Discing time

Anonymous-0 · Aug 20, 2009

I lost a bid on a mowing job to someone who bid it for discing. After talking to the guy who got the job who doesn't have a tractor to pull a disc. He hired someone who told him he will be able to disc 40 acres in a day with a HD 5 with a 7ft disc. Is that possible? If it's 80 acres he should do it in two days. Stan

Jimmy King · Aug 20, 2009

It will be a long day in a high gear.

LP GAS ONLY · Aug 20, 2009

An old guy once told me, "it is not how fast you go, it's how long you are out there".

cj in wisconsin · Aug 20, 2009

You said mowing, and then discing, are you talking about a discbine? You can cover a lot of ground with one of those in a hurry, but if you are talking discing the soil to break up the sod, I would need to see that done with a seven footer.

thurlow · Aug 20, 2009

Farmer's old rule of thumb.........width of implement (in feet) times miles per hour divided by 10 equals acres per hour...........this is not an EXACT science, just reasonable estimate.

twopop · Aug 20, 2009

if he is traveling 5 mph he can disc 3.5 acres an hour so i guess it is possible if he puts in a 13 or 14 hour day.
i dont know if he can pull a 7 ft disc 5mph with a hd5

Bill(Wis) · Aug 20, 2009

It'll be a long day but he can do it. Assuming a full 7' cut at 5 mph gets you 3.5 acres per hour. If he can step the speed up to around 7 mph then you're looking at almost 5 acres per hour.

Bill(Wis) · Aug 20, 2009

Well whaddyaknow. I had that same formula under my hat.

Will Herring · Aug 20, 2009

When we use our disc, we overlap the cut... So a 7' disc would only be making a 3 and 1/2 foot cut... Per lap.

Bill(Wis) · Aug 20, 2009

Are you talking about a single gang disc? That would make sense but not for a tandem.

Brokenwrench · Aug 20, 2009

I assume this is tall grass ground, if you were bidding on mowing it. If so, he"s gonna have to make multiple passes with a disc to do any kind of a job. If it works up hard, he wouldn"t even get the end rounds done in a day with a 7 ft disc.

thurlow · Aug 20, 2009

I'll bet there's lot's more (more interesting) stuff lost under there........ :>))

James Howell · Aug 20, 2009

I remember you giving us this "Farmer's old rule of thumb" on cutting hay.

It works!

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Will Herring · Aug 20, 2009

(quoted from post at 14:57:45 08/20/09) Are you talking about a single gang disc? That would make sense but not for a tandem.

I meant what Brokenground was saying. If it was a worked up field, then yes, a single with a tandem and a double pass with a single.

TomTex · Aug 20, 2009

Are you talking about a disc mower? Tom

Chad Franke · Aug 20, 2009

Would an HD5 go 5 mph??? We have an HD7, and I sure as heck wouldn't want to sit on it for 12 hours! Let alone going 5 mph on one for 12 hours.

Anonymous-0 · Aug 20, 2009

This is some kind of tall weed about 3/8 dia. and 6 ft tall. The ground is adobe which in this area when dried discs up real good. One pass should get it. When I talked to the owner I thought he was good with mowing. The reason the other got got the job is he just under bid me. I could have used my JD 5020 and a 14 ft disc, and probably come in a lot less than his 5,900 bid. To move my disc I have to completely take it apart, and reassemble at the job,which is a real pain in the you know what. stan

twopop · Aug 20, 2009

are you serious?$5900.00 for discing 80 acres.
thats 73.75 per acre.or.over 225 per hour,for an hd5.
what type of disc.i grew up in chino ca.we had black adobe also.during that time i must have disced 25000 acres with a td9 and a 9ft 6 towner offset.one time over is not gonna do it.

Bill(Wis) · Aug 20, 2009

Now, if we could just locate that recipe for groundhog. (;>))

Anonymous-0 · Aug 20, 2009

This land now belogns to developers. They need to keep the fire hazard down. They go for the lowest price what ever it is, they don"t have a choice. Of the few who do discing, and mowing we all charge about the same price. Stan

davpal · Aug 21, 2009

What planet are you guys from to charge $5900 dollars for disking 80 acres of weeds? My tractor and disk will do around 11 acres an hour. Your 80 acres would be about an 8 hour job for me if I took my time and goofed around. Tractor burns about 6.5 gallons of diesel per hour to disk. I would use about 60 gallons of fuel for the entire job. At $2.50 per gallon I would have less than $150 invested in fuel. Leaving a profit of $5750 dollars for 8 hours work. $718 dollars per hour for my time? If money comes that easily in California I'd better drive my tractor out there and get to it. Could be a millionare in a few months out there. Does this developer have a clue how badly he's getting ripped off? $500 dollars would be a high estimate on this job.

Will Herring · Aug 21, 2009

For $5,900 I'd take our old John Deere KBA (like what, a 6' tandem disc?) and put it behind the old AC WD, and get to work! It'd be fun and I'd be laughing all the way to the bank.

RodinNS · Aug 21, 2009

I think you're working kind of cheap at 500...

I'd want at least 100 per hour for that setup... so that's 800 bucks for the job. I'd probably go with 1000 for the job because there's probably some incedentals and other problems that you need to figure in. Working that kind of ground... you never know what junk you're going to find. There's some risk there, plus insurance costs that you might not have at home... but I don't think anyone needs to cry about having lost a 6 grand bid. That's way out there in my mind.

Rod

Discing time

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