OK, back from the Deere folks.
They had somewhat better pricing on their 96" and 84" mowers which were rather heavy duty. I looked at a Land Pride 8' batwing finishing mower for tyre kicking.
We went through many different things including inclines on my property, tractor weight, HP, PTO HP, MFWD, etc. I have 60HP, 55HP at PTO according to my data sheet but 51HP would be a better planning point possibly.
They talked me away from the finishing mower due to the cutting height. We have about 17 acres in level hay meadow that requires cutting once or twice when not in harvest. We have about 18 acres that is rolling with about 10 acres on a good slope. Their suggestion was a 72" 3pt mower however since I already had a very nice 60" mower they suggested I just forget about replacing with a slightly larger one at a higher cost.
They did suggest a 96" pull type cutter for the meadow but also suggested it would not be financially beneficial as I already have a good 60" cutter.
It is strange to spend some time with the sales folks and have them say they would rather not sell you anything! (of course, they did add me to a want list of people in case they receive some used equipment for cheap, future customer base!)
This has been a good exercise! I'll need to keep working on this as I go through equipment thoughts and desires.
Thanks to all and I hope this serves as a reference data point to someone else.
