Mower blade shape?

[sbakf]

Finally got my 20 acres of open fields smoothed out - a lot of tilling and disk work. Smooth enough that they can now be cut easily (but slowly) with my BX2660 with 60" MMM. Just ordered a Landpride FDR3590 Grooming Mower to fit behind my L5740. Considered a wide flex mower (e.g., AFM4211), but high price and wide turning radius were a turn-off. With the FDR3590, I have a choice of 3 cutting blades. They are: (1) Low Lift - "Highly recommended in sandy soils ...", (2) Medium Lift - "Medium suction for lifting grass. Requires less HP than high lift." and (3) High Lift - "Greatest suction for lifting grass before cutting. Can take higher HP in tall dense grass."

Fields are now growing primarily weeds with some mixed (past) planted grasses (e.g., bahia, rye, bermuda, fescue, etc.). Not sure what I might reseed them with, but perhaps a centipede with a touch of dutch clover.

Would appreciate any thoughts you have on best mower blade selection. Your experience would be welcomed. I'm leaning toward the high lift to raise up what the tractor wheels put down. Thoughts on grass to plant would also be helpful. I'm building a family estate (retreat) - not a farm.

 

[clemsonfor]

Id use the medium lift just for the shear fact that they require less lift. It wont be that big of a deal.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Finally got my 20 acres of open fields smoothed out - a lot of tilling and disk work. Smooth enough that they can now be cut easily (but slowly) with my BX2660 with 60" MMM. Just ordered a Landpride FDR3590 Grooming Mower to fit behind my L5740. Considered a wide flex mower (e.g., AFM4211), but high price and wide turning radius were a turn-off. With the FDR3590, I have a choice of 3 cutting blades. They are: (1) Low Lift - "Highly recommended in sandy soils ...", (2) Medium Lift - "Medium suction for lifting grass. Requires less HP than high lift." and (3) High Lift - "Greatest suction for lifting grass before cutting. Can take higher HP in tall dense grass."

Fields are now growing primarily weeds with some mixed (past) planted grasses (e.g., bahia, rye, bermuda, fescue, etc.). Not sure what I might reseed them with, but perhaps a centipede with a touch of dutch clover.

Would appreciate any thoughts you have on best mower blade selection. Your experience would be welcomed. I'm leaning toward the high lift to raise up what the tractor wheels put down. Thoughts on grass to plant would also be helpful. I'm building a family estate (retreat) - not a farm.

Hi lift blades blades will soak up a few hp in heavy grass. They shine in grass that is maintained and cut often. You get a better quality of cut if all the stars are aligned. As mentioned, avoid if you have sandy soil. Along with sand, hi lift blades will pick up small rocks.

"low lift" avoids those pitfalls at the cost of a cut that's not quite so good in ideal conditions, but way ahead of the game if the grass needed cutting 2 weeks ago and you're just now getting to it.

Medium is just that, and a compromise of sorts. OK at most things, not brilliant at anything, and the best choice if you have a wide variety of conditions to deal with.

 

[leonz]

The best mower is a flailmower as the entire width of the
mower is cutting at a high speed of rotation and the
flailmower with its Y blades has a much greater amount
of cutting edge than any brush mower.

The flailmower will create huge amounts of suction
under the mowing hood as the Y blades become
airfoils and create huge suction which improves slicing
which is done at a very high rotation speed of
the flail mower rotor.


If it were me I would cancel the order and buy a
flail mower from Ken Sweet here on the forum
for your larger Kubota as Ken Sweet is a
forum sponsor in good standing.

As for what you should plant you want a very
low maintenance and weed free plant and that
is Sainfoin which was developed in Russia
hundreds of years ago.


The nice thing about Sainfoin is it requires nearly
zero care and is prolific and you wont have to mow
it that often or at all during the year unless
you are harvesting it for forage and you can knock
it down when its frost killed if you want to.

 

[whistlepig]

High lift blades suck up the dirt and dust too! Nothing like a 95 degree day with a good layer of sweat and high lifty blades depositing dust at the rate of a 1/4" an hour.

 

[LD1]

Some love 'em, some hate 'em, but I personally like gator blades.

They are more of a medium lift blade, but they do chop the stuff up much finer if you get behind on mowing. And they turn leaves in the fall into dust.

 

[sbakf]

Medium is just that, and a compromise of sorts. OK at most things, not brilliant at anything, and the best choice if you have a wide variety of conditions to deal with.

Medium appears to be the preferred choice - not perfect, but .....

