SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/120370
Facility&Operations We mow 16 acres of irrigated athletic fields 3 times per week at an average of 4.5 mph with a 72-inch zero-turn mower. Our productivity is 3 acre per hour. (30*3)16/3=480 hours per year (out of 1,200 man hours, that's interesting). The rest of the story is that two groundskeepers, Scott Falahee and Jeff Kotas, mow the athletic fields, each with a 72inch zero-turn, which cuts the time in half which allows them to handle many other responsibilities. Once in while, I may mow to get a sense of the surface condition or help the guys during a busy week. —Mark Frever, CSFM, director of grounds, Albion College How many hours DID YOU MOW LAST YEAR? W E EMAILED A BUNCH OF STMA MEMBERS to ask one question: How many hours did you mow in 2012? I mow (on game days) the infield and skirts with the walkbehind greens mower, which takes about 45 minutes. On non-game days, I mow the same area with a walk-behind rotary mower. So that translates into: 70 games x 45 minutes = 52.5 hours on game days, and 40 non-game days x 45 minutes = 30 hours on non-game days. I also mow the outfield with the triplex 3-4 times a month. That allows me to get a good read on that turf. My assistant does the rest of the outfield mowing. So that would be 9 months x 4 mowings of 60 minutes each = 36 hours annually on the 22 SportsTurf | April 2013 triplex, for a total of approximately 118.5 annual hours mowing —Keith Winter, head grounds-keeper, Fort Wayne TinCaps Okay, we mow three times a week approximately with pedestrian cylinder mowers (professional), which takes 3 hours, and let's base this on one professional soccer pitch. We have undersoil heating and lights so we mow through the winter due to the growth we can achieve. The surface usually has a month off for concerts, etc. So, 11 months and approx 12 mowings per month = 36 hours per week x 48 = total 1,728 hours —Phil Sharples, sports turf agronomist, Galatasaray FC, Worcestershire, United Kingdom At our facility, we have 12 bermuda fields so obviously I don't do all of this by myself! After doing some quick math, I say we spend approximately 1,100-1,150 hours/year mowing. CRAZY! —Allison Moyer, grounds manager, Collegiate School, Richmond, VA As a crew, we mowed for roughly 500 hours last year. We maintain about 92,000 square feet. I personally probably only mowed for about 50 hours or so seeing as my crew members do most of the mowing. —Chad Laurie, head groundskeeper, Buffalo Bisons Our annual mowing window in mid-Michigan is 30 weeks. I say the total man hours is about 1,000 for my main campus crew; the Ambler Sports Complex crew are probably cutting about 2,500 hours per year (total man hours). —Craig Roncace, turf manager, Temple University We as a crew mowed about 1,200 hours last year. I personally mowed probably 900 hours. That is performed on soccer stadium field, soccer practice field and baseball stadium. —Jay Warnick, CSFM, athletic fields manager, University of Portland I mow a few other areas on occasion but primarily I mow Beaver Stadium. We start mowing the field around April 1 through the beginning of December, usually three times a week, sometimes four during the season. I would say somewhere around 350 to 400 hours of mowing the field for Penn State football. —Paul Curtis, groundskeeper, The Pennsylvania State University www.sportsturfonline.com