joshuabardwell
Elite Member
I'm curious what you all think is a good pace for bush-hogging with a 5' cutter. I bush-hogged my first big field today (3.5 acres--it's big to me!) and I totally mis-estimated how long it would take me.
What I did was, I used a mowing calculator to determine how fast I could mow a field at my low gear top speed and my mid gear top speed, and used that as the range to expect. I came out to something like 1.6 to 3 acres per hour. This field had a steep part that I knew I was going to back down, so I guessed it would take me no more than 2 hours. Hah! When all was said and done, I came in just under 4 hours. Maybe 3:40.
What slowed me down was the following:
Anyway, when all is said and done, I estimate I did just about one acre per hour. Now that I have experience with the lay of the land, and if I'm asked to cut it again before it gets all thick again, I would guess I could get the total job time down to about 3 hours, or 1.2 acres per hour. Obviously, without you seeing the actual property, there's no way for you to say for sure, but does this sound like I'm in the right ballpark here, or am I way off? What do you estimate to hog an acre of land, under various conditions (level pasture vs. hilly, recently hogged vs. totally overgrown, etc...).
BTW, if you have a 10-foot cutter, you're welcome to chime in, but obviously your numbers won't really be useful to me.
Since I know y'all love photos, here's a pic of my tractor after I was done cutting.
What I did was, I used a mowing calculator to determine how fast I could mow a field at my low gear top speed and my mid gear top speed, and used that as the range to expect. I came out to something like 1.6 to 3 acres per hour. This field had a steep part that I knew I was going to back down, so I guessed it would take me no more than 2 hours. Hah! When all was said and done, I came in just under 4 hours. Maybe 3:40.
What slowed me down was the following:
- Occasional patches of thick foliage, especially on uphills, that required slowing down to let the cutter keep up. My tractor is 19 hp at the PTO, which makes it under-powered for a 5 ft cutter, but I'd rather be able to cover my wheel tracks and when I'm not in the thick stuff, I can go just as fast as a more powerful tractor, so I think it's the right choice.
- Figuring out the "lay of the land". Having to go slow on the slightly tippy parts, in order to be sure that they weren't about to suddenly get a lot more tippy.
- A very steep and uneven section of the property--perhaps 1/2 acre in total--that simply could not be handled by mowing across the slope, nor by going down the slope and turning around at the bottom (a fence is in the middle of the hill). I mowed across the slope until my butt-cheeks could take it no more, then switched to back-and-forth mowing, which meant I basically had to cover the ground twice, and also had to go slower b/c I didn't want any surprises on the slope.
- A section that looked relatively flat when un-mowed, turned out to have raised, uneven ridges, and a "bowl" shape that wasn't obvious. I was able to mow the middle normally, but had to back up to the edges.
Anyway, when all is said and done, I estimate I did just about one acre per hour. Now that I have experience with the lay of the land, and if I'm asked to cut it again before it gets all thick again, I would guess I could get the total job time down to about 3 hours, or 1.2 acres per hour. Obviously, without you seeing the actual property, there's no way for you to say for sure, but does this sound like I'm in the right ballpark here, or am I way off? What do you estimate to hog an acre of land, under various conditions (level pasture vs. hilly, recently hogged vs. totally overgrown, etc...).
BTW, if you have a 10-foot cutter, you're welcome to chime in, but obviously your numbers won't really be useful to me.
Since I know y'all love photos, here's a pic of my tractor after I was done cutting.
