How long would it take....

[TerryinMD]

Esteemed TBN members, I have a question.

How long would it take to bushhog about 12 acres of mixed grasses? The field is approximately .5 miles long and, at most, 300 feet wide. My rotary cutter is 48". Don't laugh /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif... I didn't buy it to do big fields. Just cleaning up on my property.

I figure it will take me between 6-8 hrs. How far off do you think I am?

Terry

 

[crown]

Terry,
It takes me about hour per acre but that is with many obstacles trees and rock cliffs. Mine is also a 4 footer sure beats paying someone else to maintain the back field./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Alan L.]

I would take me about 8 hours with my 5-footer, so maybe one of our mathematicians will interpolate that to a 4-footer.

 

[Turfman]

Here are the mowing rates I got at a turf class (mind you these are for lawn, not fields): 48" cut at 1.8 MPH is 71 minutes per acre, 2.5 MPH is 50 minutes per acre, and 3.5 MPH is 36 minutes per acre.

I make no claim as to accuracy or the math on this, I'm just passing along information from a task rate chart I got.

 

[IndianaPaul]

Terry:

I'd guess in the range of 9-10 hours depending on height of field, tractor speed and turns at end of each row.. Acre is 43,560 s.f. I believe. Based on your measurements of field's width and figuring a 3.75 foot cut per row due to some overlap, that would be about 80 rows. If you cut at 5 mph, that should give you a row time of 6 minutes per row. Note though, that using your measurements of length and width, the field would yield slightly over 18 acres.

Of course, now that we have looked at the math, reality sets in: When I do the math for my fields, I usually end up taking an extra hour or 1.5 hours due to contour of land, moisture content of grass, height of grass AND if a truly gorgeous day, how much tractor seat time I can get out of the job.

IndianaPaul

 

[TerryinMD]

Hey guys, thank you for the information. Looks like my questimate may not be to far off. I'll find out tomorrow.

Terry

 

[radar54]

I have just finished mowing 2 fields that are 11 acres each. They were quite overgrown with woody plants in them which slows your speed. I'm mowing with a 5ft rotary cutter and running in 4th gear which I believe is about 3.5 mph. I usually have to stop about once an hour to blow out the radiator screens with a leafblower<good hint>. My time in each field averaged 12 hours. Hope this helps.

Jeff

 

[frank_f15]

i usually figure abot an hour per acre(5ft mower) but it so much depends on the grass and especially the ground conditions, how rough? and how much do u want to shake your innards around/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif the tractor will scoot right though it, but i can't take the pounding.

 

[TerryinMD]

The current situation....

Started today and have logged approximately 5.5 hours on the hour meter on the tractor. This is what I'm gauging my time with. Clock time is slightly irrelevant. The difference between the two is really not that much. I started at 10:00 and got back to my house around 6:15. That is with a lunch break and a couple of breaks to get something to drink or to clean debris from the grill, axles, etc. Man, it is dusty work. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

The grass has not been mowed since this spring. We have a local farmer who rents the land from our homeowners association and he hays it. He did not want to hay this fall cause the field has a bunch of Johnson Grass in it and it's gone to seed. So the grasses range from several inches to over six feet in height. Every once in a while, that little Yanmar engine grunts a little to push that rotary cutter thru the more dense grasses. But, all in all, that little Deer just keeps running and running. Albeit covered with dust, grass and weed seed, and tons of little critters running for their lives... /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

I've gotten about half of the field done with my little JD4100 and the 48" rotary cutter. Set the throttle at 2500 rpm, set the cruise control and mow. Got to watch the trees grow, see the deer scamper across the field, and saw a couple of turkeys scavenging near the edge of the field.

Terry

 

[JohnMiller3]

4' cut @ 5mph (semi-smooth field or have dental insurance) ~~ 2 acres/hr.

 

[Stonewall]

.5 mile = 2640'
300'/3.75' = 80 laps
80 X 2640 = 211,200'
211200 / 5280 = 40 miles
John Denver said he liked to drive his tractor because it gave him lots of time to think.

 

[frank_f15]

from your original post u said u had 12 acres to mow, you got about 1/2 of it done in about 6 hrs. so that figures out to average 1 acre per hr. actually u done prettly good , if the grass was that high and using a 4 ft cutter. ain't tractoing fun? how does your back feel?/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

When I used to mow about 9 acres of mostly weeds, some chest high, what I used to worry about were the bees. I know there is a bee topic elsewhere, but you've got to be real careful with them. Some areas I had to use low range so it was real tough to fly through an area at such a slow speed. Yikes!!! Also, I found out the hard way that poison ivy was all over the tires, (left a turf design on my arm).

 

[TerryinMD]

It is done and so am I..... /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

The job spanned 2.5 days and I racked up 14.1 hours on the hour meter. As I previously mentioned, got to see lots of nature, ate some weed dust and various multi-legged, multi-winged creatures, and have semi-permanent creases on my butt.... /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I'll chock some of the time up to my inexperience in mowing large fields, patterns and all that stuff. I also had to do a little FEL work to move dead trees from the field's edges and remove logs from groundhog holes in a couple of areas. What brain-dead person decided to stuff a log into a groundhog hole is beyond my comprehension? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif I also happened onto a broken moldboard point. I stopped and got that puppy out of the way. Can't imagine what kind of missle it would have been had I hit it will the rotary cutter.

Regardless, the job is done. And thanks for the information and words of encouragement. It is time to rest those weary bones.... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Terry