by admin | Apr 12, 2026 | Uncategorized
The benefits of autonomous robotic mowing are significant in many applications.
A home owner can free up time, reduce up front costs, keep the lawn at a cabin, second home, or rental property mowed without having to be there in person, reduce pollution, reduce noise, have their lawn mowed more frequently for aesthetic appeal with better turf health and quality, and minimize recurring costs associated with fuel and maintenance on traditional mowers. Many homes are set up ideally for a single mower to handle multiple properties that are adjacent or close to each other. When you have one mower taking care of multiple homes the benefits are even greater. With the initial upfront cost of a residential mower handling .75 - 2.5 acres usually between $2,000 and $4,000 these mowers make sense for a single home but when considering they are able to handle multiple properties with next to no additional expenses the proposition is even more attractive.
Municipalities, golf courses, airports, campgrounds, cemeteries, resorts, school districts, parks, athletic facilities, and other areas with significant areas of turf to maintain and mow can also benefit from automation in terms of mowing. We have models of autonomous lawn mowers designed to handle from less than an acre all the way to 30 acres in a relatively short time. While the costs with mowers able to handle 20-30 acres are in the tens of thousands of dollars the capabilities of them are immense. Nearly all of these individual units can be combined and work together with other units in harmony so it is quite easy to accommodate mowing needs to the hundreds of acres. Autonomous mowing doesn’t replace your maintenance staff, but it enables them to automate the most basic and time consuming parts of their days. Autonomous mowing doesn’t handle 100% of your mowing and maintenance needs but it can typically handle 80-90% of your mowing tasks in a manner that is very high quality and very efficient with next to no time from a person and very low recurring costs once things are set up. Mowing robotically with autonomous units allows for more frequent and stable maintenance of areas that were historically time consuming. Staff can focus on more technical aspects of turf care and property maintenance allowing them to do more with less and add value.
An often overlooked segment of the population that can benefit from implementing some level of automation in mowing are commercial lawn and landscaping contractors. Mowing grass is often the most basic function these companies perform and despite the relative simplicity of it, the time it takes is quite significant. Automation in mowing isn’t going to replace the need for a person but it is going to enable them to handle more customers and provide better results. Automation for a contractor who is mowing can be deployed on the most time consuming areas and easily handles obstacles that slow down traditional large scale mowing. Automated mowing can allow a contractor to mow much more frequently than manned mowing. By more frequent mowing long term you get stronger turf that is healthier and looks better.
By deploying some level of autonomous mowing a contractor can handle more customers and focus on higher end services that both residential and commercial customers demand - like fertilization, seasonal clean ups, trimming, edging, landscape refreshing, planting, aeration, and topdressing. When dealing with customers in a subdivision or HOA the potential to market to groups of property owners in a single location is great. Having a single autonomous mower, purchased at a wholesale rate by a contractor, mow multiple homes is very plausible and very attractive to your business model. Your customers will love autonomous mowing because it is consistent, offers more frequent mowing, quiet, doesn’t pollute, and produces tremendous results
We believe contractors benefit the most from deploying dedicated units to mow a property and leaving them on site. This differs from the traditional mindset of route based property maintenance and traveling with all equipment from job to job. While there is some potential in having an autonomous mower travel with a crew and perform mowing while a crew does ancillary tasks this requires a significant level of coordination and timing to be efficient and the units capable of this are significantly more expensive than dedicated units. One could purchase 25-50 dedicated residential units for the cost of a single commercial robotic mower designed to travel with a crew.
By having a dedicated unit at a property it is easy to offer mowing every 2-3 days and also very easy to set a single unit up to mow adjacent properties. By utilizing this strategy a contractor can now spend less time at each site when doing inspections, cleaning, trim, & edging only compared to having all mowing to complete. On site visits can typically be extended slightly also as the majority of mowing is done already and supporting services can be stretched out. Autonomous mowers are not the enemy of lawn and landscaping contractors, they are tools that can be utilized to improve efficiency, profitability, and quality as part of your operation. The technology is autonomous mowing is so good now you simply can’t afford to ignore it.
