# Acres per hour, or thought I was moving right along



## mlappin

Dropped my first 25 acres this afternoon, really wanted to start at home on the clay but 2.5 inches of rain squashed that, went to a field that could have had 2.5 a week for the last 6 weeks and would still be fine.

Got on the long rows and pulled out the smart phone and did a little figuring, with a 13 foot discbine at 10mph I figured for time lost turning around I was still getting between 13-15 acres an hour. Felt pretty good about that compared to the days of a 12 foot haybine at tops of 6 mph.

Then did some more figuring and figured out with a seed cart clear full of beans on the air seeder I could plant between 60 to 65 acres on a fill up depending on seed size and population while covering 20-25 acres an hour. Got to figuring on the sprayer with a 60 foot boom and 750 gallon tank. On light burndown only spray 5 gallon/acre at 10 mph, so could cover 150 acres tops. On a good size field with half mile rows should be covering a minimum of 60 acres/hour. Cover 40 foot (16 rows) with the 28 applicator at 8 mph should cover over 35 acres an hour.

Mowing hay sucks.


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## cornshucker

Dad had a couple of books called "The operation care and repair of farm machinery" that was put out by John Deere they used these in his Ag classes when he went to school. Somewhere in that book it said multiply width of implement by speed in miles per hour and you would get amount of acres you could do on average in a 10 hour day. For example 5 MPH x 10 ft.= 50 acres in a day or 5 acres per hour. Allowing for short rows or odd shaped fields usually comes pretty close.


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## mlappin

cornshucker said:


> Dad had a couple of books called "The operation care and repair of farm machinery" that was put out by John Deere they used these in his Ag classes when he went to school. Somewhere in that book it said multiply width of implement by speed in miles per hour and you would get amount of acres you could do on average in a 10 hour day. For example 5 MPH x 10 ft.= 50 acres in a day or 5 acres per hour. Allowing for short rows or odd shaped fields usually comes pretty close.


I was actually using width of implement in feet x MPH x .1212 = acres per hour, then figuring 85-90% efficiency with turning around.

Using yours 13ft x 10 mph equals 130 acres in a day or 13 acres an hour.

So pretty close either way. I timed it today, mowed 25 acres in 1 hour 53 minutes. But I did stop for two calls on the mobile.

I think mine is more for farming a section of land or when farming under a very large pivot and doing a round de round. While yours is probably closer to what can actually be expected in a more realistic setting. I know mowing odd or goofy shaped fields with a lot of turning around seems like it takes twice as long as doing the same size field thats long and narrow with no obstructions. Actually have a field in the next county with rows a little longer than 5/8 mile but not quite 3/4 of a mile long, you can really get something done in that one, nice square field, no trees, tile risers or other BS to put up with when planting.

I may not make use of the full 13 foot of the discbine, but from years and years of running a 12 foot haybine with Super 88 diesels where 4th was a little slow but 5th was too fast I learned to use 11 foot and 11 3/4 inches of that 12 foot without leaving streaks, figured I'm using 12' 11" of the discbine, may once in a while have a few blades of grass that might be six inches tall at the edge of the pass, didn't quite miss em but could have used a 1/4" more to the cut side.

Thinking about putting the auto steer on the mowing tractor this summer just for sh*ts and giggles.


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## FarmerCline

I haven't timed anything yet but have been thinking a lot lately about efficiency and acres per hour. The problem I have is a large majority of my fields are in small odd shaped patches(4 acres and less)and it seems to take forever to get anything done for all the turning. When I get into a larger good shaped field it seems to take the same amount of time to do it as it does a field half that size or less and It feels like I'm actually getting something accomplished. If I had larger fields I could put in the same amount of hours and do so much more and have a lot more to show for my time......too bad farmland is in such high demand around here and it seems to be impossible to get your foot in the door to rent desirable fields.


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## mlappin

Yep, planted 46 acres the other day in three different fields, two were right across the road from one another and the third was a quarter mile down the road. Took longer to plant those three as it did one 76 acre field with 1/2 mile rows. On that big field had a tad over 20 acres planted just getting the outside rounds done.


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