Worksheet 2
Are Fire Ants Costing Your
Hay Operation Money
On how many acres do you usually produce hay?  
How many cutting do you usually make per year?  
What is your average profit per bale?  
1 How have fire ants increased your operating costs?
More Expensive Equipment  Price Number of Years Used
     
2 Cost of broken equipment or faster wear per year:
Parts  
Labor (including your time)  
Add to get total breakage  
3 Stops to clean out machinery:
Stops per cutting x cuttings per year  
Minutes per stop  
Hourly cost (labor and machine time)  
Cost of lost time  
 
4 Do you have to raise your cutter to avoid mounds? If so, how much yield is lost?   Bales per acre
  Profit per bale
multiply bales per acre by profit per bale   Lose per acre
Multiply number of acres by loss per acre Lost yield =  
5 Other Cost? Give total.  
Total losses from 1-5  
Now divide total losses by number of acres to get loss per acre  
If your loss per acre is:
More than $15 you can probably make money by treating for fire ants
Less than $15 but more than $6, you may still be able to make money
using alternative/non chemical methods
Less than $6, fire ant treatment would not be justified