Dale Kleffman is the owner of LAWNAMATION, by Musson Landscaping. LAWNAMATION is a full service B2C and B2B in both retail and wholesale as a seller of autonomous robotic lawnmowers and is the exclusive distributor of Mammotion products in Michigan, Wisconsin, & Minnesota. Musson Landscaping operates as a full service lawn company and landscaping company operating out of Northern Wisconsin. LAWNAMATION provides sales, service, and customer support for Mammotion and other autonomous robotic mowing products throughout its territory. Dale can be reached a dalek@mussonlandscaping.com or 715-891-0419.
by admin | Apr 10, 2026 | Uncategorized
We field numerous questions from customers and prospective customers worried about someone stealing their mowers. While not an expert on all brands we can speak to what Mammotion does for their mowers and address our commercial mowers.
We can start with the commercial mowers - first off good luck with stealing one. These things are big and heavy, you’d need multiple people to even think about lifting or moving it and something pretty big to load it in to. It is going to be constantly reporting its location to its owner so any theft or attempted theft is going to be short lived. Our commercial mowers also have a pin required to access the app so even if it is a sophisticated thief they won’t have any luck. Additionally our anti theft system includes an instant alarm if the unit is lifted or moved outside of its designated operating area. Lastly the units provide immediate real time GPS tracking to its exact location.
Our residential mowers from Mammotion are tied to a master user, the person who originally bound the unit when it was new and just opened. Only the master user can remove themselves from this role through “unbinding” the unit. The only reason for this would be to transfer ownership or full authority over the mower to someone else. The master user can share access with anyone they want but if someone tries to access or use the robot they will be unable to. There is no way to over-ride this other than the master user voluntarily doing it so they will be carrying around a paperweight if they steal it. Additionally if the mower is on it will provide a user notification that it was taken outside of its operating area and provide its location to the master user on the app via wifi or 4g. There is a place in the Mammotion mowers to place an air tag or gps tag as well if that is desired for even more security.
We do place labels on mowers that advise any potential thief that the mower is useless to anyone other than its owner and reports its location to its owner for a passive deterrent also. We are fortunate that we have not had any issues with theft
by admin | Apr 6, 2026 | Uncategorized
We get a lot of questions about larger areas of turf and being able to successfully implement autonomous robotic mowing. There are certainly great options out there for places like golf courses, school districts, municipalities, cemeteries, campgrounds, parks, airports, resorts, summer camps, and other places that have large amounts of turf they need to mow regularly. These facilities have high standards for mowing quality and much larger expenses to maintain their grounds then the rest of society.
Autonomous robotic mowing makes a ton of sense, especially in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota where we primarily work. Our mowing season is somewhat short so the work is seasonal for those willing to provide it. Finding an employee or third party person or a company to take care of it is getting more difficult and more expensive. Mowing is often the most basic task asked of grounds crew. Eliminating some or all of this time spent mowing could have your team focusing on more technical aspects of grounds maintenance where their knowledge and expertise is far more valuable.
Traditional lawn care equipment has increased in cost and still requires labor, fuel, and some level of maintenance. Autonomous mowers can be set to operate when and where desired and they don’t call in sick. Autonomous mowing is able to work near continuously to keep things fresh and cleanly cut with little to no clippings to pick up. These mowers will work at night and don’t require sleep. Many commercial models have hot swap battery charging to even reduce or eliminate any time spent charging.
We have the ability to provide autonomous mowing equipment to handle from less than an acre of grass up to hundreds of acres autonomously. Our larger units can handle 20 - 30 acres of mowing area in a 3 day span per each unit. You can use multiple units simultaneously or transfer units to other areas to increase capacity of acreage handled. Mapping with commercial units can often be done with handheld scanners and 3D LiDar and is something we provide as a service for those customers who are evaluating or purchase units through us. Mowers can share maps and data and work in tandem to cover larger areas. Managing areas for mowing can be done digitally and monitored remotely.
Nearly everyone agrees the concept makes a ton of sense, yet the implementation remains somewhat limited for many of those with significant areas of turf to maintain. Everyone is curious and interested while wanting to see others try it first. We have tried it and spent countless hours with these machines evaluating their performance. We are here and ready to back it up and not just tell you but show you. We have multiple units ready to demo on your location with no cost or obligation. The technology has improved vastly in recent years and none of our mowers require any buried wire, all have real time feedback on performance and location even when monitored remotely, and none of them have any subscription services required following purchase.
