field mowing
Cliff:
We have a 10 acre site in the country with both a grass (40 x 600) and asphalt (40x400) runway. Of the 10 acres, we mow about 7. For some time we had it professionally mowed weekly from mid-April thru September (pretty much grass growing season here in Oklahoma). Our costs were running $4.,200 to $4,700 per year. Two years ago we bit the bullet and bought a commercial Kubota Zero-Turn diesel mower for $9,000. Best investement we ever made.
Commercial mowing is OK but the companies we used all had a specific mowing day in the contract. They mowed rain or shine (yes, they would mow wet grass). If we had an event and wanted the field mowed closer to the event we usually could not get it done. Our contracts were annual and some years the current company would not re-bid the mowing contract. We could not find a company that would enter a multi-year mowing contract - even with price escalators.
Mowing results were very good however; and they did pick up and clean up grass and clippings.
It was hard to get them to mow the grass runway as close as we like (1 to 1/1/2 inch). The reason most often given was that their mowers really didn't cut that low or were not made for close cutting. We think the real reason was more along the lines that in order to mow short they had to slow down too much and time is money.
If you get commercial mowing make VERY sure that whoever is going to mow visits your field, understands totally what is needed and wanted and get references. In addition, the commercial mowers we used demanded that the field be closed to all flying while they had men and equipment on it - even if they were mowing away from the runways.
If you can get the to commit to a specific day and time (which you should); then you can post notices about field closing on those dates. If you don't get a day/time committment you could well have your mower coming out on a Saturday or Sunday.
Our experience.
Dan