Battery powered riding mower, any ready for prime time?

[wave rider]

My friend just bought a place and wants me as a housemate. The property is a touch under five acres, mostly grassland. We were led to believe that the hay bailer guy would bail the grass and sell it to one of the horse properties nearby.

After contacting the hay guy, we find that he only bailed our place a few times as the grasses are tough and substandard for hay. :RollingEyesSmiley5: Oh…

Turns out the fellow that lived there mowed it himself on his riding mower. You know who (apparently) will be taking over that job. Are there any good battery powered riding mowers that could handle the job?

I suspect I’ll need a burley weed whacker too, maybe that could share batteries with the mower. Any recommendations for those too?

Or we may just pay someone…

[Speedy]

Five acres! I haven’t heard of any electric riding lawnmowers that can handle anywhere near that much acreage. The Google machine says 2.5 to 4 acres and it’ll cost a lot. How long will your batteries last if you cut 2.5 acres one day and another 2.5 acres the next? No telling. Go gas or Diesel?

[Ombligo]

You are not going to find an electric mower that can do five acres in one go. You may be pushing it for two. I would be looking for a small tractor and mower attachment.

Either that or a small herd of goats.

[TheTominator]

A Solectrac electric tractor using a 5' rotary cutter attached to the 3-point hitch may be the right electric combo. I'm not aware of any other commercially available tractors of that size. (If I had one of these, I'd use it a lot on our farm property as an alternative to our noisy diesel tractors for many applications.)

A 3-point attached finish mower will leave a better appearance (same blade configuration as a riding mower) but use more power so the battery won't last as long. Same goes for a more expensive 3-point attached flail mower.

At this point in time an electric mower or tractor will be considerably more expensive to purchase than a gasoline riding mower or a small diesel tractor. It remains to be seen how the total cost of ownership compares.

[Diana]

Are any of these horse properties adjacent? If so, look into leasing 4 to 4.5 acres to them for pasture. Or get some goats, as they will eat nearly anything. Just be prepared; they can be difficult to keep in one place if they get a mind to go wandering.

[mattkime]

Why the hell would you mow multiple acres of land?

[modelamac]

I think I would find another "crop" for most of that acreage. Vegetable/berry/flower garden, trees, combination of these...offer it as a neighborhood garden spot. Ask yourselves why it has to be mowed. Can you get away with mowing just a portion, a border all around it?

[rgG]

mattkime wrote:
Why the hell would you mow multiple acres of land?

Yeah, either rent it out for pasture, great idea, or let it go natural. You might want to hire someone to bushhog it once or twice a year, if renting it out won’t.
I used to have about 3.5 acres and not all of it needed mowing, but what did was a hell of a lot of work.
I don’t think any current electric riding mower would be up to the task.

[TheTominator]

Diana wrote:
Are any of these horse properties adjacent? If so, look into leasing 4 to 4.5 acres to them for pasture. Or get some goats, as they will eat nearly anything. Just be prepared; they can be difficult to keep in one place if they get a mind to go wandering.

Goats aren't a bad idea. But having someone else bring their goats to graze it down is the way to go.
To keep it tamed enough would require a significant number of goats. Unless you are used to raising livestock... goats in particular... I don't recommend being the owner. Keeping goats healthy is a lot more than just keeping them fed and watered.

I've been breeding sheep for almost 25 years. We have to rotary cut the pastures even with the sheep grazing on them since they don't like to eat all types of vegetation (and we have more pasture than the sheep can eat down).

[mattkime]

Around here, there are groups that will help you re-establish native prairie. Perhaps there's something similar near you.