Walker Manufacturing is offering GIE+EXPO-goers the chance to win one of its mowers when they complete the Walker productivity calculator to see how much money they can earn. GIE+EXPO is held Oct. 22 to 24 in Louisville, Ky.

The giveaway comes on the heels of Walker’s completion of a two-year study that compared different zero-turn (ZTR) mower types on different landscapes to nail down what brand was the most productive.

It showed, on average, Walker mowers are 20 percent to 25 percent more productive than competitive mowers, according to Walker.

The study was conducted by mowing four different properties for 16 weeks each year (32 total weeks) with different brands of mowers that are competitive with Walker models to and were separated by category as: 48” deck width, 60” deck width, 48-54” grass handling and 30-36” compacts.

“We were surprised by the results,” said Bob Walker, president of Walker. “We knew we had a productive machine, but seeing the Walker consistently outperforming competitive mowers by 20 to 25 percent was eye-opening to us.”

The findings were not based on highest ground speed, said Tim Cromley, marketing manager at Walker, and he reasoned why.

“A number of ZTR manufacturers have ‘productivity calculators’ on their websites, but they only account for driving speed—they are just a measurement of covering ground at a certain speed, and they don’t really account for variables on the lawn or with the performance of the tractor,” he said. “Lawns have obstacles, tight places, hills and various other challenges for mowers. The Walker productivity calculator is based on real data collected in real places on a variety of machines. There has never been a more comprehensive study done in the OPE industry on productivity, and business owners who are serious about cutting their labor costs (which is about 55 percent of operating costs) need to take a close look at what the Walker can do for their company.”