Buying Advice need additional tractor advice.

[hawkeye08]

Flail mower would do it, but 19hp is not much to work with (won't be fast) You might be able to take partial passes to manage the power needed. Zero turn would not like the brush (or the 2' tall grass for that matter). Nothing wrong with a 3 wheel tractor unless you have a bunch of hills, we had several of them on the farm growing up (2 Case 400s, 1 Farmall Super H I think). We mowed with sickle mower for taller grass and weeds (no brush), had the bush hog (6' behind the Case 400, I mowed 300 acres of 6' tall sagebrush with that). Have some patience, this is not the best time of year to get deals on tractors and mowers.

 

[varmint]

So, what's wrong with a running L235?- gear drive is perfect for mowing, and with a 4' or maybe 5' rough mower, with sharp blades, he should be good to go. (tractordata.com states that the tested PTO Hp is/was 19.6...) Leaving the cut brush/grass to rot simply leaves the nutrients where they came from instead of removing them, so that's good, I think. The tractor and mowing deck might cost him $5000, but heck, he'll be doing better than with a zero turn that is overmatched.

 

[Soundguy]

You're in Forida. What winter?

I didn't know about the trick with sharpening the hog's blades. That makes sense, but don't you still end up with a large amount of clippings to deal with? Ones that aren't going to go away for weeks?

Hogs mulch pretty darn good, especially with sharp blades.

Winter.. That's the time in Florida where it isn't real cold.. But the sun angle makes most pasture grass dormant, making you feed out hay.

 

[terryknight]

a finish mower will absolutely cut 2 ft grass and I think it looks pretty but then again it is a pasture.





i use a JD 750 18ih PTO hp with a 5ft finish mower around my house and it does great, not cutting 2 ft grass with it though.



keep the grass shorter and yes the kubota 235 will be fine. around here you can get a 60" finish mower for ~600.

5ft finishing mower

6" woods finish mower

 

[jenkinsph]

With a $4000 dollar budget I would get a small used tractor and bush hog older model as Sound Guy suggests. You will have to keep up the repairs and maintenance but it is what it is. Two feet of grass and weeds will not look like a lawn, to look like a lawn with a nice finished cut requires more frequent cutting and a finish mower. You cant have your cake and eat it too.

If your goal is to improve the property and improve the grass then more frequent cutting every 7 to 14 days is needed. This will help the grass and make it harder for weeds to spread. Cutting every two months will not do much good but will eliminate heavy brush.

 

[MF283]

You cant have your cake and eat it too.

If your goal is to improve the property and improve the grass then more frequent cutting every 7 to 14 days is needed. This will help the grass and make it harder for weeds to spread. Cutting every two months will not do much good but will eliminate heavy brush.

Yep, is there someone nearby that can bush hog it down for you so you can get by with a finish mower? I've actually gotten better results with sharpened blades on a bush hog than the finish mower on property i used to maintain using their equipment.



Ronnie

 

[Soundguy]

can and good for it are 2 things.

you might get away cutting 2' grass with a finish mower.. but it's abusive to it and not what it was designed for.

 

[dickfoster]

So, what's wrong with a running L235?- gear drive is perfect for mowing, and with a 4' or maybe 5' rough mower, with sharp blades, he should be good to go. (tractordata.com states that the tested PTO Hp is/was 19.6...) Leaving the cut brush/grass to rot simply leaves the nutrients where they came from instead of removing them, so that's good, I think. The tractor and mowing deck might cost him $5000, but heck, he'll be doing better than with a zero turn that is overmatched.

I have no problem with gear tractors I own a shuttle myself but I knew the HST types would speak up. They always do LOL. Yeah I know what tractor data said but that was for a brand spankin new tractor, I don't think he can count on that last .6 from an older machine. Let's be real, I don't think may here are wearing rose colored glasses.

In the end I think he just want's a tractor and it doesn't really matter much what the job is but that's OK too.