How much can be cleared in a day?

Who this is for

• Landowners trying to sanity-check a quoted duration
• Anyone deciding between an hourly rate and a fixed price
• People planning around how long the site will be occupied

The short answer

Output is set by how much woody fibre has to be processed, not by how many acres are enclosed by the boundary. Two identical acres can differ by a factor of ten in fibre volume, and the machine hours follow the fibre.

The strongest single variable is largest stem diameter, because processing time per stem rises far faster than diameter does. A parcel of uniform light growth moves quickly; the same parcel with scattered large stems does not.

Terrain, ground moisture, obstacles, and how precise the work has to be all reduce output further, and none of them show up in an acreage figure.

The practical consequence: ask for a range with the assumptions stated, and ask what would push it to the slow end.

What changes the answer

• Largest stem diameter, and how many of them there are
• Stem density across the working area
• Whether material stays on site or has to be moved
• Slope, ground moisture, and surface obstacles
• How selective the work is — retaining features costs time
• Machine class and attachment match to the growth

What raises and lowers daily output

Rather than a rate, this is the set of factors that separate a fast day from a slow one on identical equipment.

Why diameter dominates everything else

This is the least intuitive part and the most useful to understand.

A stem twice the diameter of another contains roughly four times the cross-sectional area and considerably more than four times the processing effort, because the head has to make more passes, at lower feed rate, with more frequent recovery. Larger stems are also more likely to require repositioning the machine rather than working from where it stands.

The consequence is that the largest stems on a parcel can consume a disproportionate share of the day even when they are a small minority of the stem count. This is why the largest trunk diameter is the single most useful measurement a landowner can supply, and why an estimate of it is worth more to a contractor than an accurate acreage.

Hourly versus fixed price, and who carries the unknown

Once you accept that output is uncertain, the pricing question becomes a question about who absorbs that uncertainty.

Hourly pricing puts the risk on you. It is appropriate where the site cannot be assessed — heavy growth, unknown obstacles, a reclamation project — because a fixed price for an unseen site is a padded price. Ask for an estimated range and a checkpoint at which you both reassess.

Fixed pricing puts the risk on the contractor, who will price it accordingly. It suits well-defined work on a visible site, and it gives you certainty. What it does not give you is a refund if the job goes faster than they feared.

Neither is more honest. What is dishonest is a fixed price presented as though the site were known when it is not.

How to test a quoted duration

You do not need production data to interrogate a schedule. You need the assumptions behind it.

• Ask what stem size and density the duration assumes.
• Ask what would make it take longer, and how you would both find out.
• Ask whether the figure includes moving material or only cutting it.
• Ask what happens to the price if the estimate is exceeded.
• Ask whether travel and setup are inside or outside the quoted hours.

Why a contractor’s past average is not your estimate

When somebody does name a figure, it is usually an average of their own recent work, and that is worth understanding rather than dismissing.

A contractor whose last ten jobs were open pasture reclamation genuinely does cover ground quickly, and their average reflects that. The same contractor on a vined, mixed-age parcel with scattered large stems will not come close to it, and the average tells you nothing about which case you are.

Averages also hide the distribution. A contractor may have a good typical day and one job in five that runs to twice the expected hours. Knowing the typical figure without knowing how often it is exceeded gives you false confidence about your own schedule.

The question that extracts the useful information is not what they average, but what their slowest recent job was and what made it slow. That answer describes the risk you are actually taking on.

What drives the cost

Common mistakes

• Comparing two quotes by their day counts without comparing their assumptions
• Supplying an acreage but not a largest-stem estimate
• Taking a fixed price on a site nobody could see into
• Assuming a quoted duration includes moving the material

Questions to ask a contractor

• What stem size and density does this duration assume?
• What would push this to the slow end?
• Does the estimate include dealing with the material or only cutting it?
• Are travel and setup inside the quoted hours?

What to do next

1. Measure the largest trunk diameter on the property and write it down
2. Decide whether you want certainty or want to pay only for time used
3. Ask for the assumptions behind any duration you are quoted
4. Use the cost estimator to see which factors are making your project complex

Questions people actually ask