clue how i can figure out a bid price for this job and how to attempt such a job. I have an excavator with rook rake and thumb but i will be looking to rent out some equipment like maybe a dozer and an articulating off road truck. Is there anybody out there that could give me some ideas? Thanks

First thing i would do is tell them that the hauling the stump to one spot on the 95 acre farm wasn't going to happen.Tell them with your price of bid.Get that part straigthen out right off the bat!!!!!

Here there is always ditches and other places to pile stuff closer then one area.Pushing (or hauling) is the most time consuming job there is to clearing.Takes longer to clean up then to take trees out normally.

Unless you want it too look like a bomb wen't off when you done.Like several people do around here.Most farmers clear land too farm here,so don't leave them a mess to cleanup.If pasture different story.They still don't like picking up stick.

With that decided use dozer to clear and clean up the close stuff to piles(note i sadi piles).Then use the ex and truck to do the stuff farther fron piles(note i said piles again).Good like on the one pile thing!

So a customer requests a bid to stump removal, and move them to one location, and your response is to tell them no Construct'o? That must be great way for you to get work. Total, just bid appropriately, include some sort of equipment to move stumps on that distance.

This job is for green house project. The owners want the stumps piles up in a place to let rot in a place so they can use the organic material later when the stumps decompose. I was thinking of making a big windrow on the back property line.

sounds like making a windrow is your best bet after all that is what the customer wants. Make sure he understands the time it will take to move all those stumps to one area

Well your on the right track with the off hwy truck. And I`m sure that you have done smaller clearing jobs and you should know your cost per acre. Look at the conditions of various locations on the sight to see how they may change and add or subtract acordingly. What size machines are you using? Also if it was me I would try and talk the client into using a tub grinder to deal with the stumps so they will have a useble product right away also you could grind in several locations. Plus many of the chips could be used for erosion control. Good luck.

I have 20 ton excavators.I am also looking into a d6m or n. the tub grinder is quite expensive.

You`re correct they can be, I only threw it out as an option. I am never a fan of a dozer on a clearing job unless its only used to maintain haul roads and such. Thay allways seem to put to much dirt into the piles. In your case on a job with no dump fees or having to worry about a clean product to haul it shouldnt matter. What type of trees were removed and how long ago, will also have a strong bearing on how the stumps come out.

The trees are not cut yet but it is mostly poplar witch is pretty easy to come out.

Poplars are one of those species that sends shoots out from the roots to sprout new trees. This may be a good time to talk to an Arborist and get an opinion about A) the best way to make sure the roots don't cause you or your clients problems later down the road, and B) the better way to stack the stumps so they also don't create any unforeseen problems.

The idea about piling the stumps up so the organic matter can be harvested at a later date needs to be thought out before a method is chosen for storage. An Arborist can help. Also they could advise your clients of the timeframe needed for decomposition. If they were just going to burn the stumps non of this would matter, but they appear to have wants down the road...

Look at renting a track loader with grabbel and bucket instead of the D6. Track Loaders can be very useful in clearing and can usually move trees around alot faster. As you knock down the trees place them neetly in a well placed pile. Just look around and find what spots would be best, and pile the stumps there. When you have everything cleared and ready to move the stumps rent an ADT truck with no tailgate and now move all the small little piles to the one pile in the corner. This saves money in having the ADT on rent while its not doing anything. Start the project let the track loader and hoe clear trees and the track loader pack them around, then when your done clearing you can move the hoe to another project and bring in an ADT and the track loader to load out and to relocate piles.

The Cat handbook has a section on land clearing. The more effort you put into surveying the area, the more accurate the results.

It makes for a good exercise.

http://nees.ucsd.edu/facilities/docs/Performance_Handbook_416C.pdf

This is edition 29

For the record, I haul the trees etc away when i clear. I don't have the trailer i should have, but for $2500, an old tandem axle dump cut down and pulled with a farm tractor does a good cheap job.

uproot and load with the ex, stump, trunk, and branches all in one piece. Haul, dump. Pile with a 6r. works well. No dirt in piles.

Do it when tree is green and there is almost nothing left to clean up. Do it when its dormant, and you have a mess that can't be fixed.

