Tree Trimming Project

Wil Fence is a large timber and Christmas tree farmer who is attending a project management class in the spring, his off season. When the class topic came to earned value, he was perplexed. Isn't he using EV$?$

Page $51!$

Each summer Wil hires crews to shear fields of Christmas trees for the coming holiday season. Shearing entails having a worker use a large machete to shear the branches of the tree into a nice, cone$-$shaped tree.

Wil describes his business as follows:

A$.$ I count the nunber of Douglas Fir Christmas trees in the field $(24,000).$

B$.$ Next, I agree on a contract lump sum for shearing with a crew boss for the whole field $($$$30,000).$

C$.$ When partial payment for work completed arrives $(5$ days later$),$ I count or estimate the actual number sheared $(6,000$ trees$).$ I take the actual as a percent of the total to be sheared and multiply the percent complete by total contract amount for the partial payment $)=(25\%)=($$$7500.$

Is Wil over, on$,$ or below cost and schedule? Is Wil using earned value?

How can Wil set up a scheduling variance?