How much do those spreaders cost?

Close to $10K now, I would imagine. It’s a fine piece of equipment. The bottom of the hopper where the agitator runs is all stainless steel.

I'm going to throw a scenario that you will run into.. dump truck shows up with 28 tons of lime but will not take to middle of property because of bad roads or limbs scratching his truck so has to dump it at the gate in tall grass... property is 1000 acres with ten plots that total 14 acres that need two tons per acre and the three best fields are in the back, over a mile away and are 5 acres combined... you will have to make seven trips just to do the back three, close to twenty miles just in travel... you get those done and spread a couple close ones and call it a day, then it rains... that little mud puddle a couple hundred yards inside the gate has now become a bottomless bog but you keep going because the job has to get done... remember the tall grass?? you will once it gets wrapped in the auger... plan on spending two days to do a job. Their is a hundred people if not more willing to bush cut or disc patches but I've never heard of a person willing to lime hunting plots... my main question is who's going to fix the mud hole you made due to going through it over forty times being you only haul 1500lbs. I'm not being an ass, just a person that's limed a lot of hunting land over the years. It's so nice that T'ville feed sells lime in a five ton buggy so I don't have to deal with loading it. Now I just call John a half dozen times a year and ask him to fill it up and bring it back when I'm done.

Big tires and give-er-all she’s got. A big buck is worth the mud. I see vehicles muddy all the time with blood dripping the tail gate.

This scenario has crossed my mind and I’m still trying to decide what a job like that would be worth??? For simple jobs, you could probably get by quoting a “per ton” price but in the scenario you describe, it won’t be that easy or cheap. And it must not be that easy to get a buggy in most places as there sure are a lot of guys needing lime spread. I’ve thought about buying a 4-5 ton spreader too. Would be a lot easier that way.

Simple. Don’t take on that project at all.

As you stated, there are very few people willing to spread lime on food plots.
Therefore, a person should have no problem being able to pick and choose which properties he services.
If he’s also not trying to make a living doing it, that will allow him to be even more selective.

As far as the amount of time that it would take to do the job that you described, it would still be a pretty good return for 2 days work.
28 tons @ $150/Ton = $4,2000.00
No bad for a side hustle.

I know this is beating a dead horse but one tire on a truck can cost more than you would make in this scenario which is the reason nobody will spread with trucks.

If we are gonna breakdown the financials on deer hunting, Skinny might as well go ahead and shut her down. 😁

You make a very good point.

For those small or hard to access plots, why not hit them with 400-800 lbs of pelletized lime each year until the pH is sufficient ? Even at $300/ton it’s much cheaper than fertilizer.

I have 7 small plots and I do pelletized as suggested here.