Good luck

The point of my earlier post was that if you think griding it is high ,what do you think hauling to one pile on a 95 acre farm is,not cheap.Plus i said to tell him by your bid,which will be high,because of the time and work involved.Tell them is price one for one pile and price two for several,or like you said windrow.Guess you could make one continues windrow all the way around the outside of the 95 acre,thus ONE pile.

As far as me getting the job,i won't want it if i had to have one pile on one corner of the farm.You can't bid high enough to make money that way,because if you did you wouldn't get the job in the first place.Plus since your on here wanting to know how much it will cost.You don't have a clue!

Bid it too cheap and if things turn to crap.Then your sick,big time.Things happens,let just say you got the job,the weather changed rains moved in for week on week.There you setting wonder how i'm i going to get the haul truck with all those stumps clear across where i clear the trees already.Drop that puppy in some of those holes where you clear trees with the ex.

Just saying,i can do without all those headackes.

Unless you customer has a money tree to go along with his greenhouse then ask to make more pile or windrows.Point of first post.Plus as far a using a dozer and getting dirt in the plie if they are wanting compost what makes the difference.Compose is basicly trees that decompose to same as dirt.Murlch is a different thing,used differently.

With that good luck.

total clearing said:

Hi there, i have to bid on a 95 acres land clearing job that consider of removing all the stumps after the trees have been removed from the site and hall all the stumps in a corner of the property. I would like to know if anybody have a clue how i can figure out a bid price for this job and how to attempt such a job. I have an excavator with rook rake and thumb but i will be looking to rent out some equipment like maybe a dozer and an articulating off road truck. Is there anybody out there that could give me some ideas? Thanks

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Yup,,, I got a clue.... I did 700 acres like that this past season. Hauled it all to one spot on each different field. It was 5 different site's totaling that acre
age. I was clearing fields for irrigation in exactly the same type of popple I would imagine you would have there. My equipment on the site's were a D7H with rake, 955L with a rake,,, 325B with a thumb and three tandem dump trucks. The reason for the bigger dozer was because of some huge oak stumps mixed in the fields.

I thought long and hard on ADT trucks, but decided on tandem's . Glad I did, we had good going as it was almost too dry. I would give you picture's but photobucket is messing with me...lol.

Would you mind telling me how many acres you cleared per day and a price range per acre that I shoud bid for this job?


Thank you

2 thousand an acre plus your tandem time on top of that.. didn't break it down in acres per hour. I might add that it was clean enough to plant after that... you may or may not have to have it that clean.

Maybe a dumb question grandpa but whats the trick to getting it that clean and getting production? I know some guys doing that kind of work last summer and they've been picking roots forever on a 100 acre field.

Silveroddo said:

Maybe a dumb question grandpa but whats the trick to getting it that clean and getting production? I know some guys doing that kind of work last summer and they've been picking roots forever on a 100 acre field.

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Believe it or not, most of the sticks come from the method of logging. The clearing I done was behing a chipping operation. They cut the tree off the stump, skidded directly to the grinder and blew it into semi's... basically just stumps, and the brush that grew between the trees was all I had to deal with. The use of mini-pile's allow for less contamination of your wood from dirt. A good rake operater is worth his salt too. If he's constantly got the rake down in the dirt your contaminating.

watglen said:

Do it when tree is green and there is almost nothing left to clean up. Do it when its dormant, and you have a mess that can't be fixed.

Good luck

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As someone who has never cleared I'm wondering about the difference here.

OldandWorn said:

As someone who has never cleared I'm wondering about the difference here.

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Well, i just finished a couple weeks of fencerows. Guy wanted it done in the winter of course, and yeah, pushing the tree over caused it to shatter and leave a mountain of wood on the ground. Too much to clean up. Everything from whole log sized branches to stuff suitable for a hand leaf rake.

Compare that to the same tree in the summer, when its fully leaf covered and growing. Push it over and and it stays together. In one pass you pick the whole thing, drop it in the trailer, and its gone, leaving nothing but a few leaves behind. Much faster, much better results, much cheaper in the end.

Ken