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How much it would cost yearly to mow a 50 acre lawn (by yourself or hire someone permanently) and what machinery should be used to cut grass to 2 inches once a week? 10 acres an hour should do the job quicker.

Bader Khan
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  • Please rethink 2". 3 or 3 1/2 Inches is minimum for cool season grasses and we can explain why. Bagging will be necessary for estate type grass crop. – stormy Sep 17 '18 at 07:33
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    The question is very generic. How it is the terrain? What should be the result? For an airfield the tools are very different (and usually easy: homogeneous, flat). For golf curses, this is more tricky, but for landscaping, landscaping has priority. Usually one do not mow like a normal house lawn (it would be look synthetic, cheap, not appealing). So we need more information. And about costs (and hiring) this is very very country specific. The best option on a country could be the worse on an other one. – Giacomo Catenazzi Sep 17 '18 at 09:39
  • I suggest getting animals, and putting in an electric fence. It would also have too many factors to calculate. – black thumb Sep 17 '18 at 17:53

2 Answers2

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This will be a rough estimation; 3 mowers, 36" wide, stand to ride, 1 mower = 2 acres per hour, gas, oil, dump fees for clean green, aeration once per year; 2 plug aerators 2 operators = 4 hours, maintenance on mowers and blowers and trimmers = 3 hours per year, fertilizer @ 4X per year for 10 acres. 8 months. Cool season grasses. These numbers are for 10 acres.

Mowing once per week for 8 months $ 9,216.00

Fertilizer 4X per season approx. 44# NPK X 4 X 5.00 = $844 plus labor = $ 1044

Dump fees; $250

Plug aeration: 2 rentals at $150 2 guys @ $40 per hour 10 acres = 6 hours $ 630

Blowing out irrigation once per year; $ 550

Restarting irrigation in spring: no charge

Monitoring water schedule to train grass roots per season; $ 225

Maintenance equipment: $550

Total for 10 acres; $12,465 x 5 = $62,325 for 50 acres per year.

Again, this is rough but no small change.

stormy
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  • My uncle has a 10' wide lawn mowers in the country that he modified out from manufacturer parts. – black thumb Sep 17 '18 at 17:56
  • That would be a super piece of equipment for FLAT lawns. Not lawns with any modulating elevations. I used to mow 4 acres once per week and it was truly Mr. Toad's Wild Ride! My own lawn. Too much fun even after a day's work mowing lawns for others. – stormy Sep 18 '18 at 21:59
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In general, the more capital you can apply to the work the higher your labour cost per hour will be but the faster the job can be done and the higher the quality. I suggest that first consider what quality you want from the appearance. Using the term "lawn" implies a high quality, smooth and uniformly green. The term "grass" is a bit looser; up to you which you continue to use.

For capital equipment for that area you are probably looking at a tractor mounted implement of some kind. There is a single pull behind rotary mower, a box flail or a sickle bar mower. The quality will be rough, but the capital expense will be lower. Better is pulling multiple smaller rotary units behind. There is also a tractor mounted gang reel mower which does a higher quality job and will be quite fast.

A quick image search on "tractor mounted gang mowers" might help. A good step in getting information would be to talk to local golf course maintenance staff or local authority roads and parks people. Don't hesitate to contact a local landscaper and ask if they have a tractor mounted mower and get an estimate.

Colin Beckingham
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  • Golf maintenance people and anyone who calls themselves a landscaper because they have a mower and truck is not at all who one should look to for advice. They do not understand what it is they've been told to do. They do what they've been told from fertilizer to type of grass crops what height to mow. They throw the chemicals at the grass and mow and mow and water willy nilly and a golf course grass is rarely a healthy crop. Cut too short, they water everyday twice a day and their seed crop is usually a shallow rooted weed grass like poa Annua. Cooperative Extension Service... – stormy Sep 25 '18 at 02:54