Brush Hogging Cost Per Acre in Kentucky (2026 Guide)

The back pasture went a couple of summers without a cut. Now the fescue has gone to seed, musk thistle and ironweed stand over it, and multiflora rose is working out from the fence. Brush hogging in Kentucky runs $75 to $400 an acre with Cut Brush, set by how long the field has gone, with a $250 to $500 minimum per visit. Our crews mow fields around Louisville, in Jefferson, Oldham, Bullitt and Shelby counties.

At a glance:

• Our price: $75 to $150 an acre for a field mowed within the past year, rising to $200 to $400 once it has gone three years or more. Every visit carries a $250 to $500 minimum.
• Where mowing stops: saplings past 2 to 3 inches. That ground moves to our understory band, $1,500 to $2,500 an acre.
• What a cut fixes: UK rates timely mowing as effective on musk thistle seed, suppression only on tall ironweed, and not very effective on multiflora rose.
• Fescue height: UK recommends 3 to 4 inches of stubble through summer.
• State rule: landowners with 10 or more acres in agriculture or forestry need a water quality plan under Kentucky’s Agriculture Water Quality Act.

We also mow in Clark and Floyd counties in Indiana. Our crew works from Louisville, so tell us where your field is and we will contact you about the ground, the gate and the cut you need. The sections below show where yours would fall.

How Much Does Brush Hogging Cost in Kentucky?

Brush hogging is mowing with a heavy rotary cutter behind a tractor or skid steer. It is built for growth that would wreck a lawn mower: tall grass, weeds, briars and saplings up to about 2 inches. Here is what we charge by field condition:

Field condition	Our price per acre	What it looks like
Mowed within the past year	$75 – $150	Fescue and clover with scattered weeds, no woody stems
1–2 seasons of growth	$125 – $250	Fescue seed heads, thistle, ironweed and the first rose canes
3+ years overgrown	$200 – $400	Dense brush, rose thickets and saplings up to 2 inches
Reverting to woods	Not a brush hog job	Saplings past 2 to 3 inches, autumn olive or cedar closing in

The $250 to $500 minimum covers loading the tractor, trailering it to your gate and unloading it. A one or two acre lot usually starts at the minimum.

These are Cut Brush’s published brush hogging rates, and they are what we charge on a Kentucky field. Mowing sits alongside clearing on our Louisville services page. Once the stems outgrow a rotary cutter, the job moves to the regrowth and understory row on our Louisville pricing page.

You may have seen the University of Kentucky’s custom machinery rates, which put a general bush hog pass near $19.50 an acre. That figure assumes a neighbour whose tractor is already at the next farm. A one-time cut with a trailer haul is a different job, which is why the visit minimum exists.

What Changes the Price of Brush Hogging a Kentucky Field

Years since the last cut. This moves the price more than anything else. A field cut every summer mows at full speed. Three seasons of rose, thistle stalks and saplings make the operator slow down, lift the deck and sometimes go over it twice.

Which weeds fill it. UK’s pasture weed guide, AGR-207, grades mowing plant by plant. Musk, bull and plumeless thistle respond well: timely mowing cuts top growth and seed. Tall ironweed and Canada thistle are only suppressed. Multiflora rose, horsenettle and trumpetcreeper barely notice. A thistle field is a straightforward cut; an ironweed and rose field is a bill that comes back every summer unless a herbicide plan is added.

Rock and side slope. On the Outer Bluegrass hills, Eden soil carries up to 25 percent limestone flagstone in the surface layer, mostly on 20 to 30 percent slopes. Flat stone and a tilted deck slow a cutter and chew blades, so an Eden hillside costs more per acre than a level paddock.

Autumn olive on the edges. UK’s FOR-179 says mowing autumn olive alone typically fails, because it comes back denser. The fix is a cut followed several months later by a foliar spray of the sprouts near the end of the growing season. Budget the spray, or expect to mow the same stems next year.

Wet ground. Some Kentucky fields sit on a fragipan that holds water through late winter and spring. A rutted field costs more to repair than the cut was worth, so we wait for the ground.

