Have a large county building going in next to my farm. They need some fill dirt to bring the project to elevation. We have been asked to sell dirt from underneath a crop field next to the site. What would you charge per yard? They are thinking they will need 50,000 yards. Thanks.
Around here the dirt itself is pretty much free, on some projects you end up paying to get rid of it. The cost is based on the loading and trucking. It's usually at least $10 a yard if it's going a very short distance. But in your shoes you should be able to get something out of it, with being right next door it pretty much cuts out the trucking cost for them. How far is the next closest site to get that amount of dirt if they cant strike a deal with you?
Try a low number like $1.00 per cu. yd. FOB your property. Get a signed liability release and be sure they have plenty of current insurance. Good luck. Ron
Welcome to the Forums Wastepro!:drinkup My first question would be what will the land be used for or useful for after 50K yards is removed? How is going to affect your land and what you plan to do with it afterwards? 50K yards is a fair amount of dirt.:cool2 Those questions should be answered first before a number is given as future opportunity costs may be more than a check today.
Buck a yard is a fair price if I was buying it. And maybe you have a hill on your property where you wouldn't even miss the material. Make sure to have them finish it back off to your satisfaction and retain all your topsoil. If they need topsoil that would be worth more money in my neck of the woods.
Here I pay $2/yard for select fill. Works out to around $7-7.25/yard delivered. Future use of the land is an important thing to consider. 50k yards is 31 acre/feet, that can certainly affect the drainage.
Paying a buck and a half right now. Loading it and hauling it ourself. It's a short haul.
They want to take the dirt from under a 30 acre crop field. It's in row crops currently and yields well. The plan was to stockpile the topsoil and put back after mining the fill. The next closest place to get fill would be offsite. As far as I know, we are the only place they can pan the dirt over without using dump trucks. We would like to continue farming the land, either in crops or pasture after removal of fill. Even if we slope the land back, and retain all the topsoil, I am not sure we can still expect decent crop yields. Has anyone had experience with this? Could I reasonable ask for $2 per yard?
My pit used to be a dollar until a highway project came though and bought 80k yards at $2 per. Ironically they paid for half and went bankrupt.
I've heard of people asking close to 3 dollars a yard.
Wastepro, I have no farming experience but if I were you I would look into the agronomy of your local soils if you have a concern after this is done. If you have a local university sponsored agriculture outreach office in your area that would be the first place to check. On the topic of structural fill pricing relative to my area, I can get chert all day for $20 a load per 18CY tri-axle. We load at their pit, of course this also involves truck time which affects the delivered price. Price of fill is going to vary from region to region, try to find out what fill is going for at your local pits and price yours higher of course due to location. Every situation is different.
From the projects I've seen (productive clay loam soils) the production drops visibly. You can see the difference in growth for years where the topsoil has been brought back. Sorry, no numbers to compare. Maybe it's different on a sandier soil?
I do a lot of scraper work cutting hills out of fields to facilitate the use of irrigation... if production drops off I can't see it. They produce 260 bushel per acre on some the fields I have rebuilt. This is sand country and the farmer I work for says he likes me to replace only about 6 inches of topsoil (his words "just enough to hold a plant"). Then he can pour the water to it. I just spent a month hauling topsoil from one field back to my yard!!!
First off, I'm not a farmer, but every farmer I know would chase you off with a shotgun for suggesting that you strip the top and take a pile of fill out and replace the top. The way to handle the situation in my opinion is to search around a little and find some fill that some else needs rid of. A flat lawn with a steep back beside the road that obscures the view from the driveway, a hillside running down against a building, etc... I have used these senarios to profit from myself. You need some fill so you make the homeowner a cheap offer, cover your costs of spreading the topsoil back out, tack on a little bit extra for profit, and get paid to get your fill. The you figure your loading and hauling cost out, be sure to add 10% for traffic delays, etc and bill the county for the costs of that. In a for instance, I was contacted by a guy to do some heavy fill, he had a pull off with a steep drop off, like 25' of drop off that he wanted enlarged. He was on a 10 ton road, so repeated abuse by triaxle dumps would attract unwanted attention. So I looked around, and the neighbor was a golf course that had a long shed beside a hillside that ran all the way down to the side of the building. I swung a deal with the golf course that I could have the dirt for free, and I had no restoration responsibilities, then I sold the dirt for 5 dollars a yd to the property owner. hauled 4-5 loads an hour with my little single axle dump and my takeuchi mini doing the digging... did well on that one
Be tough to find somebody with 50,000 yards of unwanted fill in there yard....
