Advice regarding my flail mower

[leonz]

The only way and I mean the only way you are going to solve this is simply take half cuts with the flail mower on the ground NOT elevated. You can mow when the grass is dormantdead for winter before the snow flies too and that would help a lot

 

[Deadman]

If you want the flail mower to shread the grass more, then lower the rear of the flail to about 1 inch higher than the front. If you just want to snip it off and not shread it, the raise the rear of the mower and it will spit out all the grass before it grinds it up. It takes a LOT more HP to run the rear lower, because you are recutting all that grass a few times before it gets spit out.

 

[sodamo]

Just for comparison.
Wife and I mowed today. As you can see in 1st pic this pasture is only about 6 inches tall, not really very thick. I'm not going to say which areas were mowed by my value Leader flail with Y knives and which areas were with the scag ZTR. You can see the uncut areas.




2nd is where we met up - done



Soooo, discernable difference?

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[sodamo]

Flailmaster.com. Part #V-CD2110. $1.87 each. Set up for 7/16" bolt. You need to grind the corners of the knife a small amount to remove the interferences with the drum, so the knife swings freely.

Thanks

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[Shenandoah]

My pasture's growth is about just under 3' high on average at this point. I tried a couple of test strips last week, and it worked great! However, it left behind a carpet of fairly large pieces of mulched vegetation. These have essentially blanketed the remaining grasses and seem to be creating a 'sheet mulch' effect as they dry, killing off the plants underneath.

I fought this same problem on similar sized pasture I bought 9 years ago. Today it looks likes parkland instead of a pasture. I realize the problems of trying to mow over wet ground, but grasses that are allowed to grow too tall present problems if the cuttings aren't removed or further ground up with subsequent cuttings immediately following the initial cut. I initially went with multi-cutting in the beginning but have since discarded that method in favor of more frequent and earlier cuts.

One of the benefits of early cutting, at least for my land, is when I do the first cutting at around 10" I'm able to keep more of the grasses at the 'leaf' stage as opposed to leaving just stalks after the cut. I also eliminate the over-burden of hay that kills the grasses below. And my field over time is now growing the kinds of grasses I prefer instead of the weeds and weed grasses that made up a good portion of the field before.

Additionally, cutting the field at a height where the grasses are still leaf at the cutting level instead of stalk keeps the field healthier in my view. And overall, I actually save time, fuel, and wear on the tractor when I cut it every 18 to 20 days instead of the 30 day cycle I used for a few years.

If you are leaving the field tall at the end of the season you will have to deal with the mass of the grass (e.g. volume and weight) at the beginning of the new season in the spring. If that is the case I would try cutting the field short at the end of the season so you eliminate some of the potential problems with too much hay after the first cut in the spring. But all-in-all, if you're not baling the hay I would suggest you try keep the field in 'blades' vs 'stalks' and that way the grasses have a much better chance of staying healthy and not dying due to lack of leaf for sunlight absorption, as well as the crushing/blanketing effects of hay over-burden.

 

[katoomed00]

I just rotated the cuttershaft on my MOTT88 to rotate opposite of the tire rotation in an attempt to get a finer cut, that was a mistake, it works ok with short grass but will not cut grass that has any height to it, problem is, it piles the cut grass back in front of the cutter and overwhelms the blades. It didn't matter how slow I was going. Before I use it again I will go through all the trouble again and swap it back. Tough lesson learned,LOL

 

[allen in texas]

I've just started using my flail mower to mow my pasture and it's not working how I anticipated it would. Perhaps you can help me improve my results or at least help me realize I was expecting too much...

I have 3.5 acres of pasture, PNW climate. It grows fast from April to July: grasses, yarrow, buttercup, daisies, plantain, thistle. It rains here until mid June to early July, so the pasture is wet and lush until late July. Parts of the ground are too muddy for to drive across until early June, though every year is different, of course.

I have a 29 HP Kubota, and a 48" Chinese flail mower (Value Leader) with 20 'hammer' mulching blades. The flail mower rotates opposite the direction of the Tractor tires. I've been cutting at a pretty slow speed... far slower than a walking pace.

When I installed the mulching blades, I pointed the 'scooped' side in the direction of the rotation of the flail mower. I assume this is correct? The rear roller on the flail mower is in the middle of three possible settings (it could be set with either a wider or narrower opening.

My pasture's growth is about just under 3' high on average at this point. I tried a couple of test strips last week, and it worked great! However, it left behind a carpet of fairly large pieces of mulched vegetation. These have essentially blanketed the remaining grasses and seem to be creating a 'sheet mulch' effect as they dry, killing off the plants underneath.

I expected a finer particulate of mulch that would settle to the soil more, leaving the remaining plants exposed to the sun. I'm worried that the grasses under the 'mulch blanket' will die off as if they were 'solarized' under plastic sheeting.

What can I do to improve my results? Should I harrow the mulch? Should I alter the roller/housing gap? Should I go slower? Are the blades backwards? Should I cut the grasses earlier?

Any advice or tips would be 'mulch' appreciated!

You are going to have the carpet of cuttings with a flail with 3 foot tall grass. You will have ugly windrowed cuttings with a rotary cutter. Either will smother the grass underneath and 3 foot tall material is too tall to expect a nice clean finish. The solution to this problem is to mow one day, let it dry a day or two or three then mow again. The flail will shred the dry cuttings. Don't wait to long to cut the cuttings. Then you need to keep it mowed to a reasonable height after that as best you can with your weather conditions.

I cut a place that has johnson grass that gets about 30 inches between mowings along with some burmuda that gets about 12 to 18 inches. It doesn't look good after I mow it but the customer doesn't want to pay for more frequent mowings. However, the same customer has another place that I cut every 10 days or so. It is beautiful. I cut my lawn with my flail it cuts so well. There are pictures here somewhere of that.

Ok I found one of my picture showing a bit of what I mow. It's post #10

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ain-top-link-flail-mower.html?highlight=flail