let's discuss the best way to mow a field...

[ovrszd]

Stump whooped chitlins might be an American slang that wagtail hasn't heard!!!

 

[smstonypoint]

if you know what chittlns are and what they contain its not hard to imagine that everything will be covered in SHYT

Steve

 

[M5farms]

Just spit the kernel of corn out if you find any in your chittlins

 

[xtn]

I don't have a cab with that fancy shmancy air conditioning or music. So I mow as efficiently as possible, as follows:

1. Line up over the vegetation to be cut.
2. Drive around.
3. Try to stay over vegetation to be cut.
4. Try to spend the least time possible over vegetation already cut or vegetation not to be cut.
5. Continue until there is no more vegetation to be cut.
6. Get a cold drink.

In approximately six hours of mowing, the ten minutes variance that depends upon how much you do or don't optimize it doesn't really matter. At least to me, a non-commercial land owner who does his mowing on the occasional weekend. Heck, sometimes I do circles over vegetation already cut just out of boredom. Sometimes I just mow a Formula 1 track around the property for my kids to ride their dirtbikes on, think "that sure saved me a lot of time compared to mowing the whole thing" and get my cold drink early.

 

[TerryR]

My field is very irregular in shape, and parts are too steep to mow across. So I mow up and down the steep parts, then mow around the less steep parts in sections, from the outside to the middle.

So far that's been with a 5 ft. rotary cutter. I'll see this spring if that pattern changes with my new offset flail mower. Since it's to the side and behind it may change the way the corners work best.

 

[TheMan419]

I have a rectangle that is much longer north/south than it is east/west. I mow a couple east/west rows at both ends. Then I follow the Zamboni pattern going n/s. However I use multiple zamboni patterns. Meaning when I turn around I go only as far as I have to to make the turn. Then when I finish that section I start on the next.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I'm glad I don't have to cut our unused fields anymore with a 16 foot batwing. They are again rented out.

I used to go around in circles until I could not make the corners anymore, then back and forth. It seemed, no way was really better than another. I bore easy, so a lot of it was just to keep me occupied thinking about my next strategy. It's always the most fun and most effective to go through an uncut area and impress yourself with the wide swath!

Mine was a finishing mower and often left stalky material standing in places or burdocs and you would have to recompute your course to get them again. That was wasted time for sure.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

When I'm mowing hay I try to only drive over what I've already cut. With my mower on my right that means I drive in a clockwise rectangular spiral. I've found the fastest way to do the corners is to drive straight through the corner at full speed. Once the mower is clear I pull the wheel to the right as tight as I can without tipping over or falling off of the seat. I keep turning right until the mower is back in uncut grass, then straighten it out. This leaves an uncut bump at the start of each side of the rectangle. But on the next pass I go straight through the corner again and cut off the bump. I never slow down and spend almost all my time with the mower over uncut grass.

 

[Deere Dude]

If the field is round Thats an option. Every time I see someone mowing in circles when they are done it looks worse than stump whooped chittlens.

I mowed a 5 acre rectangle (one time for fun) by starting in the exact center of the lawn and kept driving in a sustained circle until I hit the edges. But then it took a long time to finish off the corners. One and done.

 

[Tx Jim]

I mowed a 5 acre rectangle (one time for fun) by starting in the exact center of the lawn and kept driving in a sustained circle until I hit the edges. But then it took a long time to finish off the corners. One and done.

I cut,rake & bale all shapes of fields including rectangles going round & round until finished. The corners take 1 trip up then 1 trip back which doesn't take very long even on a 100 acre field. IMHO a lot less time than making swooping turns on end turns going back & forth.

 

[LouNY]

I have a rectangle that is much longer north/south than it is east/west. I mow a couple east/west rows at both ends. Then I follow the Zamboni pattern going n/s. However I use multiple zamboni patterns. Meaning when I turn around I go only as far as I have to to make the turn. Then when I finish that section I start on the next.

Pretty much how we mow hay fields. And about the same pattern baling or chopping.

 

[TheMan419]

Pretty much how we mow hay fields. And about the same pattern baling or chopping.

Seems to keep the mower over the uncut grass as much as possible.

