Offering 680 hour skid steer contract
 

Hello all...

I need to contract with an experienced and conscientious tracked skid steer operator for for approximately 680 hours of work. The contact will require a larger tracked skid steer with high flow hydraulics (for example the Kubota SVL97-2) to rum an FME disk mulcher (which I will supply) . The job is located 30 minutes NE of Valleyview and involves mulching ~ 680 acres of 2 to 4 inch poplar saplings.. PM me if you are interested or if you know someone who might be interested.

Thanks

I'd strongly suggest you look into a commercial mulcher contract. 680 acres is a MASSIVE job for a skid steer unit and very hard on that equipment for continuous use. The commercial mulchers would be much faster on a job that size and do a far better job for you. I would also expect the prices to be lower in the long run as well.

Commerical Mulcher
 

Thanks EZM... I've spoken with several mulching companies and their rates are up to $850 per hour without any real improvement in productivity or cost. Part of the problem is that most mulching companies rely on the high billing rates from oil and gas and utility industries and not from the agricultural community. Regardless, I'm still looking for a tracked skid steer operator interested in a large contract.

skid steer work
 

If you do the math...680 hrs x $850/hr = $578,000. Pretty sure you could buy a new or used skid steer for 1/4 of that cost & then hire your own laborer / operator to run it for you @$20-30/hr.

I doubt you would have any trouble getting your purchase price on the skid steer back.

The mulchers that charge 850 an hour will most certainly outwork a skid steer. Try replacing the carbide teeth and let me know if that rate is too high. That Kubota skid steer against a stand of 4 inch poplars is no match. If your making pasture a tractor and a heavy disc with 36 inch blades might do it economically.

Last ticket I signed for a Hurricane was around $450/hr. Typhoon was around $600/hr (was a cheaper rate as clean harbors was showcasing it). That was about 10 years ago mind you. Been some pretty lean times so might still get that price (maybe a fuel surcharge added).

A bigger skid steer like a positrac (ASV) will easily handle a drum head, just gonna take longer. Only problem will be the cut off stumps will be harder on rubber tracks vs. the steel track machines above. Hurricane drum head is just under 3m if I remember right. Typhoon was around 4. Definitely quicker than a skid steer carrier, but the skid steer will do it

Wrong time of year for this
You want to do it in the winter when the trees will explode on contact. Not bend and flex like a piece of spaghetti
Your not going to do an acre an hour

I think you are overestimating the production of a mulcher on a skidsteer. The big fellas may be an acre per hour, but my guess would be closer to an acre a day with a skidsteer. Especially on heavier stumps where the head stalls and you have to back out and get it wound up again and stall it 4 times on one stump.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think you'll be better off with a bigger unit. Call around.

Go to Richie brothers
Buy a D7
Clear your land
Then go back and sell it

x2

A 7 with a rake is likely 1/4 the cost per acre than a skidsteer.

A drum head with hammer teeth will eat those up like no tomorrow with a positrac spinning it

It’s was the Perfect winter for clearing with a cat too, six weeks of -30 or colder.

Last time I was up there they were taking that small poplar stuff to High Prairie for making OSB.

Grizz

There are sooooooo many factors that determine how many acres per hour either machine will do but we are 100% sure a commercial unit will do the job a multiple times faster compared to a skid steer unit.

We did roughly 40 acres with a skid steer/mulcher and it took 4 long hard days (10-12 hours) - ground was relatively flat, nothing bigger than the 3"-4" as mentioned and some thick and some sparse areas - so maybe an acre an hour might be roughly correct (my thoughts anyways).

The spring after we did a similar sized area, similar conditions and had a mulcher unit in and it was less than a full days work - maybe 5-6 hours if I recall correctly - so I'd say they are roughly 5-6 times faster????

Anyways - just my 2 cents.

Again, this was one specific job although I've used the skid steer units quite a bit. If most of it is small saplings and shrubs a skid steer can easily do an acre an hour. The key is to keep the drum from stalling on bigger stuff which slows you down. Also, if you have a dense area of even medium sized 2" stuff that's packed tight, that's also a pain in the butt without a big drum unit.

