Mowing Large acreage to finish mow

   / Large acreage to finish mow #21  
I mow the about the same acreage using a Ford 2600 (~35 hp), and a 72" Frontier brand finish mower. I can get it all done in a single afternoon, and that includes mowing around a pond, numerous trees and flower beds, and a couple of (very swift) passes by my beehives.
 
   / Large acreage to finish mow #23  
It sounds like there are more obstacles than first posted, with buildings, trees, ponds. I mow around a LOT of obstacles, over 100 trees, some steep hills, etc, and still get at least 2 acres per hour mowed on my Grasshopper. Mine is a 61" front mount. If you are using an older GH, it will be quite a bit slower though. A new front mount GH with a 72" deck, would fly. Of course, the current mower might be capable of mowing fast too. I could mow slower and take double the time if I wanted to.
 
   / Large acreage to finish mow #24  
I mow just a tad over 4 acres.

On that 4 acres, there are
20 trees
2 electric poles
4 mailboxes
2 clothes line posts
1 bird feeder
1 well case
3 septic lids
1 row of boulders
1 sandbox
2 gardens.

Not to mention the shop and shop driveway, and house and house driveway.

Quite a bit of things to mow around and pretty rough you dont even think about going full speed. I can still get a tad better than 2 acres per hour with my 61" ZTR, and thats mowing diagonals down and back. Takes me just under 2 hours
 
   / Large acreage to finish mow #25  
I like the way my lawn looks from the street....

483063d1475211953-large-acreage-finish-mow-dsc03088-jpg

You got some brown spots there..
 
   / Large acreage to finish mow #26  
Last year I purchased a used Jacobsen HR 5111 for our church. It had 3500 hours but mechanically was sound. Works great for large open areas. 11.5 feet cut width. Parts are no issue. It's a commercial unit used on golf courses. 50 HP Kubota diesel powered.
 
   / Large acreage to finish mow #28  
Why mow/maintain that much?
 
   / Large acreage to finish mow #29  
That's an awful lot of grass to cut, but if it floats your boat... A lot of municipal parks don't mow that much. If it were me I'd look to see what Toro, Woods, Bushhog, JD and the like have to offer and go with whatever your wallet allows. 270 acres makes me think you're already in need of or have some traditional tractor(s), see what's available as an attachment. If you want to have a dedicated unit then the bigger and more horsepower the better. A wet spring will get your grass to where you might be mowing twice a week so the quicker you can bang it out the better, as someone said earlier that can get old real quick. I would also consider a second, smaller machine to do the trimming around the obstacles.
Actually, if it were me I'd graze a few cows or sheep.
 

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