Sickle Mower or brush hog?

[rsciolino]

I have a parcel of about 8 acres that I would like to cut 2x per year. in the past I did it with a woods 6' hog, but wonder if a sickle bar would be better. I do have about 300' of a seasonal creek that gets a lot of cattails weeds etc. the fields are mostly hay with some thin small wood brush popping thru. it is an old farm field. what are you using? any good used ones to search for? I have 60hp 3pt

 

[Turbys_1700]

I used old sickle bar mowers back in the day. Only used for hay. Brush hog was used for clearing up areas. I would prefer a brush hog for the majority your cutting needs. For steep pond banks a sycle mower is a better option.

 

[DJ54]

If it's fairly heavy grass, and you're just going to leave it lay, the bush hog would be my choice. Otherwise, when you make the second cutting, there's a good chance the dead grass would plug the cutter bar, unless you carried it above the level, of said dead grass. As Turby's_1700 mentioned, the sickle bar is best for creeks banks, etc.

 

[Goose69]

Rotary cutter will most likely be faster.... will for sure be more durable, and much less maintenance.
....I have only used sickles for cutting hay, it would seem to be more maintenance than I would mess with, unless I was going to bale the stuff.

 

[sidecarist]

Get a good flail and do it all. I'm simply astonished at what mine will do. Up to 1"-1.5" with no problems. Very little clumping, and up to 16" offset for fence lines, ditches etc. Now that I've got all of my rough stuff cleared, I'm thinking my brush hog will get sold off rather than let it sit and rust.

 

[stuckmotor]

A cycle bar mower should be able to reach the cattails better than the brush hog and will probably burn less fuel. There was no other field type mower on the farm where I grew up for the first nine or so years of my life. Granddad spent many an hour replacing guards knives etc. so his tractor driver could mow the pastures. Once he got a slasher the old cycle mower seldom did anything but mow hay. The highway departmemt also used a cycle bar mower to mow the right of way. I believe the tractor was a Farmall Cub or A. It had a long box mounted next to the engine to carry an extra section, maybe more, with the knives already rivited to it. If you have plenty of time to maintain the cycle bar mower go ahead and try one. I recommend that you wait a couple of years before selling off the slasher tough.