Mowing Efficient mowing pattern?

[PM1]

By my quick-and-dirty calculations, I spent about 20% of my mowing time today turning corners and not cutting anything. In a rectangular field, I usually end up making 270-degree turns on each corner after the first few rounds. Each of those turns takes me around 12 seconds, which means I spend almost a whole minute each round not cutting, just turning. Today's mowing took 60 rounds, which means I spent about an hour of my time just turning corners without cutting anything.

Are there better ways to keep the cutter in the grass more of the time in a rectangular field? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[zzvyb6]

In my really big fields, I used Google Earth to locate the centers of a spiral cutting scheme. Start in the center and just keep turning larger and larger radii until you hit the fences. Then move to the next center. Fill in the uncut parts with conventional row cutting. I eventually changed the fencing to have round corners to make the mowing go better. Study the Zamboni trail on an ice rink if you still need a more conventional looking pattern. They do 1/2 of the rink and shift the cutting path up one row at a time until done.

 

[JoeinTX]

The ideal field or lot would be a perfect circle..........maximum efficiency.


Since virtually all of them are not (unless you're in big irrigated farming country) you will have an angular piece of ground to cover and there is no way to keep mower or plow working 100% all of the time.

I turn the corners to keep them as square as possible meaning you leave an uncut/plowed bit at each of your corners that you then go back and cover once the main portion is done........"plowing out your corners" or mowing in this case.


In modern dryland conventional farming, as has been done for near a century now, no other method has evolved to truly replace the one I descibe above. It's how I was taught to operate and it's still the best way to cover an angular piece of ground that I have yet to find.

 

[TUG HILL ADDICT]

I think it depends on the discharge style of your mower. With my rotary mower and finish mower, both with rear discharge, I use the head row/wind row pattern alot.

 

[Ford850]

I mow the headlands a few rows first. Then I mow up the long left side of the rectangle, at the end I make a sharp but comfortable u-turn to the right and return down the length maybe 6 - 10 rows over from the first pass. Then another right u-turn at the end and go back up along the right side of my first long pass. Over and over until that narrow section is done, and then start another one. I rarely having to slow down, shift, or stop.

 

[oliver28472]

I do mine like ford 850.

 

[greenmule]

Break that large rectangle up into several small ones,than when you reach the end another end is always close,etc.

 

[robertm]

I guess I am the exception... I like to make my lawn decorative so with a home-made striping attachment, I am required to back up and turn around quite a bit... but the satisfaction of the results is fantastic. Otherwise, I do like 850 when I'm in a hurry.

 

[PM1]

Thanks for the replies. I see two schools of thought so far:

1) Mow in a spiral/circular pattern and clean up corners later, or
2) Mow in long strips, a few passes wide

It sounds like both of these would be more efficient than making square corner, 270-degree turns around a shrinking rectangle.

I think I can see how #2 is clearly better than what I've been doing. The field I mowed yesterday is roughly 600 feet x 600 feet, a little over 8 acres. I cut 5-foot swaths with each pass (6 foot cutter with 1 foot overlap). That means I have to make 60 rounds using the shrinking rectangle method. Each round has 4 corners, for a total of 240 turns. Each turn takes 12 seconds. That's a total of 48 minutes wasted.

If I mowed long, narrow strips, I might be able to make the U-turn at the end of each in the same 12 seconds it takes for the 270-degree turn I'm doing now. I would only need 120 strips, however, to mow a 600-foot wide field. That means only 120 turns instead of the 240 I made yesterday. That would mean 24 minutes less time turning - almost a half hour. That seems clearly better.

Am I thinking about this the right way?

I don't know how to compare the spiral/clean up corners approach. Is it even better?

 

[LD1]

With a square field the spiral method might be best. The spiral doesn't work well on rectangle fields say 600 x 1500 or so. Because you leave a lot at each end to have to go back and do. rectangles are best done by the method described above by taking smaller sections that go the length ways of the field.

Another option for a square field is what I do. When you get to the end, instead of making the 270 degree turn, just to keep the corners square, make the 90 degree turn.Yea you will miss a little on the turn, but just turn back into whatever you mowing ASAP. The next time around will get whatever you missed. This puts the cutter back to work faster. You kinda get the idea by the pic.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I'm only every mowing small parcels (<2 acres), but I do what Ford850 says. I'm still turning, but I never have to back up. Each turn takes about half as much time.

 

[tommu56]

I cut grass for a contractor in school and he wanted square corners with no misses and did it this way

tom

 

[MikeInEburg]

It is also a good idea to vary the method of mowing a particular field - so that you're not always pushing over the same grass. I'll do the same as others have described - a loop a couple of rows wide, but mow it diagonally one time, lengthwise one time and across the short side another time.
Mike

 

[Danno1]

.

The Zamboni pattern (mentioned in a prev post) seems most efficient to me. Those drivers need to lay down new ice of a uniform thickness and quickly. Both of which translate into not driving over the same area twice and not missing any areas either.

.

 

[ampsucker]

can sombody draw the zamboni pattern?

on a small, square or rectangular yard, i do the 90s. if i "peninsula", i go back and clean up the corners. with hydrostatic, it's also easy to clean up the corners as you go - similar to going around a tree. just overshoot, back up a little and tighten the corner. keep repeating until around the tree or corner.

if irregular yard, i just do concentric "circles" and eventually find the geometric center of the yard.

none of this applies to the zero turn crowd who don't have this problem

amp

 

[aczlan]

can sombody draw the zamboni pattern?

Try this: The Geometry of Ice Resurfacing

Aaron Z

 

[keeney]

I like square corners but don't have the room to do the 270 turn, nor do I like the way turning that sharp digs in the front tires. Plus the extra driving compacts the lawn more on the edges and corners.

With my hydro, reversing quickly is not such a big deal. So on each corner, I over-run about 1/2 tractor length and start turning into the corner. Then I back and turn the opposite direction, and then pull forward straightening into the next side. The whole turn takes only 3 or 4 seconds.

I start by going around the permiter and work towards the middle. Once the rectangle gets down to the last few passes, I skip the short side and just U-turn around to the other long side.

One thing I learned is that two quick passes over the lawn makes a much nicer looking cut than going slow once over. Especially if you change the pattern, you catch all the ratty stragglers that somehow escaped being cut the first time around. So once I complete the pattern, I keep going in the opposite direction around the rectangle.

The 2nd pass is in the direction so the discharge chute pushes the clippings back towards the outside leaving the whole lawn completely clean of clippings, leaves, and the goose feathers that collect down by the lake.

- Rick

 

[hdbikercouple]

find the center mow till you have the same distance you have on your sides in front of you turn 180 around and make your return to the begining (mow). stop and turn around like at the other end. now you can keep mowing by working from the inside to the outside. no non mowing time. then finish up any side that you missed judged the distance. next time agjust where you start.

 

[Ford850]

Try this: The Geometry of Ice Resurfacing

Aaron Z

The zamboni method looks like the same pattern I was trying to explain.

 

[funny farmer]

The guy I bought my haybine from showed me how to make a 90 degree cut. When your coming about 4 inches to the end of the row, turn as fast as you can, when the front of the tractor just about hits the uncut hay, make a sharp left so your lined back up again, and if you watch, the right side of the haybine will actually be in reverse as your completing your turn. He never missed any hay, but I have a 50% success rate and still have to go back and cut my corners. I always thought that it was hard on the pto. but so far nothing has broke.