Mowing Most acreage mowed with 5' mower

[npaden]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

There are 43,560 sq ft in an acre. X 8 acres = 348,480 sq ft.

If you mowed everything perfectly with not even an inch of overlap and never had to turn around and were cutting the entire time to get that mowed in 2 hours would require you to average 6.6 mph with a 5' mower. If you even had a couple inches of overlap and had to turn around once on every pass you would be easily up over 7 mph probably closer to 8 mph. That's also the average speed, so if you are slowing down to turn you might have to be up to 9 or 10 mph on the straightaways!

That might be possible on a nice lawn with a zero turn mower but out on a pasture I would have a hard time staying on the tractor at 7 mph let alone mowing effectively.

Maybe it takes longer than 2 hours or you are mowing less than 8 acres? Are you really mowing at 7 mph?

 

[BadDog]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

7' Bush-hog vs. 8 acres fenced, slightly sloped field with a few large trees. Bush-hog wins in around 4 hours.

Stay in 2WD unless I accidentally drive into the bog. I take 'er real slow around the corners and the trees unless I want ruts on my ruts.

Mowing ain't a drag race, which isn't what the idjuts at the Lazer ZTR store want you to believe. Apparently the only land they have ever mowed was steam-rolled and vacuumed before they started their engines.

Go over really thick growth areas at least twice.

Avoid rocks. Seem to grow a new crop of 'em every year, and I know from several exciting experiences that appropriately sized rocks will destroy your blades and deck in a heartbeat. Not only that, you'll get to see up close what cannonballs look like in flight. Lock the dogs in the barn until done.

I'm very glad replacement blades for the 286 aren't very expensive or difficult to replace, so long as you have the right tools, including a well-tuned BLA and BRA.

Finish-mow, schminish-mow!!!

 

[GaryE]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

I used to cut a 2 acre field with my little Kubota B6000 and a Woods 60” RMM in just a little over one hour 45 minutes. It would have been less but about one third of the field was a little rough.

I could cut the lower field which was a little under one acre in about 45 minutes.

Gary

 

[Volfandt]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

I used to bushhog 3 acres every two weeks with a Ferguson TE20 and a Howse 5' bushhog and I'd average about an acre per hr., approx 2.75 - 3 hrs total.
The TE20 was a 4sp and I'd cut in 2nd, sometimes going to 3rd in the flat straight aways but it would beat both me and the Howse to death /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I've finish mowed the same with a BX23 w/a 60" MMM and due to having an HST, it shaved off about 15 minutes per acre.

I don't mow the back 1.5 now, I let it get cut for hay twice a season.

Volfandt

 

[db2]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

Once every summer I cut an 11 acre unused hay field and about 10 acres of landscaped (planted trees) meadow as well as a few miles of trails with an older Ford 700 series 5 ft brush hog and a NH40DA. It knocks the heck out of a week each year. There are a number of rocks and the land is hilly. I am thinking on getting a wider flair mower to speed up the process and allow me to take advantage of the offset with the flail mower to reach under some overhanging trees.

I know this is a little off topic but does anyone have an opinion on this use for a flail mower?

Thanks

 

[PineRidge]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

Caught me on that one /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

While we do have 6 acres it isn't all grass. There are several wooded areas. I guess with your formula one could easily figure out how much actual grass there is between the two properties. Know for sure I'm not doing close to 7 MPH even though we use high range while mowing a good portion of it.

 

[npaden]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

I've done the math a couple times. Part of being an accountant I guess.

With a 5' mower and overlapping 2" on each pass you need to average just over 3.5 mph to mow 2 acres per hour. It can be done but that is pushing it to get that as an average IME.

On my old Farmall M, 4th gear was just over 5 mph and on nice smooth ground I could give it all she had in 4th gear with my 6' mower. But by the time you figure in turning at the end of the pass and coming back around I only averaged about 3.5 mph. That's just over 2 1/2 acres per hour with a 6' mower.

Oh well, it's interesting to do the math and then see how it actually turns out in real life!

 

[JoeinTX]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

The most I've ever done in one whack was about 30 acres with a Ford NAA and 5' shredder. I don't know the speed I was moving or anything, but it took about a week working on it each evening after work until dark. It's an old field with a mix of Johnson grass, side-oats, mesquite sprouts, etc.

When I was back home, we had an elderly neighbor we would go and help out from time to time. He had a 10' Mohawk hitched to a 120hp tractor which he used to cut 40-50 acres of reclaimed pastureland and that was two-day job running 2nd-3rd gear.

 

[cisco]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

Since I only have 7.5 acres, that's my limit. When I first started out, 5 years ago, it was very rough (thick brush, lots of small trees with 2-4" trunks, lots of large trees as obstacles, and so on). Took a year to "mow" those 7.5 acres (and most was by tractor with the heavy duty Woods 5' brush bull, but the chainsaw got a lot of use also), and unlike now, I needed to keep the FEL on to knock down the stuff ahead of my tractor.
Then there was a few years of clearing the regrowing brush and weeds every month or so, with the 5' cutter, and that took about 6 hours each time.
Now it's a light duty 6' Woods cutter, and it takes about 5 hours --- the key factor is how many obstacles you have - me, I've about 2 dozen large trees and another 2 dozen small ones to cut around, and that takes lots of time. It's a challenge not to "ding" them with the cutter, while still getting relatively close with the mowing, plus the "field grass" and weed mix gets thick with a month between cuttings, and I can't rev up and go at higher speeds - my 29.5 pto just won't spin the 6' Woods through the thick stuff if I'm going more than ? 4-5 mph. Yes, I do sharpen the blades every month or so, and replace them each year.

 

[JJT]

Re: Most acreage mowed with 5\' mower

I'm moving ~3 acres close to the house every week in under an hour. The front 7-8 acres gets mowed every 2 - 3 weeks and that takes about 3 hours. I'm running a 5' deck on a ZD21, (Kubota zero turn). On the front yard my mow time is 50% of what it was when I used the big tractor and a 6' deck.

The back pasture, 20+ acres gets knocked down once a year and that takes 12-15 hours over the course of a couple of days. That's with a 6' brushhog, and a Kubota L3710 in mid range.