Not much dust (sand) in my fields, but my turnarounds are on my roads. One might describe their surface makeup now as 1"-2" of layered talcum powder - need some rain bad. Visibility goes to near zero when I get near with one of my cutters (6' rotary or 60" MMM).

After tilling and disking, my wife and I probably hand picked a few tons of rocks from our fields. These, lemon to grapefruit size, filled up a few small sinkholes on our property. What's left are mostly walnut to pecan size and buried at surface level amongst the grass (weeds). The roads are different. Rocks of various sizes continue to expose themselves. Just how strong is the vacuum with the high lift blades? Thinking I'll be setting the cutting height at 4"-5". Still, don't want to be sucking rocks to my cutting edges.

Some love 'em, some hate 'em, but I personally like gator blades.

Looked these up on the web. They look very much like the forth blade option offer by LandPride for its mowing decks - their "Mulching" blade. Wonder if they're the same? The particular mower deck I order, however, is a rear discharge platform and a mulching blade probably wouldn't perform as expected.

The best mower is a flailmower

After reading many good things about flail mowers on this site, I often wished that I had bought one instead of my rotary ('bushhog') cutter. With regard to my current need, I chose the grooming mower primarily because: (1) I've seen flail cutters in action along our county roads and although they present good cuts, I'm wanting something near a fairway cut - remember, estate not farm; and (2) with a tip speed over 18,000 fpm and linked to the back of my L5740, I'm expecting this combination to rival what one gets with a zero turn mower - both in quality and ground speed. Don't think a flail would keep up with a zero turn.

As for what you should plant you want a very low maintenance and weed free plant and that is Sainfoin

Looked up Sainfoin on the web. Impressive plant, but it's not what I'm looking for. I'm wanting a golf course presentation (with surrounding 3-rail white fencing), from a long lived, wide blade, deep rooted turf grass that grows thick (chokes weeds out), stays green year round and is drought tolerant. Is there such a grass? Can I get close? Most farms around here are growing either weeds, bahia or bermuda - don't care for any of them.

 

[smstonypoint]

I'm wanting a golf course presentation (with surrounding 3-rail white fencing), from a long lived, wide blade, deep rooted turf grass that grows thick (chokes weeds out), stays green year round and is drought tolerant. Is there such a grass? Can I get close? Most farms around here are growing either weeds, bahia or bermuda - don't care for any of them.

I'm not aware of a turf that would fit the bill for central Alabama.

What do you have against bermudagrass? It doesn't have a wide blade and is not shade tolerant, but grows thick, is relatively drought tolerant, and can be overseeded with annual ryegrass in the fall for a year-round (or nearly so) green turf.

Steve

Edit -- Your best bet for obtaining reliable info about the turf alternatives in your area is to visit your local Cooperative Extension office.

 

[brandoro]

I have a flail mower and a rear mount (3Point) finish mower. I thought the flail might replace the finish mower but for me not the case. The flail is great shredding brush, will cut grass but leaves an odd looking finish. The grass looks like its been combed. The rear finish mower makes a nice looking job and is easier to pull. It's on tires instead of a steel roller.
I have the medium blades on the RFM and like them. I don't have much really heavy grass and have a couple of light sandy patches. The medium lift blades work well enough across the board in my yard.

 

[sbakf]

What do you have against bermudagrass? It doesn't have a wide blade and is not shade tolerant, but grows thick, is relatively drought tolerant, and can be overseeded with annual ryegrass in the fall for a year-round (or nearly so) green turf.

Having spent time at VA Tech and Clemson, understand your mention of bermudagrass. I don't have a major dislike of it, just don't have a preference for it. Stands around here look good from a distance, but appear rather thin up close. Sure it has something to do with poor soil maintenance (e.g., pH, P & K levels, etc.). Being that I'm getting a bit lazy in my old age, really don't want a grass as sensitive as bermuda. Besides, my 20 Ac of open space is not one block of open field. It's dispersed in semi-segregated rolling sections surrounded by tall trees. As a consequence, many of the fields are shadowed early morning and late afternoon. Thinking bermuda just wouldn't do well around the edges. Additionally, I'm wanting to overseed my fields, not sure bermuda would germinate well under such conditions. My fields are now showing good growth (weeds and mixed pasture grasses), but the soil was left loose (unpacked) after light disking. I left it so to facilitate (rain) water retention and to minimize erosion on the hilly sections.

How about Argentine Bahiagrass - any experience or thoughts? It's a wide blade grass, at least as shown in photos.

Steve


Edit -- Your best bet for obtaining reliable info about the turf alternatives in your area is to visit your local Cooperative Extension office.

I've done this. Their suggestions were either bermuda or bahia - perhaps fescue.