PERC for Agricultural Use
Come see us at the Kennewick Hay Conference,
January 11-12 2012!
Agricultural units are designed for use in fields, groves, etc. in rural applications by farmers, landowners, etc.
The latest field updates on the 620 are in.
- "Best machine on the ranch!" Annie, New Mexico.
- "Great results looking to add a third 620 to our lineup."
Tri States Power, Colorado.
Guess you can see me grinning ear to ear.
On a more sober note, I get a lot of questions as to cost of the units, cost per acre, per hour. All reasonable and I will attempt to address them here.
When analyzing the cost of equipment, our burrowing rodent control machines are no different than any production oriented equipment. Total cost of the equipment to be used divided by the acres it will be used on. This will include the cost of the ATV, its trailer and of course the unit itself. Included must be calculated the acres per hour that can be covered as well as the efficiency of the kill by the carbon monoxide. I will emphasize here that the efficiency of one unit compared to another of our equipment is different. The bigger the unit, the more efficient it will be in rodents killed. More cfm gas delivery, higher kill rate.
All of this is totally dependent on the actual infestation of the acreage involved. More gophers, less acres per hour. The real time figure is comparing the actual acres per hour, or acres per machine to the cost of the mounds in machinery repair, stand loss and hay value loss because of dirt in the hay.
In truth, it is impossible to estimate the actual time per acre and cost per acre until the field involved is treated. Usually around 15 to 25 dollars per acre, labor plus equipment cost is ballpark. Custom treatment will be a bit more.
Prospective customers look at the cost of our rodent control machines and have a first reaction that the investment is way out of their budget. Reality is that the burrowing rodent is costing them much more than the control costs will be. Per acre cost is reasonable, per ton cost is eye opening.
User Input Improves PERCs
There are several field applications of the PERC systems that we have gained from farmer input.
First, size matters when treating ground squirrels and prairie dogs. The more carbon monoxide we can put in a burrow system at any given time results in better kill percentages.
By the same token, gopher control is more dependent on the operators attention and diligence in the field than the size of the machine. Granted, the bigger units will cover more acres in any given time and in the end will produce more dependable results. But the 206’s are doing a great job and many farmers love the machine.
Rules of thumb for "What unit do I need?"
I recently did a time cost production analysis for a customer in helping him decide what unit to buy for his acreage.
This is a difficult problem for those that would max out a 206 but have minimal acreage for a 412. And of course the same is true with the 412 compared to the 620.
Working with several custom operators we have come up with the mounds per acre in a gopher infested field that would constitute a fairly mild infestation. We determined that 20 to 25 mounds per acre will allow an operator using the PERC 412 to treat from 3 to 3 1/2 acres an hour. This would calculate out to about one minute per mound. Thus, if there were 40 mounds per acre, you could expect to treat about 1-1/2 acres an hour with the 412 and so on. The 620 can cover about about 1.7 times the area covered by the 412 in any given time frame. The real advantage to the 620 is that it has 40,000 ppm of CO in the exhaust gas while the 412 has about 25,000 PPM of CO. The 206 tests at 20,000 ppm of CO. We recommend that both the 206 and the 412 are run with about 1/3 choke to increase the levels of CO.
The determining factor is cost per acre of the machine, labor availability and of course availability of capital. Most farmers have shown that they can justify the capital purchase of their PERC unit when the per acre cost of the machine is between $ 10 and $ 40. Getting the dirt out of the hay, reductions of breakdowns in the field from gopher mounds and a faster, smoother harvest are factors used when justifying the cost of the machine.
Consequently, the recommended acreages for each machine are as follows:
206 and the 206T up to 200 acres
412 200 to 1,000 acres
620 1,000 to 2,000 acres (custom operators and large operations that can have a full time operator can cover up to about 3,000 acres in a 12 month time frame weather permitting.)
Watch for more information on this page soon!
