THE TRIM TRACTOR
WE SAVE YOU TIME AND MONEY
My Mission
Hi, I'm Travis, and I love growing weed. But I don't love the direction the industry has taken here in Montana. The price of bud on the wholesale market has been falling, but every year it costs more and more to grow a crop. Margins are shrinking for small producers, and I've been watching them get muscled out of the market by big companies that can afford to mechanize and work an economy of scale.
So I launched this trimming business to help level the playing field. I purchased the same high-end trimmer that the big dogs are using to trim 80+ pounds a day, the Mobius M108S, and I'm making it available to smaller producers across the state. I haul my trimmer, conveyor belts, and a big three-phase generator to client facilities and offer a plug-and-play processing service. With this set-up we can get hundreds of pounds of top shelf flower ready for testing and retail in a week's worth of time.
This service is changing the game for my customers. With my help, harvests that used to take months to trim are processed in days. The trim quality is competitive with hand trimming while costing just a fraction of the price. I charge between $25 and $35 per pound for this service, depending on the quantity of flower we trim. Weights are assessed after we trim your bud.
Why Partner With Us?
Save Time
The Mobius has an average throughput of 10 pounds per hour of finished flower. Clients should expect a little hand-trimming, either on the outfeed conveyor or after the run is over, to bring a batch to the finish line. The exact amount of time depends on the strain and the trim tightness that we target. With a tight trim and a good crew on the outfeed conveyor, we can have bud ready for retail as it rolls off the line. With a looser trim, putting a priority on trim quality and flower-to-trim ratios, you can expect your average 1-2 lb/day trimmer to work through 4-8 lbs/day.
Save Money
My clients report savings of $50 to $100 per pound in their processing costs when using this service. If you have a 100-pound harvest, that's $5,000 to $10,000 of pure profit back in your pocket.
I invoice clients based on the weight of trimmed flower, not the biomass we start with. The cost is on a sliding scale, with discounts for larger batches:
0-50 lbs: $35/lb
50-100 lbs: $30/lb
100+ lbs: $25/lb
Test and Sell Fresh Herb
Let's face it, cannabis is a perishable product. I've helped pull down way too many harvests that sat in the warehouse for months. By the time they made it through the trim room bottleneck, they smelled like hay and tested many percentage points lower than they did when they were fresh. When you partner with us, we can get your entire harvest trimmed the same week you buck it. Lock in your COAs when your bud is at peak potency, and get it out to market smelling and looking its best.
Statewide Service
No matter how far you are from our home in Missoula, we're happy to bring our service to you. We supply generator power for our Mobius so that you don't have to call an electrician and wire in the 30 amps of 3-phase power that this machine draws. We simply require a water hook-up for our hot pressure washer and a 110V outlet for our conveyor belts. For clients outside of Missoula, we have a modest service charge of $0.30/mile, roundtrip (for example, the average service charge for a job in Bozeman is $123).
Keys to a Successful Run
Moisture Content
10 - 11% moisture content is the sweet spot for trim quality and resin head retention. Above 12% will yield a looser trim, while drier flowers (especially below 9%) dump more kief and break apart in the tumbler, yielding lower flower to trim ratios. I HIGHLY recommend using a moisture meter while drying and curing your flower (the meter I use only costs $20), and timing the trimming session as close to bucking as possible.
Sorting and Grading
We get our best results with the Mobius with a little extra prep work during bucking. All fan leaves should be removed (along with any material other than bud), flowers should be bucked down to their final size for retail, and A-grade and B-grade buds should be bucked into separate product streams (if practical).
QC Team
Clients are responsible for QC, either on the outfeed conveyor (which can accommodate 4 people) or after we wrap up the trim session. When we target a tight trim with the Mobius, a good crew of trimmers can keep up with it on the outfeed conveyor. This is a good strategy for large outdoor harvests, wholesalers, and companies that are simply running a lean production crew. For clients that put a priority on flower quality and flower-to-trim ratios, we can target a looser trim with the Mobius, getting your product 65-75% of the way there. I recommend this strategy for smaller indoor harvests and retailers.
Batch Size
The Mobius is a through-put trimmer that's designed to process large volumes of flower. The smallest batch size that we can process is roughly 2 pounds of finished flower. Larger batch sizes allow us to dial in a trim tightness with greater accuracy and really make this machine sing.
Testimonial
"Tractor Trav is a business saver! I’ve been working with Travis and his Mobius trim machine for a few months now and I am incredibly impressed by the results. The Mobius produces near hand-trim quality bud at an affordable rate. The best part of his service for me though is the time savings: we processed a 40 light room (88 lbs) in about a day and a half. Previously, when I was hand trimming, that same room would take my team nearly 2 months. The Mobius is incredibly gentle for a trim machine. My test results have not decreased after making the switch. Trav is saving me a ton of money on payroll and getting my product to market faster than I ever could have imagined."
Jeff at Meadowlark Gardens
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Get In Touch
Questions about the trimming service? Want to schedule a run? Give me a call or shoot me an email. I can't wait to chat with you about saving your business time and money.
Travis Vaughn
Owner/Operator
(406) 529-6506
