How often do you dread mowing your own lawn? Now think about having to do that to almost 152 acres! That’s why our grounds crew spends TONS of time on mowing – there’s so much to mow.

It is very unrealistic to mow all the fields in 1 day, but when we are in-season, our crew mows the fields an average of 70-80 hours per week! If we have one person mowing it takes about one hour, if we have a two-person team is cuts the time in half. They also must mow the field surrounds and common areas which takes about another 20 hours per week!

The amount we mow specific fields changes based on the time of season and type of field. When cool season fields are in season (spring and fall) they get mowed up to 5 days a week with the goal mowing height between three-fourths of an inch up to two inches depending on the sport. When our warm-season fields are in season (summertime) they can be mowed up to 7 days a week with a goal mowing height of three-eights of an inch up to three-fourths of an inch depending on the sport.

PATTERNS:

Probably the most exciting part of mowing is the patterns! Our grounds crew switches up the patterns and mowing directions to ensure soil compaction doesn’t accumulate because of the mower tires. The most common soccer mowing pattern is side to side because it provides referees a reference point for offside calls, however this pattern is longer because there is 40% more turning involved. During our soccer season, the ground crew will wait until later in the week to implement this pattern if the weather allows it.

Starting in late spring our grounds crew is going to be implementing a new pattern where they will use more light-weight mowers for the middle third of the field because that is where 70% of the field use and abuse for all field sports happen. These lighter mowers will help greatly reduce the soil compaction due to mowing.

ALL ABOUT THE EQUIPMENT:

We love John Deere! Our mowing fleet is full of John Deere reel mowers. This year we are standardizing our mowing fleet moving to 2653B lightweight triplex reel mowers for the middle of the fields and larger 6700A reel mowers that are 100 inches wide. We are very excited to announce that mid-2023 we will be one of the first facilities to receive the brand new 6700A E-cut hybrid reel mowers. These mowers are fully electric and will cut our emissions down dramatically. Stay tuned for a future turf talk on that!

Next time you take a drive through the Plex, take a look at the mowing pattern and realize there is a lot that goes into mowing those fields!

Join us next time as we look to how we get ready for the season!