20 acres - Zero Turn - $3000-5000 - ?!?!

[aczlan]

There are other machines similar to that (Toro and Deere make them for sure) and I have seen them anywhere from $1500 to $10,000 so if that one doesn't work, keep your eyes on Craigslist for one.
Do you know the model of the Farmall? You might be able to pull a batwind with that depending on the model and options.

Aaron Z

 

[jeffinsgf]

Why would anyone "mow" 20 acres? Look, establish a yard near the house...maybe an acre or so. Then do something logical with the rest of the property. If you want animals, turn it into pasture. If you don't want animals contact your local conservation department about doing a prairie restoration, planting the acreage in native forbs and wildflowers. I have a 4 acre prairie restoration project in my front. It takes about 10 hours a year to maintain, that being a burn in the fall. The color starts about now and explodes through the summer with a new look about every 4 or 5 weeks.

Acres of mowed grass are about as boring as landscape gets.

 

[Ted Summey]

You need something more than a ZTR to do 20 acres OR buy a mower to care for part of the 20 and hire the rest.

 

[KYDan]

A commercial zero turn will mow 20 acres and survive if it is not too rough and it is a larger mower, but you are not going to find one that will suit your needs for what you have budgeted. I have an old JD 757 that I mow about 10 acres with and it has been great, but the newer ones are made in China and have had some issues. If I were going to buy another one it would most likely be a Ferris as their top of the line model has the best suspension on a ZT. However, the best cutting from what I have seen is an Xmark. Like the other posters have mentioned you would probably be better off with a CUT tractor and a finish mower if the property is good grass. It will not mow as fast as the ZT or give you as nice of a look, but it is a whole lot more versatile and you will find lots of uses for it. There are a lot of other good brands of ZT's available as well, and they are fast and the best at what they do. Talk with some of the commercial lawn service people in your area. They mow hundreds of acres a month with ZT's.

 

[bthomas67wagon]

Jeffinsgf - enjoy your prairie...

A Batwing mower (mowing 10 ft across) should cut some time off!!

 

[bthomas67wagon]

Aaron - It's a 1953 IH Farmall. IDK if it even runs or runs well, but was told it does.
It has a belly mower with some sort of orange box that has a pulley system down to the deck? I haven't been able to do anything with it just yet...

I'll have to find a manual and a battery and see what she does sometime in the next week or two...

-Brent

 

[aczlan]

A model would be useful too... IH made the Super A, Super C, H, M and MD models in 1953 with HP ranging from 20 to 50ish.

Aaron Z

 

[bthomas67wagon]

It took some digging, but based on the Serial Number, I believe it's a 1953 Super C.
I think it said "Woods" on the pulley system to the belly mowing deck?
(see pics below)

 

[aczlan]

Odd, your dataplate shows that the prefix is FC which should be a C, but the serial number is for a 1953 Super C which should have the prefix of FSC (per http://www.oocities.org/mck357/serialnumbers.html )...
Anyways, that has ~23 HP available at the PTO which should be plenty for that deck, but not much more.

Aaron Z

 

[Ted Summey]

Get the Farmall going. It will be fine for mowing away from the house and get a ZTR for the lawn. You don't need anything else.