Watch out for rocks replacing the pockets gets real pricey on the drum

I agree. Light saplings a buggy or loader can clear quickly, then disc it. In conditions where a mulcher is needed is the type of conditions you are describing in the later part of your post. Especially over more than a whole section. I am picturing bush. Even if it is 3-4" there are more than a few 8" in there too I'd bet. I've worked for a couple guys with mulcher heads on 297 Cats and once they start hitting dense or heavy timber production falls off a cliff.

He stated above he estimated the job @ 1acre/hr

But he was also estimating an $850/hr machine (likley an iron wolf at that price) at the same acre per hour. If an iron wolf is clearing an acre an hour a skidsteer is doing an acre a day.

.

Yes he did, and I agreed that sounds about right based on our experience doing the same (with a skid steer and mulcher unit). Not sure what you are asking/saying here?

Are you clearing pasture that has regrown or stuff that has been logged off? Are you trying to grow grass or canola?

Darcy with Black Timber will be as reasonable as anyone with a mulcher, but I would look at other options ( I cleared a couple thousand acres between Valleyview and Debolt so know a little about it.

If it's regrowth and you're going to pasture it, I would aerial spray it. Regrowth and trying to crop, the heaviest disk you can find and a Dika root rake.

If it's been logged, I'd still spray for pasture if intending to crop I'd hire a D9 with a V cutter and a piler and then hit it with a Dika plow, few trips with a breaking disc and then a Dika root rake. If the stumps aren't too rotten, they might tip out when you're piling and you could skip the plow.

A cold winter with no snow will save you a ton of time and you'll end up with tight piles that will burn up cleaner. An extra year of $25 canola will buy a lot of diesel though.

Dick Hollingsworth used to have a Cat with a mulcher on it. You could see if he also has a skid steer.

How is it for rocks?

I rent skidsteers for a living, we do not rent them out to run mulchers ever.
You need high flow to run a mulcher, look at the mulching companies, none or almost none, run skidsteers. Why? Well they don't last running a mulcher full time doing production type work. 680 acres is production work.
Mulchers super heat the hydraulic oil, and then the whole machine lights on fire.
Yes people run mulchers on skidsteers, but not for this type of job, most are contractors, and will mulch a fence line or smaller jobs.
We haul big mulchers for several companies around here, and they work great for this type of work, but they are pricey. The reason they are pricey is they cost about a million to buy, and the per hour maintenance is unreal.
D6 with a brush rake would be what I would do for 680 acres of land, then burn the brush piles, and big disk behind a big tractor.
Also, you would never average 1 acre per hour with a skidsteer, you would probably be close to 3 hours per acre average, that's over 2000 hours on a skidsteer, in the rental business, on a skidsteer that is almost wore out. I trade my machines in every 2500hrs. And I have to make over $60000.00 in that time or it is not worth it.
When I worked for a large pipeline company we had 3 Iron Wolf mulchers on D6 cats that we used, man did I put a pile of cash into those units in repairs and maintenance. They could go threw the heavy stuff like you would not believe though, cost at that time to replace all the teeth? Think thousands of dollars and hours of work. Also replaced pumps, and hydraulic motors lots.
John Deere 333G machines cost over $100000 to buy now, and burn at least a full tank of fuel every 10 hours, and half a tank of DEF

680acres.. :( that's a whack of 'soon to be' homeless wild life imo.

I was thinking that too… one can’t stand in the way of “progress” though.

After the third post I think you might have scared him off :thinking-006:

We have to feed the teeming masses somehow. :mad3:

Grizz

Feed them deer …yum

I liked NCC's post, lots of wisdom/knowledge on breaking land. Mulchers have their place and D-7 cats do as well. Dika is very famous for designing quality land breaking equipment.

A lot of deer exist because of the bordering crop/hay land. Many species actually. Farmland raises carrying capacity of most animals; to a point.

You can probably buy it off the op and leave it bush if you like