Naive...but

[Danbo56]

I have 2 ~6 ac pastures that i mow with my bush hog. They are for the most part square. I'm mowing in decreasing size squares. I'm making alot of clover leaf circles on the corners. Is there a more efficient pattern to mow?

tanks!

[kebo]

I do the same thing when I start at the edges and mow to the center. If you tried the opposite and start in the center and mow to the edges you will not have that problem. You will have some corners to clean up after you get the majority done though. The trick is to start as dead center of the field as you can get. Try it next time, you might like it better that way.

[pat32rf]

Leave the corners wild and plant some game feed in them......

[Soundguy]

i mow my perimiter, then make a pass down the middle.. then I walk that pass so that I cut the outside of one rectangel, and the inside of the other rectange. both rectangles disappear at the same rate and I am driving the same distance of circuit.

[sweettractors]

Make a quick circle out on the corners will stop the looping. After you get it down to a acre or so, lay that off in a "Land" to finish. Ken Sweet

[ShenandoahJoe]

I do it like Soundguy said, but I do the perimeter last. Nothing to do with efficiency -- I hate killing praying mantises. If I cut towards the center, they'll get trapped. Those girls do such a good job on the bugs around here, that I don't feel foolish making a little extra effort to be sure they can escape into the woods.

[Chilly807]

Mow a few laps around the outside to get some room to move, then one strip down the middle. You now have two rectangles, like Soundguy said, and you can take a strip off each of them with every pass with very few actual stops and turns. I call it a "Zamboni pattern", if you've ever seen an ice rink resurfaced.

Sean

[gwdixon]

Like the others, I mow four or five passes on the ends then mow a strip down the middle to define two rectangles. Then you just mow an edge off of each rectangle until the two rectangles are consumed. That way you don't have to mow the entire end pass each time, just half. It is amusing to get to the last few passes to see if you estimated that down the middle pass just right so it all comes out evenly.

The turns are made on already mowed ground so there are no crescent moons of missed grass.

If you have a really large field it can be partitioned into several rectangles to be cut two at a time.

When I disc I do exactly the same thing.

Wish farmwithjunk was here to explain how he does it.

[k0ua]

Ok. 4 or 5 of you have described this 2 rectangle thing, and I don't have a clue what you are talking about. I am sure this works, or so many of you would not be doing it, but I cannot visualize it at all.. I understand the mowing around the perimeter, part and then the mowing a pass down the middle and your are left with 2 rectangles. Then what do you do.? None of the other phrases made any sense to me. And it would seem to me you would be traveling over an ever increasing amount of already cut grass and wasting both time and fuel. I am not doubting what ever you are doing is working, but I cannot see it.. Could one of you please draw a few diagrams of the pattern starting after the 2 rectangles are formed. Thanks
James K0UA

[smstonypoint]

Could one of you please draw a few diagrams of the pattern starting after the 2 rectangles are formed. Thanks
James K0UA

This may help: The Geometry of Ice Resurfacing

Steve