I don't think thats out of line, but thats just my opinion.
With it being next door to the project with the fill ,, your in the drivers seat.. you could go $2.50 and they wouldn't run away from you... just my thoughts.
Holy frig, we sell fill for 4.50 a ton loaded, plus delivery or about 8 bucks a BCY, but I suppose its mostly rock here and good hardpan fill is at a premium.
I am a farmer and while I'm not in your area, I will guarantee you would never get your soil back to its original production. In this area, we have had a fair bit of oil and gas exploration in the last 20 years. These were sites that were stripped, A and B horizons, and once the well was drilled, the site reclaimed with the original soil. You can tell 20 years later where the site was. Even on some of the land in the family where wells that were drilled in the 60's and 70's you can still see where the ground was disturbed. You maybe able to establish grass and use it as pasture, and that will help the soil structure, I don't know how old you are, but I highly doubt that you would see it back to original production in your life time. Oil well reclamation around here at that time would get to sign off on a site if it reached 75% of original production. That took about 5-6 years after they got things reclaimed to get to that level. And now, the areas that had site's stripped might make 80% on a good year. On a bad year, either dry or wet, probably closer to 50%. If it was me, and someone wanted fill, I might consider having them dig me a nice fishing pond some where if the area was suitable for that.
Yair . . . As others have said it depends entirely on the soil types and topography. I have seen paddocks lasered through various layers and then ripped and topsoiled and it all worked out fine for cane. At very least I would preserve the profile and have the site deep cross ripped before reinstating top soil. As has been said, the local Ag. Dept. could probably advise and any costs for consultants and analysis could be picked up by the customer who wants the fill. The original poster is in a good position to negotiate. Cheers.
All good advice . Another thing to consider is land value before & after the project . Good farm ground is at a premium now . Only thing I have to compare it to in our area is reclaimed coal mine ground . It gets farmed but does not produce as it used to . Farmer wont pay much rent for ground like this or go very high on purchasing the land . Massive amounts of poultry litter helps . I suppose if it were me in this position I would try to narrow the boys down to getting the dirt off a 10 acre spread and as 712alberta suggested dig a big lake , and ......... Maybe level off a runway over here for the plane & new hanger .
Couldn't agree more.
lowering 30 acres 1 foot would yield almost exactly what they need, but I don't know why you would give it away for 2 bucks... you're not in the materials business, you didn't propose this deal, they did... and they're not likely going to get it for less that 8-10 bucks a yard elsewhere. Your farm isn't going to produce the same for a long time after reclamation, the sub soil will be really dense and heaving from scraper traffic... I say let em dig a 3 acre lake 10 feet deep for 5 bucks a yard. Was it the county, or their contractor that approached you? If it's the government, I would require money up front, and sell them the dirt in an area laid out by a surveyor and given an actual legal description. Make them furnish a 2 or 3 year bond for whatever is planted after reclamation, and if it's a contractor make them give you a bond, or a copy of their bond for the project, along with having a nice tight contract, and no more than 15 day payment terms.
Well said CM . Crazy what some tracts of farm ground are going for . Was at an auction recently and watched my buddy buy farm ground at 11,200 an acre . We have seen it anywhere from 8,000 to 16,500 . This is Farm ground . The 16,500 an acre was in a river bottom subject to flooding . I can only assume it's a cycle at it's highpoint about to change in the near future . I just don't know .:beatsme
If the field has drainage tile in it and you do allow them to lower the elevation, consider whether it can be successfully re-tiled or if you end up with a drainage problem. Especially if your neighbors have their tiles connected to yours.
I would look at it a few different ways to try to establish the value of the land before deciding if it was worth the hassle: 1. How much could you rent the 30 acres for as farmland? What would the income be over 10 years? 2. What will the financial loss be if you can't grow your crops for 3 years? 3. As said by others, yields will be less once you can work the land again. What does that translate to in terms of $? The cost of fill isn't just what gets paid to the seller. Transportation is often the biggest cost. That's why they want your soil. $2/cy sounds cheap. Think of it this way: they're willing to strip and stockpile 30 acres of top soil to access the fill. Then they're planning to put back the top soil and restore the 30 acres. They're willing to spend a lot of money to extract the fill. If you decide that it's worth selling, why give it away?