Compact equipment enables contractor to find niche

Hawkeye Contracting uses a Bobcat A300 all-wheel steer loader and grader attachment with a laser system for precise grading.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that matter. For Shane Schechinger, it’s the compact things that matter most to his business. Schechinger is the owner of Hawkeye Contracting, a young company that is finding its niche, and success, through the use of compact equipment.

“If I didn’t have the equipment, I wouldn’t be in business,” says Schechinger. “Compact equipment has allowed me to do this.”

Compact equipment has enabled Schechinger to not only start his own business and find success at the age of 26, but find a niche for that business as well. Using a variety of Bobcat® equipment, Hawkeye Contracting, of Harlan, Iowa, assembles “hoop structures” manufactured by Accu-Steel. The hoop structures are built for farmers as cattle confinements or for other businesses as storage units, such as a drilling company in Utah for whom Hawkeye just finished assembling a structure.

Getting his start

Hawkeye Contracting did not start out in the hoop structure market. Schechinger’s first business was a landscaping company he started after college. “My dad had a Bobcat machine, an MT52, that I used to start my landscaping company,” says Schechinger. “It was slick to get into areas and the power it had allowed me to do almost anything.”

Through use of the MT52, Schechinger got in contact with Bobcat of Omaha and got familiar with other Bobcat equipment. Eventually, Schechinger was contacted by Acme Steel, as they were looking for someone to assemble hoop structures.

“The first confinement buildings that I put up were one-of-a-kind,” says Schechinger. “They had never been built before. There was a big learning curve involved. The company I worked for wanted someone who was willing to go through that learning curve with them.”

Using his fleet of Bobcat equipment — an A300 all-wheel steer loader, S220 skid-steer loader, MT52 mini track loader, VersaHandler® V723 telescopic tool carrier and an assortment of attachments — Schechinger assembles hoop structures from start to finish, including grading and concrete work to final structure assembly.

On site in Swea City

At a jobsite on a farm near Swea City, Iowa, Schechinger and his crew had the A300 and S220 on-site as they did the finish grade and prepared to dig holes for the foundation supports. On this job, Hawkeye was handling everything but the concrete work. The farmer had ordered two buildings, each 46 feet wide by 240 feet long, set 30 feet apart. Schechinger says this is a standard size for cattle confinements to meet the square footage needed per head of cattle.

For preparing the site, Schechinger used a laser-guided grader attachment attached to the A300 for his grading work. Schechinger uses the A300 in its all-wheel steer mode, as he says it does not tear up the ground as much as he makes his turns. He says the laser-guided system and grader attachment has saved him labor and money by reducing crew sizes and producing a more perfect grade.

“With the laser grader, we can do this whole pad with two people and it’s perfect,” he says. “Using a shovel or just a bucket on the Bobcat loader, you can have four or five guys and it’s still not perfect. We would use the laser and string lines and we’d sit there for two or three days trying to get a big pad ready. When we got the laser-guided grader, it was one day and it was absolutely perfect. Before it would look flat, but you would start to pour, you were an inch or an inch-and-a-half thicker. That’s a lot of concrete when you’re pouring those pads.”

Schechinger says that he figures the system will be paid for in less than a year with savings from the concrete pours, which can average up to $1,400 in savings per pour.

With the site graded, the locations of the supports are staked and then Schechinger brings in the S220 with an auger attachment to drill the holes. Once the holes are ready, Schechinger uses the Bobcat equipment and pallet fork attachment to haul beams where each one is needed. The V723 is used to haul beams, as well as erect the rafters of the building. Using the A300 and S220, as well as the MT52, Schechinger also cleans up the dirt around the holes and uses a landplane attachment on the MT52 to get it perfect. Schechinger has the A300 equipped with the Power Bob-Tach™ option to quickly change nonhydraulic attachments, such as the buckets and pallet fork, without getting out of the cab.

With the Bobcat equipment on site, Schechinger says that a crew size of four is typical for erecting a hoop structure. The only time more crew members are needed is when the concrete is being poured.

Foundation work can take a few days, Schechinger says. Then, the structure itself can take two to four weeks to erect. Having the buildings up and finished as fast as possible is a concern for Schechinger. “Speed is the key, and a lot of these farmers, they have animals already,” he says. “When you go to talk to them, they want the building tomorrow. The key is getting them up as fast as possible.”

Schechinger said he put up about 3,000 linear feet of buildings last year. This year, he hopes to put up more, but a rainy spring has put him behind.

“The machines are used all the time,” says Schechinger. “During the summer, all of the pieces of equipment are moving constantly. ”

Schechinger says he likes the versatility of his Bobcat equipment. “I can do just about anything by switching attachments,” he says.

Another advantage of using compact equipment is transportation, says Schechinger. “It’s easy to move, you don’t need a semitrailer,” he says. “We just brought two trucks and trailers and got the equipment up here.” When the V723 is brought to the jobsite, however, Schechinger says he does need a bigger trailer.

Hawkeye Contracting uses an auger on a S220 skid-steer loader to drill support holes.

Travel is a big issue for Schechinger as he regularly assembles the hoop structures all over the Midwest, and at times beyond, and the market is growing. Schechinger says government regulations are increasing the demand for the buildings. To meet the demand, he is starting to look for foremen to handle individual crews at different jobsites and grow his company in that way.

“It’s looking like the structures will be quite a big deal in the area,” says Schechinger. “There’s more work than we can handle right now.”