Acreage per hour cutting rate

froggy · Feb 28, 2005

Does anyone know of a web site that shows the acreage per hour cutting rates for the various widths of rotary mowers?

Holzster · Feb 28, 2005

That might be hard it would depend on what speed you are going also

froggy · Feb 28, 2005

I'm looking at 7ft. mowers and trying to decide whether it is worth the cost to move to a larger mower or stay in the 7 ft. range.

Gatorboy · Feb 28, 2005

Acres per hour equal cutting width (in inches) multiplied by speed (in mph) divided by 100.

These figures are based on straight-ahead mowing with no allowances for overlap, stops, turns, trimming or maneuvering around obstacles. I would take about 70% of that number as a realistic guide.

BB_TX · Feb 28, 2005

I don't know of any such web sites. But you can do some fairly easy calculations by making some basic assumptions. First you would need to estimate your overall average speed. That may be the hardest part. Corners, turns, trees, buildings, and anything else that may slow you down will greatly affect your overall speed. An acre is 43, 560 sq ft. For an example and making some basic assumptions; after all obstacles are considered, if you travel at an average 4 mph, you will travel 21,120 ft per hour. If you are using a 5' rotary cutter and using a 1' overlap, you will get 4' coverage. 4' coverage at 21,120 ft per hr equals 84,480 sq ft per hour. Dividing 43,560 by 84,480 would equal .52 hours per acre. That also equals 1.94 acres per hour.
One problem will be that you will not be getting the complete 4' cut all the time due to turning, going around trees, overlap, etc. That will also reduce you actual coverage and your acres per hour.

Edit. Wow, Gatorboy. I was typing at the same time you were. Yours is a lot simpler than my long calculation and comes out almost exactly the same. Either way, the hard part is getting an accurate estimate of speed.

BubbaJr · Feb 28, 2005

To give you some real world numbers. I have 6 acres to mow, 5 of them are around the yard, and the other one is about 1/2 mile down the road, plus I also mow my ditch along my woods. I have a Kubota B2910, with a 72" mid mount mower. It takes me about 2- 1/2 hours to mow all that. There are no trees in the way, but I mow around the house, well head, bushes, sidewalk, barn, driveway, and garden. Most of it is pretty flat, but some of it is very hilly. Of course your mileage will vary. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

bczoom · Feb 28, 2005

Froggy,

Not sure if you could do an "apples to apples" comparison but many of the ZTR manufacturers post acres/hour.

I think Scag has one www.scag.com

Indydirtfarmer · Feb 28, 2005

Successful Farming used to publish a "formula" every now and then, that let you compute your coverage per hour. It is, as has already been mentioned, width in inches x MPH divided by 100. THEN you multiply by "effecientcy" (20% of the time, you're turning would be .80%)

So let's say you have a 7' mower and you mow at 5.25 MPH, and you spend 1o% of the time turning (Overlap needs to be computed into mowing width, for sake of simplicity, we'll not get into that now)

84"x 5.25=441.00 divide that by 100=4.41x.90=3.969 acres per hour.

Just remember that uses the full width of your mower. Generally, you can figure 8" to 12" LESS than full width of the mower as an average.

froggy · Feb 28, 2005

Thanks for the replies. This information helps.

I have 66 acres that I currently have baled twice a year. I'm thinking about putting it in a wildlife management program and would not be baling and would mow it myself instead. Will be purchasing a new Case/New Holland or Kubota in the 50-60hp pto range and wanted a seven foot pull-type rotary mower or better and wondered approximately how long it would take to mow it.

I will be living on it in three years, I just wanted a ball park estimate. It's native prairie grass with very few trees. Will not run any livestock and it has never been plowed.