RockWrangler
Bronze Member
I am just finishing my third year on my current property and have encountered a mower question I don’t have enough experience to answer.
I am located on a basalt rock shelf with a very thin layer of dirt. The previous owners pastured a few beef cattle on the 1.5-2 acre back pasture and goats on a side area of equal size. They trucked in soil for the back pasture and sowed it with pasture grass; the side pasture was left as nature made it with large areas of exposed rock.
We don’t have animals currently, so I have been mowing the pasture grass, hoping to preserve the forage for future animals. I bought a flail mower from Betstco in Oregon, figuring it would be more tolerant than a rotary mower of the bare rock poking through the thin trucked-in soil. The first two years went well enough that I could see the lay of the land and was able to avoid the worst of the exposed rock.
The problem this year is we had a long, cold, wet spring. The grass grew like crazy, but the underlying rocky base held the water, so I couldn’t get the tractor out without tearing up the thin layer of dirt. I decided to wait until things dried out before mowing.
When I tried mowing in early July, I saw the grass was mostly just being pushed over without much cutting, but thought that was due to the length (2-plus feet). It wasn’t long, however, until I smelled smoke and saw a waft of smoke blow past me. I turned around and saw smoke rolling out of the drive belt housing. I shut off the PTO, raised the mower, and drove to the barnyard. As you probably guessed, the blade axle was locked up solid with tangled grass stems.
I thought maybe if I waited until the grass dried out in the fall, the dead stems would break or tear more easily than the green. I was wrong. I didn’t make it 50 feet before the same thing happened again. Obviously, the flail mower is not the best tool for this situation.
As I said, there are large areas of exposed rock that are not always visible when the grass is tall. Short of memorizing every square foot, it is almost a certainty I will hit rock with the mower. My question is whether a rotary mower would work any better than a flail mower. The individual flail blades may be deflected better than a rotary blade when I hit an exposed rocky area, but obviously they don’t work so well in tall grass.
I am inclined to buy a brush hog, but don’t have enough experience to feel confident about it. Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter? Anyone with similar experience?
Thanks for your help, Ron
I am located on a basalt rock shelf with a very thin layer of dirt. The previous owners pastured a few beef cattle on the 1.5-2 acre back pasture and goats on a side area of equal size. They trucked in soil for the back pasture and sowed it with pasture grass; the side pasture was left as nature made it with large areas of exposed rock.
We don’t have animals currently, so I have been mowing the pasture grass, hoping to preserve the forage for future animals. I bought a flail mower from Betstco in Oregon, figuring it would be more tolerant than a rotary mower of the bare rock poking through the thin trucked-in soil. The first two years went well enough that I could see the lay of the land and was able to avoid the worst of the exposed rock.
The problem this year is we had a long, cold, wet spring. The grass grew like crazy, but the underlying rocky base held the water, so I couldn’t get the tractor out without tearing up the thin layer of dirt. I decided to wait until things dried out before mowing.
When I tried mowing in early July, I saw the grass was mostly just being pushed over without much cutting, but thought that was due to the length (2-plus feet). It wasn’t long, however, until I smelled smoke and saw a waft of smoke blow past me. I turned around and saw smoke rolling out of the drive belt housing. I shut off the PTO, raised the mower, and drove to the barnyard. As you probably guessed, the blade axle was locked up solid with tangled grass stems.
I thought maybe if I waited until the grass dried out in the fall, the dead stems would break or tear more easily than the green. I was wrong. I didn’t make it 50 feet before the same thing happened again. Obviously, the flail mower is not the best tool for this situation.
As I said, there are large areas of exposed rock that are not always visible when the grass is tall. Short of memorizing every square foot, it is almost a certainty I will hit rock with the mower. My question is whether a rotary mower would work any better than a flail mower. The individual flail blades may be deflected better than a rotary blade when I hit an exposed rocky area, but obviously they don’t work so well in tall grass.
I am inclined to buy a brush hog, but don’t have enough experience to feel confident about it. Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter? Anyone with similar experience?
Thanks for your help, Ron
