Brush Hog or Finish Mower

[unclebean]

Will a RFM handle cutting a field which is being cut for hay or would a brush hog be a better choice? A farmer has been cutting the hay but I am planning to turn the field in to a lawn next spring. Can the field even be cut to produce a lawn or must I replant? The field is 9-10 flat acres. Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Soundguy]

Finish mowers are for short grasses.. not tall grasses or brush.

IE.. if your filed is 6-8".. I'd get it brush cut.. then maintain it at the 4"-6" level or so when mowing with the finish mower. The longer the grass.. the more it works the mower and tractor.

10 ac lawn? Um... I'd only have a 10ac lawn if I had 'servants'... (grin)

What kind of hay is the pasture.. different hay's will look different when cut low.

You might get away with coastal bermuda... It won't make a pretty lawn.. but then neither will tifton alfalfa or timothy. Plain old grass hay ( bahia ) would do fine..

A 5' mower will take you about 5 hrs to mow.. on average.. give or take. A 6' mower will probably get you into the 4+ hr range.. and a 7' mower a tad lower.

If you have any kind of a growing season where you are.. I'd get ready for alot of mowing as you don't want it to get too high between cuts. Bahia can go from clean cut mowed to 'ugly' with blacktops in a week if you get some rain.

Soundguy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Once you get that 10 acres converted into "lawn", a finish mower will be your best bet. It's the "getting there" that'll wreck a finish mower. I see you're in Pa. A hayfield there could be anything from alfalfa, clover, mixed grass, fescue, who knows what.... Type of hay will determine a great deal as to how it makes the transition from hayfield to lawn without re-seeding What sort of condition is the ground in? You said flat, but is it reasonabley smooth? Finish mowers don't particularly like choppy, rough ground. What sort of condition is the soil in? Has it been fertilized regularly? Compaction? Those things will play into the quality of lawn you get.

I'd try a few things. See if you can get the farmer (or ANY farmer in the area) to cut it for hay one more time. That gets you to a shorter grass that a finish mower COULD handle. Another option is, get a decent bush hog and sharpen the blades almost to a finish mower edge. If ALL you're cutting is lawn, a bush hog doesn't do all that bad of a job if you keep the grass cut at a constant hieght, and fairly short. (They have a tendency to windrow clippings more so than a finish mower)

I have around 8 acres of "lawn". I cut the 1/2-acre immediately around the house with an 18 hp rider. The balance is cut with a bush hog. A trained eye can spot the difference, but most people couldn't tell you what it was mowed with, provided I don't let it get out of control between cuts. I try to alternate mowing "patterns" from cut to cut for best results.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I currently cut 5 acres with a 6' Woods RFM. Part of that 5 acres is re-claimed pasture. I didn't re-claim it until I bush hogged first. The pasture was only fescue and did not have any brush.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Unclebean,
While I agree with Soundguy, on it depends what you have growing on the property now, how it will look when its mowed to lawn height ! I think the contour of the property has alot to do with it also as Farm mentions. I have been on very few fields that could easily be converted to finished lawn without a substantial amount of work involved ! The field should be perfectly smooth to end up with a perfect lawn. To get it perfectly smooth you would need to plow it, disc harrow and then finish harrow and drag and then plant what you want, wow that is alot of work !

 

[Z-Michigan]

I agree with everything Scott said - a hayfield doesn't need to be and normally isn't totally flat, and it may have rocks or even some small branches lying around in it. Numerous tractor passes also tends to leave ruts. If you really want to do this, the fastest way (apart from hiring it out) would probably be to spray the field with roundup and then use a power rake on it, followed by a lawn-type seed drill or a broadcast seeder followed by a chain harrow. As noted compaction may be an issue, which would be best addressed with a subsoiler - something the farmers probably have, and probably not worth buying your own if you don't have other fields you're going to be farming.

Now for the intrusive question - why on earth do you want to turn a working hayfield into a 10 acre lawn? That's a huge area to mow for no apparent benefit, unless you're going to have 4+ soccer or football fields on it. I'm sure you have your reasons, but have you considered just having the farmer keep using it, maybe renting it from you and planting whatever crops he wants (including continuing haying if he wants)?

Around here people will do hay on fields as small as 1 acre, and get up to maybe 3 tons of hay on just the first cutting from a 1 acre field. It may not be useful for you, but the farmer could probably sell it.

As noted, most hay grasses don't make good lawn grasses. Even if it were fescue or ryegrass, it would probably be a hay type that grows much faster and taller than turf types. So you'd be mowing twice a week instead of once a week. If it's alfalfa or bromegrass it's not really an option for something you would want to call a lawn.

If you do want to mow it, I would third the advice to use a brush cutter but sharpen the blades so it works basically like a finish mower.

 

[unclebean]

Thank you all for your suggestions! I guess I didn't do all my homework before ordering a RFM . Now you guys have me curious as to the make-up of the hay. A good question for the local farmer! The land is flat but not as smooth as a lawn could be.

As for a 10 acre lawn I have to agree with you and I guess I didn't consider the "why would I want a 10 acre lawn" question. I should convert maybe a 1/2 acre or so to lawn and have the farmer cut hay on the remaining land. I will be building a home so I would like a lawn around the house.

Why didn't I ask this question a few weeks ago?

 

[Z-Michigan]

Glad we could help! If you want to post a photo we can probably tell you whether it's grass or legumes. If it's grass it will be harder to tell you the exact type without being there to see it.

On my 20 acres the prior owner had 4.5 acres in hay, 2 in pasture, and mowed about 5 as lawn. One of their purported reasons for selling was having trouble keeping up with the maintenance! We are down to about 1 acre lawn and will be up to 9-10 hay acres and 3-5 pasture acres by end of this year (we have 2 acres of woods, and the way our driveway and pastures are laid out some land can't really be used as hay or pasture without recreating the whole design).

A 1/2 acre lawn will be pretty easy to put in with any size tractor. Main question will be what equipment you have a continuing use for and whether you enjoy doing it yourself or just want it done ASAP. If the latter you may want to hire out; but hopefully the former and we will all help you spend your $$$ and fill up the garage with implements.