right mower to buy

[Anonymous Poster]

I have a Kubota L3000 with 27hp PTO and want to purchase a mower for it. I have approximately 7 acres of pasture that my horses use, but they graze selectively and I want to keep the buttercups,etc. cut down before they go to seed to let the grass have a better chance to take over. Anybody have any thoughts as to the best mower for that purpose?

 

[cowboydoc]

A three point rotary cutter would do just fine for that. You shouldn't have any problem with a 5' one with that tractor. They start at about $499 for a King Cutter brand and up to $2000 for Woods, Bush Hog, etc.

 

[Hawgee]

Cowboydoc is right about there being a broad choice among cutters.

What I want to address is the buttercups. We "had" tremendous amounts of that in with the horses here in the Pacific Northwest. Cutting does not make them go away. LIME. The buttercup like a lot of our weeds love acid soil. Copious amounts of lime. This year as the spring growth came, you could tell where I'd put the lime last year. "Now it will make my decision on a rotary cutter different when I purchase new because there has been such a drastic change to what I want to cut." The horses love it. More random feeding area's . It is still wise to look into a chain harrow for scratching up the pasture at times and kicking round the road apples. Generates new growth and thatches the old.

Short cut for a lawn and tall (3" to 4") for the animals.

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

[staveisland]

Thanks for the input. I hadn't thought about the lack of lime. Right now we have the pasture split up into three sections to sort of rotate the critters a bit to give the other sections a short rest. I looked into the chain harrows and found that there are a bunch of different kinds...any thoughts on which is the best to buy??

 

[cowboydoc]

I'd just find an old section of a harrow or two to drag around. That's what I use and it works great. I bought mine for about $10 a section at farm sales. If you want to go new www.countrymfg.com are pretty good people to deal with and they include shipping in their prices. I know other people that have used them and they've been really happy with their quality.