Mowing Large acreage to finish mow

[sawtooth]

I just purchased 270 acres and want to finish cut about 10-15 in grass. It's already being cut now by a Grasshopper mower. Takes him 1.5 days to cut it at 8 hours per day. So if I were to buy the perfect or best equipment for this type job what would it be? Terrain is rolling with some obstacles like trees barns etc but most is fairly open with no super steep hills. Mainly rolling land with light hills I would say. Thank you.

 

[DK35vince]

So its taking him around 12 hours to mow 10-15 acres ? (1 acres per hour area)
Seems very slow.
I have a Hustler Super Z zero turn with 35 HP Kawasaki and 72" deck and mow my 8 acre lawn in 2 hours. The thing will mow fast. (if the lawn were smoother I could mow it a good bit faster yet)

 

[sidecarist]

A large tow behind gang reel mower. Golf courses love them....

 

[zzvyb6]

Buy an old 9' or 12' hay mower and swathe it out instead of windrowing. Set the shoes up to get a close cut. After a few times it will look like a lawn. Takes just a couple of hours to get the job done as fast as your tractor can run. These mowers don't take much power.

 

[MossRoad]

I just purchased 270 acres and want to finish cut about 10-15 in grass. It's already being cut now by a Grasshopper mower. Takes him 1.5 days to cut it at 8 hours per day. So if I were to buy the perfect or best equipment for this type job what would it be? Terrain is rolling with some obstacles like trees barns etc but most is fairly open with no super steep hills. Mainly rolling land with light hills I would say. Thank you.

So 12 hours for 12ish acres? As someone mentioned, that's slow. I have a 60" finish mower and it takes me about 20 minutes to mow 3/4 acre of grass at about 4mph. So, I can mow about 2.25 acres per hour at about 4mph. It would take me about 7 hours to do 15 acres. If I had to do that much, I'd consider purchasing a self powered 60" tow-behind finish mower, offset it to one side, and pull it behind my current machine. That would halve the time to 3.5 hours.

Or you could get a commercial zero turn mower. Just a quick look at these dixie choppers show they are rated at over 6 acres per hour.
XCaliber | Dixie Chopper

 

[teg]

Google "turf batwing"

 

[MossRoad]

Google "turf batwing"

Oooo. lots of pictures! :laughing:

turf batwing - Google Search

 

[MossRoad]

Now if I had a fat wallet.....

I'd go to the 2 minute mark in this video...

 

[4570Man]

Is it one of those 72" front deck grasshoppers? Unless there's a ton of obstacles that time seems very slow. If there's that many obstacles you don't want a tractor with a RFM.

 

[Deere Dude]

I just purchased 270 acres and want to finish cut about 10-15 in grass. It's already being cut now by a Grasshopper mower. Takes him 1.5 days to cut it at 8 hours per day. So if I were to buy the perfect or best equipment for this type job what would it be? Terrain is rolling with some obstacles like trees barns etc but most is fairly open with no super steep hills. Mainly rolling land with light hills I would say. Thank you.

I noticed you said, "Takes him 1.5 days at 8 hrs. per day."

What size of mower is it? Is he the hired old guy that likes to sit back and putz? Does he manicured the lawn or just cut the stuff?

I have a BIL who cut lawns as a post retirement job in his neighborhood. He would use whatever mower the owner would give him. If they wanted him to walk it, he would walk it. He was diligent with what he used for the job. Generally is was some little mower, but he got paid by the hour so it worked for him. Me, I would have gotten the largest machine for the job and rip it.

At my current house I asked the owner how long it took the mow the 7-1/2 to 8 acres lawn. He said 10 1/2 hours or so. He used a 54" Z-turn and a 60" rear finish mower. The first cutting I shaved it down to 5.5 hours using a 62" center deck but was rippin' it. That was still longer than what I wanted to do. Now I added an 84" rear finish mower and with both going at the same time we can get done in 2.5 hours.

You just need to drive faster or get the largest mower that will work, or just bush-hog it a couple times a year. I would look at adding a 15' batwing mower unless there are to many obstacles to go around. Maybe a 10' Rear finish mower would help.

INMO, You need to get the mowing down to 4 hours or it will get old very fast.