First mow of the season

I couldn't stand it anymore and mowed (or hydroplaned over...) the lawn yesterday.

I got all muddy from the water flying off the tires. In some parts of the lawn, I could only go 20' before the mower deck got clogged. Not to fret as I have a quick and easy way to clear the clogging out without even leaving the seat. I'll see if I can find the thread(s) where we discuss mower deck cleaning ideas.
 
Finally got all of the yard mowed Saturday. Still a couple of spots were wet and I left some ruts - no worse than what I had done last week. So a bit more time with the tiller and grass seed. It was so long I was actully knocking it down with the deck and it was getting pinned so then it didn't get cut. So I ended up cutting a lot of it twice. Normally takes me about 4 1/2 hours to mow and just under a tank of fuel. I moved for almost 7 hours and burned through almost a tank and half of fuel. At $4.15 a gallon, that was a bit painful just to mow the grass.
 
jwstewar said:
Normally takes me about 4 1/2 hours to mow and just under a tank of fuel. I moved for almost 7 hours and burned through almost a tank and half of fuel. At $4.15 a gallon, that was a bit painful just to mow the grass.
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What are you using for a mower? How much (acres) are you mowing? Thinking of spending some of your money and recommend you consider a ZTR...
 
Currently mowing with a New Holland TC-24D with a 60" deck. Lots of things to go around. Mowing around 5 1/2 acres or so. Have looked at ZTRs, they just haven't fit in the budget yet. Figure with what we are mowing, it needs to be commercial duty with at least a 60" deck and then you start looking at $7k+. Just not in the financial budge right now.
 
jwstewar said:
Currently mowing with a New Holland TC-24D with a 60" deck. Lots of things to go around. Mowing around 5 1/2 acres or so. Have looked at ZTRs, they just haven't fit in the budget yet. Figure with what we are mowing, it needs to be commercial duty with at least a 60" deck and then you start looking at $7k+. Just not in the financial budge right now.
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Yep, a commercial ZTR sure would do the job. You are in the ballpark for the price also. I'm still very happy with my commercial ZTR, a Scag Wildcat. It was $8500 MSRP and I got it for $7400. 62 inch deck. I do 4 acres in one hour and 50 minutes. Used to take 3 hours and that was with two mowers. One doing the trim around the house while I pulled a 72 inch rear finish mower with the Kubota.
ZTR is the way to go for sure once your budget is ready.
 
I started mowing early April.

Last spring I hit the pastures and yards with a heavy application of pasture pro to take out the weeds. I overseeded everything last fall, orchard grass in the pastures and a lawn mix in the yard.

The last couple of weeks here have had a lot of warm days and a good bit of rain.

The grass has gone nuts. I've mowed the front yard 3 times in the last week and the back yard twice. The pastures both need mowing, the orchard grass is growing faster than the horses can eat it. At least it is almost all grass very few weeds.

Jim
 
Fired up the Gravely HD ZTR for the the 1st mow of the season...A little behind some of you southern folk...Spring has finally arrived...May 11.
 
Congrats on spring finally getting to you. I mowed today for the 5th or 6th time. I've already lost count. The novelty has wore off. LOL.
 
First mow of 2012:
March 17th ....mowed the areas that dogs fertalized for us. Earliest mow date ever for me. :eek:
Today, March 23rd, mowed the entire yard. Once again, earliest mow date ever. Gonna be a long long mowing season.

edit to add: Merged all of our First mow threads into one for easier reference.
 
Mowed the back half of my back yard Wednesday. The rest of the yard is just starting to green up, a good three weeks after my neighbors.

Fred
 
Should have mowed the dog fertilized areas yesterday. Rain all weekend so will be doing the entire lawn next week.
 
Mowing

Here in the Ozarks we have been getting 4 days of rain and one mabby two days of sun shine and back to rain again!!!! So it will be a week or more before I get to mow.. But the little Massy sure has been a great all turain wheel chair!!! LIFE IS GOOD!!:blob_blue:
 
First Mow of the Season, April 1st

That new Kubota ZTR is awesome. It rained this morning. I would never had been able to mow with the TC18 and MMM. Quit raining by 10AM and I was mowing by noon.
 
My memory sucks. Good pics, nice looking machine. I'm sure you'll love it more every time you mow. I should have done the 2nd mow of the season yesterday but it was to cold here (low 50's). So I plan to mow tomorrow.
 
I finally did my first mow on Saturday, was a bit chilly not too bad though. I really wanted to do it a week ago, but that didn't work out. I wanted new blades, but hadn't made it to the dealer to get them. So finally went on Tuesday. Tried to install them Wednesday, they didn't fit. So I took them back on Thursday, they didn't have them in stock, but they did at their other location. So they sent a driver to pick them up for me so that I could have them when I got off work. I put them on Thursday hoping to mow Friday. It poured down rain Friday morning and we had to go to the dentist so I went out about 7:00 to mow. The mower deck wouldn't engage. I hadn't cleaned the deck last fall, but normally the new blades or whatever will clear it out. Well when I engaged the blades it stalled the tractor. I tried it 4 or 5 times and actually got the clutch hot - it was smoking.:hide: Didn't realize I had hit it that hard/much, I tried to relieve it as soon as I could. Anyway, had to take the deck back off and power wash it and then regrease it and reinstall. From there it was uneventful and the new blades did a nice job. I might have to install a new belt on the deck. I replaced it last year, but something has jumped up in there and taken a pretty big chunk out of it. I better at least get one to have on hand.
 
Bump!

It's that time of the year again. I put 100# of 19-19-19 on the yard yesterday. It'll be mowing time soon.
 
Bump

we started mowing a week ago.....actualy it was great to get the tracter out and do something but move SNOW!!!!!!!!!:17875: come on summer!!!!!!
 
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