If you are curious about potential cost and applicability for your larger areas of turf mowing please reach out. We are happy to talk on the phone or provide an in person demonstration of what equipment can do. Some of our mowers have capabilities that include striping athletic fields fully autonomously and even picking up golf balls.
by admin | Apr 5, 2026 | Uncategorized
We see a lot of homes in Northern Wisconsin that are beautiful and newly constructed or extensively remodeled. Often times extensive landscaping projects that beautify the outdoor space while adding functionality accompany these homes. Many times following new construction or an extensive remodel a new lawn is needed. The easy process is just having someone one toss down some seed and straw or for those who want to really splurge - getting some sod installed. These methods both work, but doing a little homework and preparation really will help you get the long term results desired.
First a foremost our soils in Northern Wisconsin are often not the best for growing great grass. Many are rocky and lack organic content. We almost always do a soil test on the site before we consider putting in a new lawn. The soil test is free and lets us get an objective baseline on composition, PH, and nutrients present. From here it is alot easier to determine what can be added as far as topsoil, compost, organic material, or something like lime to amend the PH. Grass will grow to some extent on nearly any soil, but to see it thrive a little preparation can go a long way. Often times leftover backfill from a dug basement is simply spread around a lawn with no regard for quality of the soil.
Another huge issue on sites where extesnive work has been done is soil compaction. If contractors have spent months driving vehicles and heavy equipment accross a homesite and nothing is done to loosen up and decompact soils prior to seeding or sod your grass is going to struggle. This is true for sod, hydroseeding, or traditional seed/straw methods. Taking the time to break up compacted soils really helps new grass get the proper start and have a much better chance to establish a healthy root system. Even something like sod which may look great initially over a compacted site will eventually fall victim if soil compaction is not addressed ahead of time. A harley rake or hydra rake on a skidsteer are both excellent and efficent tools for this.
Lastly lets talk about water, this is essential with a new lawn regardless of the method. Seed and straw and sod are likely the least tolerant to days without water and hydroseeding is often the most tolerant due to mulch retaining some level of water, but having water is essential for new grass regardless of method of putting in new lawn. The amount of water is also important, saturation and pooling of water is not desireable and can have a negative effect. More frequent and shorter periods of watering are preferred versus a single daily watering.
Seed and straw are definetly the least expensive method to grow a lawn, sod is the most expensive, and hydroseeding is somewhere in the middle. Hydroseeding offers some benefits such as tackifier that keeps seed soil contact better, limits erosion, and has mulch which retains water for the seed compared to seed and straw. Sod looks great right away but there are many sod lawns that fail a few years down the road and you need to be very careful with watering schedules and not using for the initial period after it is transferred. To me there is something to be said in actually growing the grass from scratch in the environment you expect it to live in. I have nothing against sod but you won't find a sod farm in the very northern parts of Wisconsin as it is all brought up from the middle of the state. Their soil composition, growing seasons, and temperature range are different than the very northern part of the state. Hydroseeding can generally produce an attractive lawn in 3-4 weeks time with appropriate site preperation and watering. This will be denser than seed/straw and result in a more useable and complete lawn faster than seed/straw.
Paying attention to the type of grass is also important. Bluegrass is great but it does require watering and fertilizer at more frequent intervals and is less tolerant to drought and shade than fescues. If you don't have an irrigated site with a sprinkler system and close to full sun on your yard a fescue is likely a better choice long term.
by admin | Mar 31, 2026 | Uncategorized
The technology and capabilities within autonomous robotic lawnmowers are something many homeowners, businesses, and municipalities could take advantage of today. This style of mowing is safer, saves a tremendous amount of time, is more reliable, doesn’t emit noise or pollution, has lower ongoing costs, and provides superior aesthetics compared to traditional mowing.
At LAWNAMATION, we sell primarily robotic lawnmowers from Mammotion. We do this on a retail basis to customers and also on a wholesale basis to other dealers and contractors or those who require a higher volume of units. These products range in capability from around .2 acres of area to about 2.5 acres, and current pricing runs from around $1000
to $4000 and change. One can string multiple units together to cover a larger area if needed. With our mowers, they are designed to operate on a more frequent basis than the traditional once-a-week lawnmower. We usually set ours to operate every other or every third day. Operating more frequently does a couple important things: the grass clippings are shorter and decompose back into organic matter quicker as a result, your lawn always has the freshly cut clean look to it as it never has time to grow shaggy, your grass starts to grow thicker as when it gets cut more frequently it stops trying to grow towards the sky to get more sun, and weeds like dandelions don’t have time to start blooming before they are cut.
We are excited to tell people more about robotic mowing and actually show people through on-site demonstrations once our snow is gone. Stay tuned to learn more!