Pro tip: Walk the field in June and note which of three things fills it: thistle, ironweed or woody stems. Thistle is a mowing job. Ironweed is a mowing job every year. Stems as thick as your thumb mean the field has moved past a rotary cutter. Tell us that one thing and the first number we give you will be close.

Brush Hogging Costs Across Kentucky

Inner Bluegrass. Around Lexington, Georgetown and Paris, Maury soil grows bluegrass and white clover pasture on slopes mostly under 12 percent, with almost no chert. An open paddock here is the low end of every band. Fence lines are where the time goes.

Greater Louisville and the Outer Bluegrass hills. This is where we mow. Eden soil was first mapped in Shelby County in 1916, and its hillsides hold flagstone and steep pitches, with some slopes already gone back to brushy pasture. Level tableland in eastern Jefferson County mows fast; an Eden hillside in Shelby or Oldham County mows slowly.

The Pennyroyal. Crider soils formed in 20 to 45 inches of loess over limestone, and much of the ground is rolling karst. Sinkholes can open inside a hayfield, so we mow around the rims, not across them, and that adds minutes per acre.

The Jackson Purchase. Calloway soil, first described in Calloway County in 1937, has a fragipan 14 to 38 inches down and stays saturated above it from January through April in normal years. Spring mowing there waits until the field can carry a tractor.

The coal fields. UK calls autumn olive particularly common and problematic on Kentucky’s reclaimed mine land. Mowing it there is upkeep, not removal; the Kentucky underbrush removal cost guide covers the heavier work.

Farm Rules, Cost Share and Burning in Kentucky

Water quality plans. Kentucky’s Agriculture Water Quality Act, passed in 1994, requires every landowner with 10 or more acres in agriculture or silviculture to develop and carry out a water quality plan. Mowing alone does not trigger it, but if you are bringing 10 acres or more back into hay or pasture, the plan becomes part of farming that ground.

Cost share. The state’s Soil Erosion and Water Quality Cost Share Program, run through local conservation districts, pays up to 75 percent of a practice’s actual cost, capped at $20,000 a year, and lists pasture and hay planting as eligible. Sign-ups are continuous and ranked once a year. Mowing on its own is not a listed practice, so ask your district what the reseeding after it could qualify for.

Burning fence row piles. A mowed field leaves nothing to burn, but cut fence row brush often gets piled. From February 15 to April 30 and October 1 to December 15, the Division of Forestry bars burning within 150 feet of woodland or brushland between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and most fence rows sit right against it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to bush hog an acre in Kentucky?

With us, $75 to $400 an acre depending on how overgrown it is. Most fields that missed a year or two land between $125 and $250.

How much to brush hog one or two acres?

Usually $250 to $500, because our visit minimum covers the trailer haul. The mowing itself may be worth less, but getting the tractor there costs the same for one acre as for ten.

Will mowing get rid of thistles and ironweed?

Partly. UK says timely mowing cuts musk thistle top growth and seed, only suppresses tall ironweed, and does little to multiflora rose. Expect to mow more than once, or add a herbicide plan.

How short should a Kentucky fescue pasture be mowed?

UK recommends holding 3 to 4 inches of stubble through summer. Cutting lower stresses the stand in a dry July or August, and on rocky ground it costs blades.

My field is turning into woods. Is that still brush hogging?

Not once saplings pass 2 to 3 inches. Then it is understory or mulching work; see the Kentucky forestry mulching cost guide.

Get a Brush Hogging Quote in Kentucky

Pick the Louisville area below and request a free quote. Our crew will contact you to talk through the field and the gate a tractor would use, what is growing (fescue, thistle, ironweed, rose or saplings), whether hay or cattle come off it, and whether you want one cut or the field kept open on a schedule. For whole-tract work, the Kentucky land clearing cost per acre guide has the bands.

Field across a state line? See our Indiana brush hogging cost guide or Tennessee brush hogging cost guide.

Sources

• University of Kentucky: Custom Machinery Rates Applicable to Kentucky (2024)
• Kentucky Division of Conservation: Agriculture Water Quality Act