How much would you pay??

[LETMGROW]

I am wondering how much you would want to or expect to pay if you were to hire someone to come into your property and plant a foodplot or food plots. How much per acre? Would you be willing to pay travel expenses? This is assuming the plot location was a ways from the planter's home.
Just for this discussion we'll assume the seed is all the same cost. I'm looking for an average as I know Lime and fertilizer requirements can vary as well as soil textures etc.

[PAstringking]

i am deff interested in this post because i am looking to hire someone or atleast somehow borrow some equipment.

also wondering if price would differ on soil consistency (rocky, soft, hard, ect.)?

[IllinoisArcher]

We have a guy from antlerking come down from Black River Falls, WI and plant 2 foodplots every year and the way we pay him is we let him and his buddy hunt down there this year one got a 175" 12 ptr. & a 153" 15 ptr. sorry i couldnt help u with a price tho

[mitrrophybowhunter]

[ QUOTE ]
I am wondering how much you would want to or expect to pay if you were to hire someone to come into your property and plant a foodplot or food plots. How much per acre? Would you be willing to pay travel expenses? This is assuming the plot location was a ways from the planter's home.
Just for this discussion we'll assume the seed is all the same cost. I'm looking for an average as I know Lime and fertilizer requirements can vary as well as soil textures etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it completely depends. We used to have a 4.5 acre plot planted a couple times for us. I believe he charged us $400. This was a pretty close firend of the family though.

[PAstringking]

i pay $1000 for 4.5 acers of corn planted in a spcific pattern. we give the money to the neighbor and he contracts a farming friend to do the job. since he is having some hard times the past few years i think we over pay him on purpose.

i still think that we could plant the field for way less?

[BriarRidgePlots]

I am in the business of doing excatly that! Just getting into it anyhow. I charge a consultation fee to come out and evaluate the property. Then if I come back and do work it all depends on wwhat needs done, on average I charge about $50/hr equipment and operator cost, plus seed, fert and lime. Lime kinda depends, if I can contract it done with a local hauler (if the site is acessible by a lime truck) Plus travel expenses. I travel in the Tri state area mostly. Any other questions drop me a line!

Tom

[Randy]

Our neighbor wanted $200 an acre for corn, he supplied the seed just because he could come right over and plant it while he was planting his without changing seed or fertilizer. It took him about 5 minutes to plant but, we didn't have a planter at the time so what are you going to do?!

[PAPA99]

this may sound nuts. but for me it takes about 40 hrs plus 500 bucks to do it myself.you mow it 1st 2and round up then you till then fertilize then you plant and fertilize again.it is a pain when there is corn or beans as far as you can see.so plant some aps and pear trees to. anything to keep them coming to my littel spot.insted of that never ending corn field.
BOWHUNTER FOR LIFE !!!

[Finn]

I'm curious to see what's a good price. We're probably gonna hire out to have our 8 acre field planted in corn this year.

[wtnhunt]

Dont know Lynn. Think the $200 an acre would be a pretty good deal if the person doing the work supplied everything.

Used to be a feed and farm supply store owner around here that advertised that he would put your food plots in for you. Custom plots. Dont have a clue how much he was charging.

Personally for me, I like doing my own work. Get a bit of satisfaction out of working my plots myself.

[Finn]

[ QUOTE ]
Personally for me, I like doing my own work. Get a bit of satisfaction out of working my plots myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't wait to move back to Wisconsin so I have time to do my own small plots.

But, that 8 acre field is more than I want to tackle with my 4 wheeler or my Dad's little tractor.

[LETMGROW]

I was just wondering. I talked to a fellow at the Northeastern Sports Show in Syracuse NY last Sat. and he told me he is getting on an average $ 600 per acre. This is start to finish. Includes spraying, discing, liming, fertilizing and planting. Of course he handles the soil tests etc.
He uses Whitetail Institute products mainly. I saw some pictures of plots he had done. They looked very good. His equipment is all new or nearly new. After talking to him for a while I knew he was knowledgable and serious about his work.

[flatwoodhunter]

we have roughly 400 acres of food plots in our club. we pay 6 people's memberships to plant the fields. labor only the club provides the seed. $1200 dues, so we pay $7200 in labor for 400 acres of plots.

[QDMAworks4me]

Wow $600 dollars an acre I would be out of business fast when it comes to food plots. I have about 8 acres in food plots and that would be about 4800 bucks. I realize that I have speant over 2000 on equipment this year but now that I have it I won't have to buy it again. If someone did not have any equipment it might be an avenue worth looking into.

[LETMGROW]

The price might seem high to some but let me put it into perspective somewhat. I saw this fellows brochure which showed his new $ 40,000 plus Kubota tractor, his new seeder/planter, fertilizer spreader, tiller, discs, rotary mower, sprayer, ATV and excavator.
Now consider , he is trying to make a profit from this venture. He has a fairly narrow window within which to work. Spring planting would be in a span of about 3 weeks in New York. He might pick up a couple straggler jobs mid-summer then a fall planting around the last week of July to the second week or so of August. In the meanwhile the payments on the machinery last 12 months of the year. He has to work almost 24 hours a day during the planting season to get the jobs completed. All this is dependant on the weather cooperating.
Add in the increasing fuel costs, increasing materials costs and maintenance costs along with having to own a truck and trailer to move his equipment around the cost doesn't seem so out of line.
I should mention too, this fellow's family owns a very large dairy farm. The food plot business is not his only means of income. I believe if it were he would starve to death!