Mowing Food Plots and Shooting Lanes on Mississippi Hunting Property

September hits and the to-do list on Mississippi hunting property gets long fast. Food plots need their final mow before bow season. Shooting lanes that got overgrown through summer have to be cleared. Sendero edges along ridgelines in Jones and Covington counties are full of regrowth. If you wait until October to deal with all of it, you're mowing through timber that's had months to thicken up and fighting deer patterns you already set.

The right mower gets that work done in a weekend instead of three.

What Mississippi Hunting Property Actually Puts a Mower Through

Hunting land mowing is not lawn mowing. It's uneven terrain, often with stumps, edge brush, soft spots near creek drains, and food plot ground that can go from firm to boggy depending on summer rain. In the Pine Belt, you're dealing with sandy clay soils, steep-sided drains between ridges, and Bahia or native grasses that grow thick from May through September.

A residential zero turn handles five acres of lawn without trouble. Run it through two hours of hunting-property terrain and you start finding its limits. Deck skirts catch debris. Thin spindles take hits from wood. Lightweight drive systems bog in tall grass or push sideways on slopes. Commercial machines are built to absorb that kind of work day after day.

The IS 700 Series for Hunting Property Work

The Ferris IS 700 Series is the most common commercial machine we sell to hunting property owners and timber managers at Dykes Motors. It starts at $8,649 for the 52-inch deck and comes with a 27 HP Briggs & Stratton CXi engine — enough power to run a full deck load through tall overgrown grass without pulling the ground speed down.

What makes the IS 700 work on uneven terrain is the independent suspension. Ferris builds it into both front and rear. On flat turf, suspension is a comfort feature. On sloped shooting-lane edges and rough food-plot soil, it does something more useful: keeps the deck at consistent cutting height even when the front wheels drop into a rut or climb over a root. You get a cleaner cut and less scalping on uneven ground.

The dual Hydro-Gear ZT-3200 transaxles hold ground on moderate slopes without the machine wanting to push sideways. For most hunting property work — food plots under five acres, sendero edges, logging-road shoulders — the IS 700 does the job without asking for more machine.

The 60-inch deck (also on the IS 700) covers more ground per pass and makes sense when you're mowing wider food plots or open right-of-way sections. At $9,099, it's a reasonable step up if your plots run 200 feet or wider.

When the ISX 800 Makes More Sense

If you're managing larger acreage, logging into steep terrain regularly, or running the mower 150-plus hours a year, step up to the Ferris ISX 800.

The upgrade over the IS 700 is in the drive system: Hydro-Gear ZT-3400 transaxles instead of ZT-3200s. The 3400 series runs larger cooling fans and handles sustained high-load operation better. Ground speed goes up to 10 mph, which matters when you're covering long sendero runs or food plot fields where you want to cut fast and be done before dark.

The ISX 800 starts at $10,199. For most one-property hunting owners, the IS 700 is enough. For someone managing multiple tracts or running a hunting lodge operation with a regular mowing schedule, the 3400-series transaxles pay for themselves in reduced service frequency.

Read more about why Ferris suspension works differently than what most people assume before they demo one.

Who Should Not Buy Either

A 5-acre food plot you mow four times a year does not need a $9,000 mower. If your property has one flat field, no significant terrain, and you're putting 25-30 hours a year on the machine, a heavy residential zero turn gets you there for less money. The commercial machines earn their price when the hours go up, the terrain gets rough, or you need the machine to hold up without service visits between hunting seasons.

If you're not sure where your property falls, bring the specs when you come in. We can walk you through what holds up at your hours and terrain type.

Get Ready Before Season Opens

We keep IS 700 and ISX 800 units in stock or available to order at 3069 Hwy 49 in Collins. Financing is available through our lending partners if you'd rather spread the cost over the season. Call (601) 516-7255 with questions or to check current availability.

The window between now and when the deer start moving is short. It's better to be done mowing than still working on it when the season opens.