I’m looking for some input on what I should expect to pay for farm sitting. I have 2 horses that go out at night and are in during the day. Stalls would need to be done once a day. All together the work to be done in the morning and evening only takes me about 45 minutes. The horses are very easy. I also have 2 dogs and a cat. They are easy too. I’d like for person to stay at my house for the time that I am gone I’m just not sure what to pay.
So really the time taken is 24hrs a day since you want someone on the property. I’d expect to pay between 50-75+ a day, depending on the duration.
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Minimum of $50/day.
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Wow! I guess I am cheap!
I charge $25 a day or $30 per night if staying over. However, the $25 a day incurs a traveling charge if over 10 miles from me of $0.50 per mile/per day. The overnight stays do not incur a charge. This includes feed/water/cleaning stalls/tidying barn/etc. I do have additional charges if the owner was the horses groomed, bathed, clipped, etc.
Belmont, the .50 per mile for travel is a great idea! Some of the farms I have sat were a ways out and the trip was barely worth the money I was getting paid.
Depends on if “easy” for you will also be “easy” for the farmsitter.
Your horses may be easy for you to handle, but until you’ve seen your farmsitter interact with them you can’t know for sure how much work will be involved. Turnout can be work for someone new to your horses, especially if they decide being caught is optional.
Ditto for your housepets - especially ditto for the dogs!
No matter how well-trained, dogs tend to test anyone they are not familiar with.
I pay $10/visit for 2X daily when I’m away - so $20/day.
Current farmsitter works at nearby feedstore & lives close by so no housesitting necessary.
I have 1 horse, 1 pony who are not stalled, but have access to stalls & come in to be fed on their own. So no turnout or other handling is required of the farmsitter.
I ask only that he pick stalls & leave manure piled in the pasture or wheelbarrow(for short trips) for me to deal with.
When I had a barncat, putting food/water out for her was included.
Housecats (2) were on their own, although for longer trips I did ask sitter to check once a week to make sure they had water & dry food.
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we pay $10/per horse per day. Regardless if the horse is stall kept, requiring stall cleaning, or lives out. That is for 2x day feeding, stalls if required, water, blanketing as necessary, but not for staying in the house/overnight.
For 2 horses with that kind of care and the small animals, I would typically charge $60/day. I’m committing to at least two visits a day caring for 5 animals including travel. Much less than that isn’t really worth the time.
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I charge $25 a visit and start at $50/day if I stay over and/or have to come AM and PM. I add travel, at cost, to that. If there’s hard-core work involved like mucking, the rate goes up. But I’m happy to put in dirty work. Usually, it makes sense for the farm-sitter to stay over if there are AM and PM chores. After all, part of what I’d want as the farm owner is supervision.
I also add a couple more things for farm owners. First, besides my experience, I add some detailed things that would help an animal emergency go smoothly. I own a truck and trailer which I can use should a horse need to be taken to a clinic. Also, I ask owners to set up accounts with their vet(s), and to leave me a Letter of Instruction for their animals. I provide a template. We talk about it and I leave it with them, along with my contract, to think about and to fill out. Basically, the letter lets them pick treatment options and limits for each animal, specifies who has authority to make medical decisions for their animals if they can’t be reached (including and excluding euthanasia), and which names the owner as the one responsible for the costs of treatment.
Attached to this letter is a page listing all animals, species, ages, known conditions of quirks, insurance information (if applicable). I ask owners to leave that in hard copy at their place so that I can bring it with me and show it to any vet treating the animal in an emergency and with me there acting in loco parentis.
It all seems a tad anal, perhaps. And I might seem expensive. But I want to make sure that if I say I can take care of an animal for an absentee owner, I absolutely can. Hope this helps you think about what services to offer or how to charge for farm sitting.
Oh, and the only time things have gone wrong in my farm sitting career have had to do with water-- well pump blows up and I have to take every bucket on the place and go beg for water from the dairy next door. Or snow storm comes to an area that doesn’t.get.snow and I have to use my Hunter Princess Horse Show Water Heater to keep a stock tank thawed… because no one had a stock tank heater or a plan.
See what I mean? You have to hire someone who will do what needs to be done, and who will find a way.
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If I spend the night, my base rate is $50 day.
I think you should figure that if it takes you 45 minutes, it’ll take someone new (who has to look at a list and isn’t in a rhythm) double that. The first few times, they will do a lot of walking in circles and not be very time efficient. I don’t charge for extras (mileage, first aid care, etc).
I kinda assume that something is likely to go wrong and I’ll have to sort it out so anytime I farm sit (or dog or cat sit), I assume that my schedule will be disrupted somehow (vet visit, horse hard to catch, fence broken). And I figure that disruption into my rates.
And yes to everything that mvp said! I’m certainly not the cheapest, but my clients are VERY happy with how things are managed when they are gone. I feel like being anal retentive is probably the best trait that you can find in a sitter.
All of you who do farm sitting, are you bonded or otherwise insured as a Pet Sitting service?
What does that entail and how pricey is it?
I pay my housesitter $100 a day. Holidays are $125. She’s been with me for almost 20 yrs…
She usually does other pet sitting (dogs / cats ) on any given day, so she is back and forth throughout the day here.
