Bush Hog/Rotary Mower use question

[Utopia Texas]

We mowed 15 acres for years with a Ford 8N tractor with 5 foot shredder. You will do fine as long as you take it slow.

 

[Gary Fowler]

We have about 18 acres. 10 or so was planted in corn before we bought the place. It was harvested in the fall and has not been turned under. So of course there are now the left overs from the harvest as well as the weeds that have grown in.

We are planning a barn and pasture grass. That is likely not to happen for a couple months. Now is also not the time to plant pasture grass. Should be done in the fall at this point.

So my question is would a medium duty rotary mower handle keeping this weed patch under control? I am going to need one to periodically mow the pastures anyway.

Any advice?

I think the first thing I would be looking to do is take a disk to that corn field and flatten out those corn rows. Well maybe the second thing after running a shredder over the stalks and weeds. You need to get that ground levelled out prior to making it into pasture or you will forever be fighting that rough terrain.
Any light duty bush hog will handle weeds, grass and corn stalks. It takes a medium or heavy duty one to stand up to long term brush clearing though. I did use a light duty Howse 6 foot bush hog to chop down some pretty good sized saplings, basically anything that my Yanmar 4220 could push over with the FEL got ran over with the bush hog (very slowly) but the sheet metal go a work out and did require some weld repairs after a couple of years of this abuse. After I sold that tractor with that bush hog, I bought a Bush hog with 1/4" thick deck. It will stand up to just about anything that I take it to.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I agree with Gary. Buy or borrow a disc harrow and make first pass same direction as corn rows then a second at right angle to your first pass.

 

[JRobyn]

+3 on disking it. My back field, about 4-5 acres was planted in SOMETHING with big rows/hills years ago and then left fallow for 15-20 years before we bought it. My poor B-I-L got the task of the first bushhogging, using an old 9N and 5 ft hog. It nearly beat him to death since the lowest ground speed of the Ford was about 5mph. Might as well have had square wheels. That was after the 12ft tall blackberry vines with 1 in thick stems ripped half the hide off him. It was nearly 10 years ago and I don't think he's forgiven me and his sister yet.

Now, it virtually cannot be smoothed/leveled since grasses and weeds have VERY deeply rooted. Any plows just skip over it, or maybe bunch up and clog with what little grass can be uprooted. Someday, I'll find someone to hire with what they call around here a "bog" or a fire-break plow and about a 100hp dozer to pull it.

 

[N80]

Yep, driving across furrows gets real old, real fast. Hard on body and tractor.

As for 4 inch brush with a heavy duty mower, I've sure seen it done. My B-I-L used to mow with his 1970 Case (Case-O-matic) with an old twin shaft 12 foot JD pull behind mower. He'd cut anything the tractor could push over including pines that were 15' tall or so. When he did you had to stand welllll back. It would hurl stuff 50 yards.

 

[tractorshopper]

After my garden is done each year, I mow my property with corn stubble and regular weeds with my belly mower now. Used to bush hog with my last tractor, but don't have a small bush hog with my new one. Aside from sharpening blades more often, the tractor handles it just fine.

I'm not recommending this, but just pointing it out to say a light or medium duty bush hog should be great for what you want to do; probably even a rear finish mower would do.

 

[TheMan419]

Yes the field needs a disking. However we are going to build a barn. That will require moving some dirt around on the property and won't be done for a couple months. So I am thinking that if I disk now it will just need to be done again before we plant pasture grass. At this point in Indiana we likely have to wait until fall to plant the pasture grass. I would disk it then, turn under the weeds and what not and then plant grass.

I will have to look into the cost of a disc harrow. Farmer wants about $300 to disk it.

Could I reasonably expect to disk 2 acres per hour?

 

[LD1]

Yes the field needs a disking. However we are going to build a barn. That will require moving some dirt around on the property and won't be done for a couple months. So I am thinking that if I disk now it will just need to be done again before we plant pasture grass. At this point in Indiana we likely have to wait until fall to plant the pasture grass. I would disk it then, turn under the weeds and what not and then plant grass.

I will have to look into the cost of a disc harrow. Farmer wants about $300 to disk it.

Could I reasonably expect to disk 2 acres per hour?

When it comes to mowing or discing, figure MPH x implement width / 10 will get a rough acres per hour.

If you had a 6' disc, and went 3.5 MPH, thats 2.1 ac/hr. A 5' disc @ 4 MPH woudl be 2 acres per hour.

Certainly doable, but just depends on how rough the ground is and weather you can stay on the seat at 3.5-4 MPH

 

[lostcreekranch]

I will have to look into the cost of a disc harrow. Farmer wants about $300 to disk it.

Could I reasonably expect to disk 2 acres per hour?

If farmer has a bigger tractor and disc harrow it might be worth it. A heavy disc harrow will make big difference.

 

[SPYDERLK]

People don't realize what a tractor powered rotary mower can do. A medium duty is supposed to cut 2" saplings, a heavy duty up to four inch, a light duty up to an inch or so. Unless it is very light duty a rotary mower will usually chop up anything the tractor can push over. My little 22-hp with a 5' Howse light duty mower has cleared thickets that haven't been mowed in three or four years. That is one inch to an inch and a half saplings. You have to go slow, the sheet metal on top flexes a lot, and it makes a lot of noise but doesn't hurt anything. Only things that have stalled the tractor were hitting a hidden cross tie and a couple of small trees with two or three inch trunks that I really shouldn't have tried to mow.

With a 24-hp tractor I would go with a 5' mower especially if you have a hydro. I have been bushhogging fields since I was fourteen and I'm sixty-two years old now. So I know what I'm talking about when I say a wider mower and slower ground speed is better. That is unless you like your kidneys pounded into mush driving over corn ridges. With a hydro if the tractor starts bogging down just slow down and let the engine/mower catch up.

Mowing down corn stubble and weeds that have only grown for a year should be easy for any LIGHT DUTY mower on the market. Some of our land that is signed up in government programs can only be mowed every other year and it gets thick with tall bushes and small trees six to eight feet tall. The little Kioti handles them okay, slowly, but okay.

RSKY

The body on the Howse light duty lacks torsional rigidity. Ive seen the bodies form into a twisted plane as stresses accumulate from use. ... There is room immediately behind the front skirt up under the deck where you can weld in a 1.5 or 2" dia pipe extending across to link each side skirt. This will do wonders to prevent twist in the body.