Cleaning out stock dam..

Just wondering what to expect to pay an excavator guy to come and clean out a stock dam...per hour rate?

Thanks..

Hi Jo,
I have a local excavating company within 5 miles of my farm. The last time I hired them was around 7-8 years ago. At that time they charged $100.00 an hour. This was 1 man and 1 machine. I am in Southern Minnesota. Just thought I would let you know. Hope this helps somewhat.
Kow Farmer

Just keep in mind a guy with a big excavator may charge twice as much per hour as a guy with a small one but he may get the work done in
1/10th the time. I have seen this happen.

going rate as of today in mercer county westen pa.is 100$ per hr. 1 guy 1 machine.

I just got a guy in with a big excavator. $115 an hour. Gets a lot of work done in 1 hr

alot cheaper if its in a place where ya can do it quietly rather than a highly visable location, digging in any kinda wet place nowdays takes more permits than ya can imagine!

You got that right. This spring we had a guy come in with just a smaller (but still larger) excavator and a bulldozer to install a gravel drive thru in a creek and he got it done pretty quick. Didn't have much room to work with, but it wasn't a problem for him.

A drive thru in a creek! Whats the reward to turn you in to the DEP We were putting in creek crossing for the cattle. Took over 1 year just to get the permits and the print from the NRCS. What a pain...I had to get the permits since NRCS was paying for it..All the other creek and wetlands work is done when the leaves are on the trees and I have an excavator that will do about anything if you pay him cash....

I don't know what size you need exactly, but most guys with a bigger machine tend to have a 4 hour minimum charge. 100 an hour sounds about right. Almost any yahoo can run the machines, but a good operator will get it done right fast. Often times you will have to pay for that skill, so keep that in mind.

It's got all the proper permits and paperwork to satisfy the government. It was the most cost effective way to go instead of buying a pair of 4' culverts to drop in and go over the top. We are working on a crossing in another area that won't be able to be crossed, so we'll have to look into culverts for that area. Again all the paper work is in motion, just takes a long time to do.

We have one more area we're thinking about digging out as couple feet and filling in with gravel. Had the guy from NRCS out and he said it wasn't a waterway that needed any special paperwork as it wasn't big enough, so we could go ahead and do what we pleased with that one.

Lately we've been sure to cover our butts in this happy-go-sue-me world.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Had one cleaned out around six years ago, cost around 1800. He had a drag line but most now days are running excavators with long sticks. It costs about as much to clean one as to dig a new one, but you might as well clean it it makes a world of difference to get the muck out. The one thing that may add or deduct from the bill is if they can get along side the old one to clean, depends on how close the old mounds are to the dugout, maybe with the escavators its not as much as a problem as the drag lines, but he took quite abit of time just digging the old mounds out bit to get the machine along the dugout.
Also the FSA from time to time will cost share clean outs and or new dugouts if your area is in a drought declared area. At the time they paid for half the clean out. Also they had a program, dont know if its still available, that if you fenced off 1 acre ( could include the dirt from the dugout) they would cost share the dugout. The one acre could not be hayed or grazed and was to be left for wildlife, the acre was still the owners but was on a good faith effort that the landowner leaves it this way, ours is still that way.