How often should you mow pasture or acreage in Florida?
Around Tampa Bay, grass grows fastest in the summer rains, so when you cut usually matters more than how often. Cut before the weeds go to seed, and leave enough grass behind.
By Pinewood Property Services · Updated
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Cut to the season, not the calendar.
There isn’t one right number of cuts a year. It depends on what the land is for: grazing, hay, a field you want kept tidy, or a lot you just don’t want getting away from you.
Timing usually matters more than the count. Grass grows fastest in the summer rains around Tampa Bay, and the state’s most common pasture weed flowers in the fall. Well-timed mowing can save you a much harder job later.
What follows is general guidance from University of Florida extension research and federal weather records. It’s not a Pinewood schedule, and it doesn’t promise any number of visits.
Growth peaks with the rain.
NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 climate normals for Tampa International Airport add up to 49.48 inches of rain a year. A little over 30 inches of that, about three-fifths, falls from June through September.
The rest of the year is far drier. No month from October through May averages even 2.7 inches, and November is the driest at 1.40. The National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office dates the rainy season for this part of Florida from about May 25 to October 10.
Pasture grass follows the heat and the water. UF/IFAS puts about 85 percent of bahiagrass production in the six warmest months, April through September. It adds that low rainfall in March, April and May holds production back. So a field that looks fine in May can get away from you by late summer.
Cut before the weeds go to seed.
Mowing is one of the most-used weed controls in pasture, according to the UF/IFAS pasture weed guide. Timed right, it keeps weeds from producing seed. Mow after they’ve set seed, and that seed can ride on the equipment to the next field.
Dogfennel is the one to watch, and UF/IFAS names it Florida’s most common pasture weed. Its life-cycle table for the Gainesville area has the weed flowering in September and October and dropping seed in November and December. The same publication says those stages come earlier farther south, so treat the months as a guide.
It costs you grass, too. UF/IFAS reports significant bahiagrass yield loss when heavy dogfennel infestations aren’t controlled before July 1. Lightly infested pasture held its yield much better.
Mowing has its limits. Dogfennel is a perennial that spreads from rootstocks, and the weed guide says large weeds with extensive root systems won’t be controlled by mowing alone. A cut stops the seed, but it doesn’t kill the plant. For control beyond that, ask your county’s UF/IFAS Extension office.
Leave enough grass behind.
Shorter isn’t better on pasture. For bahiagrass in midsummer, UF/IFAS gives a stubble height of about 2 inches for hay, 3 inches under rotational grazing, and 5 inches under continuous stocking. It also warns that overgrazing can cost you the stand.
Those figures are for grazing and hay, so your own height depends on how you use the land.
Letting grass run long has a cost of its own. UF/IFAS says forage quality drops dramatically as the grass matures, especially once seedheads are up. Bahiagrass sends up the most seedheads when the days are longest.
A rough guide to the seasons.
Spring is the time to catch up land that’s gone long, before the rains arrive. If a field has grown past a foot, the first cut is brush hogging rather than field mowing. Either way, the acreage quote tool gives you a starting price by the acre.
From June through September, growth is at its fastest. A field cut early in the rains is easier to keep up than one left until fall. Low ground can stay soft, and anything too wet to cut safely is left out or rescheduled.
Late summer is when dogfennel is getting ready to flower. Mowing ahead of it keeps that seed out of next year’s pasture.
Fall and winter are slower. With only about 15 percent of bahiagrass growth falling outside April to September, kept-up land needs much less attention until spring.
Every year’s rain is different, so read these as rough months rather than dates.
Match the cut to the land.
Kept-up pasture and fields are field mowing, starting at $75 an acre with a $200 job minimum. Once growth is past a foot, it’s brush hogging. Tall grass and weeds start at $100 an acre with a $300 job minimum, and thicker growth costs more. The full table is on our Pricing page, and every figure is confirmed after we’ve seen the land.
Tell us how you use the land and when it was last cut. We’ll suggest a plan when we quote, and the date is always agreed with you.
Ready to price your land?
Tell us where it is and what’s growing on it. You’ll hear back within one business day, and the price is confirmed once we’ve seen the property, in person or from your photos.
More answers on mowing, brush hogging and overgrown lots are in our other guides.
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