She cares for my dog, both house and barn cats and 7 horses (that can come and go, so no leading to and from paddocks). She mucks am/pm. She does a lunchtime hay/water check. And spends the night if I am not home.
She works for a Vet Clinic, so she can get a Vet here if there is an emergency. There have been those here…
I pay $75/day if I am out of town. I like for the person to stay at my place but that isn’t always possible. 5 horses and 2 barn cats. Keep the horses out as much as possible but they do have access to their stalls at all times. When the weather is nice, that means light stall cleaning (mostly just picking them out.) When the weather is bad, more stall cleaning.
I pay $25-30 per trip for my four horses and six cats. Includes stall mucking, feeding and bringing horses in and out. If the sitter stays at my house, I pay $70 per day plus extra money for groceries but typically only have a house sitter when I am away for more than 5 days. I am in Virginia.
[QUOTE=mvp;8579612]
I charge $25 a visit and start at $50/day if I stay over and/or have to come AM and PM. I add travel, at cost, to that. If there’s hard-core work involved like mucking, the rate goes up. But I’m happy to put in dirty work. Usually, it makes sense for the farm-sitter to stay over if there are AM and PM chores. After all, part of what I’d want as the farm owner is supervision.
I also add a couple more things for farm owners. First, besides my experience, I add some detailed things that would help an animal emergency go smoothly. I own a truck and trailer which I can use should a horse need to be taken to a clinic. Also, I ask owners to set up accounts with their vet(s), and to leave me a Letter of Instruction for their animals. I provide a template. We talk about it and I leave it with them, along with my contract, to think about and to fill out. Basically, the letter lets them pick treatment options and limits for each animal, specifies who has authority to make medical decisions for their animals if they can’t be reached (including and excluding euthanasia), and which names the owner as the one responsible for the costs of treatment.
Attached to this letter is a page listing all animals, species, ages, known conditions of quirks, insurance information (if applicable). I ask owners to leave that in hard copy at their place so that I can bring it with me and show it to any vet treating the animal in an emergency and with me there acting in loco parentis.
It all seems a tad anal, perhaps. And I might seem expensive. But I want to make sure that if I say I can take care of an animal for an absentee owner, I absolutely can. Hope this helps you think about what services to offer or how to charge for farm sitting.
Oh, and the only time things have gone wrong in my farm sitting career have had to do with water-- well pump blows up and I have to take every bucket on the place and go beg for water from the dairy next door. Or snow storm comes to an area that doesn’t.get.snow and I have to use my Hunter Princess Horse Show Water Heater to keep a stock tank thawed… because no one had a stock tank heater or a plan.
See what I mean? You have to hire someone who will do what needs to be done, and who will find a way.[/QUOTE]
Yes, Yes, Yes! The vet contract and a signed contract are a must. I have a packet that I give my clients the first time we meet. I always have a meet and greet/show and tell at the most a week before they go. I give them the packet and instruct them to leave it signed with all the proper info and the payment arrangement we have made.
My packets include a price list, contract, package explanations (circled with what we talked about, special notes, etc), veterinary release form(s), and emergency contact forms. I also usually ask my clients leave any special instructions typed out for me.
I do feel as if I under charge often, but I also don’t do this full time. I have a full time job. I decided to stat this side business, because I was the only one with proper experience (small animal and large animal) in my area. I forgot to mention in my first post that my prices change depending on how many animals!
I charged $40/day about three years ago. If i was to start pet sitting again, it would be at least $50/day for an overnight.
One thing I didn’t see mentioned by the petsitters: figure out if you will charge more if ER Vet services take you out of work. I had multiple times were I had situations to deal with that caused me to miss work. On those particular sittings, I ended up losing money because of the missed hours of work.
Another thing I would do differently is make sure to outline what is included in the per day rate. I had two clients that I had to go to their houses at lunch as well…and the gas/time made my rate too low. I would do now define what the $50 covered and would add additional for a lunch visit/travel.
I get paid $100 a day–there are 8 horses (but they stay out and are good with just hay and have automatic waterers) so I just throw them hay and check on them, and then feed their sr horse 2x a day. They also have two dogs that I feed 2x a day and one requires several pills 2x a day as well. I stay out there, but it is in a very rural area about an hour from where I work and attend school, so I do have to spend quite a bit of time driving–the weekend isn’t so bad, but during the week the driving gets to be a bit much. If it were close, I wouldn’t mind doing it for less, but the $100 helps to cover gas as well.
Good point about vet arrangements, mvp!
Forgot to add that I always call vet to tell them who is authorized to request services in my absence.
I’ve been this vet’s client for 20yrs, so he is willing to provide care as needed & bill me later.
I farm sit quite often. One lady has one horse, and I have to go out 3x a day. She’s about 10 miles from me, and pays me 80$. When I do her dog and 2 cats I get 150$ a day. She’s also a very generous person 
The other lady has 10 horses, I don’t clean stalls, just feed bring in and turn out. I get 100$ for that. I think it just depends on the distance and the work load My averages are 50-175$ a day. It just depends on the horses, if I’m staying there, how far, etc.
