Hi all,
I was finishing up mowing 8.5 acres this afternoon that I had started yesterday. I got to wondering how efficient I was being in getting the job done. I've been mowing small acreages now for a couple of years so this is not my first rodeo. Some time ago I put together a spreadsheet to help me price my mowing jobs. One of the factors in the calculation is mowing efficiency. If one were to mow a single strip the width of the mower with no stopping or time outs, one could say he was mowing at 100% efficiency.
Everybody who mows knows that mowing at 100% efficiency would be a very rare thing. There are many factors that affect how efficiently we mow such as overlap, speed, obstacles in the field, mowing pattern and the number of times during the mowing cycle you have to stop and take a leak etc. (human factors).
When I built my spreadsheet I used 90% as an efficiency factor. And I have based my pricing accordingly. I haven't really wondered to much about how efficient I was mowing until this afternoon. Based on my spreadsheet, I should have been able to mow that field in 2.7 hours at 90%. It took me 3.4 hours. This would be an efficiency of more like 70%.
The question is, what is a reasonable efficiency to shoot for? And what are the things one can do to improve efficiency?
Merry Christmas,
Tim
I was finishing up mowing 8.5 acres this afternoon that I had started yesterday. I got to wondering how efficient I was being in getting the job done. I've been mowing small acreages now for a couple of years so this is not my first rodeo. Some time ago I put together a spreadsheet to help me price my mowing jobs. One of the factors in the calculation is mowing efficiency. If one were to mow a single strip the width of the mower with no stopping or time outs, one could say he was mowing at 100% efficiency.
Everybody who mows knows that mowing at 100% efficiency would be a very rare thing. There are many factors that affect how efficiently we mow such as overlap, speed, obstacles in the field, mowing pattern and the number of times during the mowing cycle you have to stop and take a leak etc. (human factors).
When I built my spreadsheet I used 90% as an efficiency factor. And I have based my pricing accordingly. I haven't really wondered to much about how efficient I was mowing until this afternoon. Based on my spreadsheet, I should have been able to mow that field in 2.7 hours at 90%. It took me 3.4 hours. This would be an efficiency of more like 70%.
The question is, what is a reasonable efficiency to shoot for? And what are the things one can do to improve efficiency?
Merry Christmas,
Tim