 

[dnw64]

When I was mowing my 3 1/2 acre yard, I though about the same thing and my Navy background kicked in.
In a search and rescue scenario, you want to cover the search area as quickly as possible and leave no portion of the area un-searched.
When you have a large but defined area, the recommended search pattern is called "Parallel Search". So that's the pattern I used when mowing.
The problem is you need to be able to do a 180 degree turn in the width of your mower.

And that's the main reason zero-turns are so much faster on lawns (especially if you want to stripe them).

 

[KY Gun Geek]

I have a rectangle that is much longer north/south than it is east/west. I mow a couple east/west rows at both ends. Then I follow the Zamboni pattern going n/s. However I use multiple zamboni patterns. Meaning when I turn around I go only as far as I have to to make the turn. Then when I finish that section I start on the next.

Yep this is me, too. I'm mowing horse pastures (few weeds, mowed from 8 - 10" tall down to 6") between 2 and 50 acres.

We use the zamboni pattern because you don't have to touch the clutch or brakes. Most of my land has only a gentle roll, so I set the rpms with the hand throttle and just truck on. Other farms make a very hard 180 degree turn at the end by coming off the throttle, stomping the split brake, hard steering, then back on the throttle. Makes for very nice striping, but they they also complain about replacing brakes on tractors, and CV/U joints on batwings. Depending on how aggressive the operator is, this method can be brutal on the gear. I've seen batwing tongues with the draw pin holes about 3x as long as they are wide (they started out round)

I agree that efficiency is important (I think the hard 180's would be that - nothing wasted), but you have to balance it with how hard you drive the tractor.

The zamboni can be difficult for newbies because if you don't keep your rows parallel, you end up with short row triangles at the end. A cheap compass works great, and you have the whole row to subtract or add 180.

We call it "Big Stripes" (as opposed to little stripes done by a 180 turn) instead of zamboni because here in the south we don't know much about ice skating and even less about ice grooming.

 

[gravelman]

i use a JD 624 moco.. go around 5 or 6 times then down the middle working toward the outside... by cutting a few times around the outside it gives you room to turn, just pick up the mower when turning. How about that!!??

 

[LD1]

I run a commercial mowing operation with my MX and 8' mower. To the tune of 300-400 acres per year, ranging from half acre lots to 30 acre fields, but averaging somewhere around 4-5 acres per job.

I have learned in 8 years of doing this, that there is no one mowing pattern that is most efficient for everything.

One job of a few acres that I do, that is roughly square, I mow around the perimeter 3 passes then start zamboni pattern. It is the FASTEST way to get the mower back into the cut. And the penalty for guessing wrong on how far to move down, isnt huge, cause at this point, after outlining the field, its maybe 300' to run across. And at 6 mph.... That takes a whoping 30-35 seconds. So if I guess wrong and my last zamboni pass is only cutting 4'.....eh....only took 30 seconds.

Another job I do is a 12 acre field. That is roughly 1200' on the long direction. So takes a few minutes to make a full length run. So rather than zamboni, I just mow down and back, similar to how one would mow their lawn with a zero turn to stripe it. Because the few extra seconds to reverse and line up for the second pass, is more than offset by the potential consequences of guessing wrong with zamboni.

Then there are just odd shaped fields that neither of those patterns will work on. On those I just continue circling the perimeter until smaller areas are naturally broken off from the larger chunk.

With a 15' mower and 5-series tractor though, it may be entirely possible to do a 180 degree turn within the width of the mower. I'd make a few passes to clear the perimeter, and mow down and back, even if it means making a wider turn at the end.

the penalty for guessing wrong on a zamboni gets worse with bigger mowers. make that final pass with a 15' mower only mowing 1' that was missed is alot worse than missing a foot with a 4' mower

 

[gravelman]

God Bless America...all good stuff...

 

[M5farms]

what the H is zamboni cutting .

 

[Ford850]

what the H is zamboni cutting .

See post #4.

I use the Zamboni pattern most times. I like the challenge of getting the initial passes parallel.

 

[M5farms]

See post #4.

I use the Zamboni pattern most times. I like the challenge of getting the initial passes parallel.

Isnt that thing used on ice?? it has nothing to do with mowing and i'm pretty sure People plowed a "land" before that machine was invented.