Taylor wrote:

I purchased my lawn mower (6.5 hp B&S engine) new in September. I
only needed to use a few short times to mow the front yard before
the first freeze came. Since the engine has hardly been used
much I was contemplating skipping the first seasonal oil change
this fall. Will this be ok for the engine? I like to keep the
oil clean but it seem silly to change it so soon.

I will run the gas tank dry as soon as I can get a decent day to
do it here.

Thanks!

Unless your owner's manual advises otherwise, I'd change the oil since
it's a new mower.

http://nevadawalrus.com/index-4.html

Excerpt:

"BASIC MAINTENANCE

"Some equipment will have different schedules, if you have your owners
manual, check for any variations.

"Oil Changes;

"NEW EQUIPMENT SHOULD HAVE IT'S FIRST OIL CHANGE INSIDE THE FIRST 5
HOURS OF RUNNING TIME. IF YOU ONLY RUN YOUR EQUIPMENT A HALF HOUR PER
WEEK, CHANGE THE OIL AFTER A MONTH ON A NEW UNIT. NEW ENGINES WILL HAVE
A LOT OF INITIAL BREAK-IN CONTAMINANTS AND [the oil] NEEDS TO BE
REPLACED EARLY. No special break-in oil is needed, or advised, use the
regular good quality oil you plan to continue to use. After that, change
the oil every 25 hours of running time or once a year. If your equipment
is used in very dusty conditions change the oil more often. . . ."
[EMPHASIS ADDED]

I remember seeing a few metal filings in the oil I changed out on the
first oil change of my Toro Super Recycler which has a 6.0 hp B&S
engine.