How To Calculate Hourly Mower Productivity

We calculate our productivity at 80% to allow for overlap and trimming for a better quote of actual mowing productivity. Our calculations are done at a specific speed depending on the machine; we include productivity rates for all of our products in literature and on web pages.

We don't use transport speeds; we use actual mowing speeds. We do a conversion from MPH to Feet per Second. We multiply that by 60 to get it to a number for distance in a minute, and then 60 again to get it to distance for an hour. Then we multiply the width of cut in feet, giving us Square Feet Per Hour. We know that it is not likely you are going to get 100% cutting for the full width all the time due to overlap and trimming, so we calculate our mowing productivity rates at 80%. So then we multiply by 0.80 to get our actual productivity. You can then use that Square Feet per Hour or number to calculate Acres Per Hour ,or whatever area measurement you would like.

Here’s an example:

Machine Speed MPH = 8.5 Machine Speed FPS = 12.466667

Machine Speed FPM (12.466667 x 60) = 748

Machine Speed FPH (748 x 60) = 44,880

Machine Speed x Width (44,880 x 5 ft) = 224,400 Square Feet

Squared Feet x 80% (224,400 x 0.80) = 179,520 Square Feet per Hour

Information courtesy of Tony Weber with Schiller Grounds Care, maker of BOB-CAT brand mowers.