Tilling

[PK.]

With regards to the making money thread, what sort of rate is average for garden tilling? I'm thinking my son could make himself some spending money by tilling a few gardens, but I've never really thought about a rate. My standard shop rate for cabinetry is about $80 an hour, but this seems a bit high for tilling. I was thinking around $30 an hour with a minimum of $75. I have a couple of rear tine tillers and figured I could help him out some, with him having to pay for gas and maintenance.

[jott]

My first thought was I would not even consider paying $30/hr for tilling, maybe more like $15. But then thinking about it that would be for an all day thing. You would have to charge more to get tiller there so you could not charge $15 if it only took you one hour. And I guess if someone is paying to for tilling that means they don’t have a tiller so they can’t do it themselves without lots of work so that would increase the price some. I guess I would pay $50-60 for a garden that could be done in an hour or so.

But I don’t know if putting this question out on the internet will get you very good information. The price should be what people will pay. If you are in the suburbs where lots of people want a little garden but people don’t have tillers then you could charge more. If you are in the county where everyone has a tiller or knows someone that dose you probably can’t charge as much. Maybe a good place to start would be to look at how much it cost to go rent one then add a little to that.

[ryanmercer]

I can rent a tiller here for cheaper than that... so I'd say no.

[ryanmercer]

Oh I don't know. It is not just renting the tiller, but also hauling it and loading and unloading it. Not everyone has a pickup and some would hurt themselves if they try'd to unload and then load it. Plus they would have to pay for gas. older people and women would probably be you biggest customers and they are more likely to have gardens.

Hrmm even if I had to rent a pickup it'd be cheaper. I can go down to Lowes 2 blocks away and rent both pretty cheap, the truck for as little as a half hour.

Probably best thing to do would just randomly ask people from the target demographic what they would be willing to pay for such a service and get an idea that way if it's a sound idea or not.

[PK.]

Well, fifteen odd years ago we got $30 per man hour for landscape maintenance. *Now, I know companies that are getting about $50 per man hour. *

The market isn't really to people who would-if-they-could do it themselves. *It's for those who can't or won't. *There's a certain tangible value in time invested when providing a service. *In other words, what could I be making or doing if I'm not doing this or that. *This has to be added into what providing this service costs me and profit added as a cost. * *

That's how I get about 30 bucks an hour for my kid with me providing transportation and tooling. *I was just thinking that there might be somebody else on here that does some tilling for people and wondering what they charge. *

Personally, $30 an hour is too cheap to me, if it was a project for me I'd want at least $50. *But it is for the boy to earn some money and learn how to operate a business.

Thanks for the replies and if anybody else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[Harry_Chickpea]

We're having a 30 x 50 foot plot in an old abandoned garden area tilled by a farmer with a tractor and towed tiller. Cost, including getting the equipment here and back from fifteen miles away is $55. I figure he is making about $25 or less once the cost of gas and equipment depreciation are factored in. The point at which it would have been cheaper for us to buy a tiller was $75. When I lived in Vermont, a neighbor not only tilled our garden for free, but spread a load of manure over it in late fall.

What I have yet to see is a device that will remove the rocks and weeds from freshly tilled soil. I would pay good money to not have to do that backbreaking task.

[DM]

I do custom rotavateing with my tractor and Howard rotavator. (rotavator = industrial rototiller)

For my 42" tiller, that i consider a garden tiller, i get $40.00 min. per garden. That's based on one hour, and it would be a "huge" garden that would take over an hour. It really does a great job, and leaves the garden more level and in much better condition than a walk behind does.. (that i also have)

http://www.fototime.com/FEF38F72FE7793D/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/4032D319707B8F6/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/FA4F3B0BDAC410D/standard.jpg

For my "field" tiller, that's 80" wide, i get $40.00 per hour, and the clock starts when i drive out of my driveway. If i have to haul it, i charge $1.00 per mile (one way) to haul it to the job site... I can do "about" 2 acres per hour with it... It all depends on what you have, and what you want it to be when i'm done.

http://www.fototime.com/2A422438EAB2247/standard.jpg

Rotavators are very adjustable, so i can leave the field with big clods of dirt, or gound all to he!!.

DM 8)

[AlchemyAcres]

[re: rotavator = industrial rototiller]

Very neat, you have some nice looking soil there.

A rotavator would never work around here. :(


~Martin

[DM]

Thanks Martin,

*I'm sure there are places where they won't work, but i sold a tractor and my 72" Howard to a friend in New York and he likes it...

*To be honest, if you can plow the ground, you can rotavate it!

Here's what that field looked like when i started...

http://www.fototime.com/946ACC4528E707B/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/B01671C660E779E/standard.jpg

*DM 8)