Patent 7980050 was granted and assigned to Kubota Corporation on July, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A mower unit includes a mower deck, a plurality of blades mounted inside the mower deck and rotatable about vertical shafts supported to the mower deck, the mower deck defining, on one lateral side thereof, a discharge outlet for discharging cut grass cut by the plurality of blades, and an opening and closing member configured to be movable to a closing position for closing the discharge outlet and also to an opening position away from the discharge outlet for opening the discharge outlet, the opening and closing member at the opening position being disposed along an outer face of the mower deck.