Brush hog vs. mower.

[jedens]

I've got 35 acres that I need to mow/brush hog. There is a fair amount of "brush". About 10 acres of the 35 is what I would consider brush and the rest is various grasses. If I clear out the brush using hand loppers and keep it mowed I can actually mow it with a regular lawn mower but the clearing process takes a while and like I said I must keep it mowed. My delima is whether to get a 3 pt. brush hog or a 3 pt. mower. How will a brush hog do in mowing regular grass? So from those of you who have a mower or a brush hog what do you think I should get if I could only get one for now?

 

[Henro]

I cast my vote for the largest brush hog your 4610 will handle...that way when you let things get out of hand for whatever reason you will still have the tool you need to get them looking pretty good again.

Few have 35 acres of lawn...my guess is that after you are a few hundred feet away...both lawn and brush hogged field look about the same anyway...both look good... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif...at least to my eye...

 

[Bird]

I had both, Joe, but in my opinion you definitely need the brush hog.

 

[Gatorboy]

Eventually you may want both, but if you can only get one, get the brush mower first.

 

[Freds]

I had one area in my back field I had brush hogged and after that used a RFM on and some other paths I just brush hogged very close and used nothing but the brush hog on.
You couldn't tell the difference between the cuts.

 

[green4710]

I had a situation like yours and went with a finish mower. In 5 hours of using it, it was apparent it wasnt going to work. Keep in mind a finish mower is for lawn grass only, and any large weeds, etc will slowly kill it. I switched to a rotary cutter (bush hog) type mower, and it works so much better. You can get a pretty nice cut on lawn grass with it, and in weeds and larger grasses, its awesome, goes right through it. I would never use a finish type mower unless its all lawn grass.

 

[BobReeves]

Another vote for the brush hog, I have 7.5 acres of grass and this summer with all the rain it got away from me a couple of times. Even with the brush hog when it's 2 feet tall and laced with 1 foot tall clover it's slow going. Can't imagine what it would have been like trying to cut it with a finish mower.

 

[Alan L.]

I have 24 acres of which I regularly mow about half. I got both a RFM and a brush hog when I bought my tractor. I just sold my 1999 Rhino FM60 for $450, because since we moved to the property I found that what little "lawn" we had could be cut with the Craftsman. The brush hog is much better on pasture grasses and weeds, and it cares little when it runs into brush and grass that you let get away from you a little bit.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Want the cheap solution? Light a match then use a finish mower. Or just get the bushhog.

 

[goatman]

I would vote Bush hog .... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jedens]

Fantastic feedback! Thanks everyone, I'll start looking at what brush hog I should get.

 

[Soundguy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My delima is whether to get a 3 pt. brush hog or a 3 pt. mower. How will a brush hog do in mowing regular grass? )</font>

I also vote to get the biggest rotary mower ( brush hog ) your tractor will tote. While the 'big' name brands are deffinately a great product, don't overlook some of the economy brands.. for instance KK and howse. While they are generally economy in nature... they also weight less.. which means they are easier for your tractor to tote. Also.. those 'economy' brands generally offer a HD line as well.. still cheaper than the 'big' name branded ones.

Once you get the initial heavy cutting done.. if you mow it often, there is actually little wear and tear on the mower. Also.. if you mow often.. the 'look' of the cut will improve.

I can get my pasture to look almost like a lawn, by cutting every week.

Soundguy

 

[zuiko]

I would get the rotary cutter. You can even do lawn with it as others have said... the main limitation is the lack of suction.

So if you want to mow the lawn with it, get to it before it starts to lay down or it will miss a lot. That is only really an issue for the lawn... for mowing fields it isn't a problem.

 

[BB_TX]

I am with the other guys here. For that much land to mow, get the largest rotary cutter you can run. When you say "mowing regular grass" do you mean as in a nice looking lawn? If you want to maintain a half acre or so of nice lawn around the house, get a lawn tractor for that and use the rotary cutter for everything else. The big cutter will keep pasture grass looking quite nice if you mow fairly often, and will even suffice for a fair lawn, but it will not be a slick well groomed lawn look.

 

[Poncho]

Vote for bush hog here. With that much acreage you be saving yourself a lot of time. Henro's right, a bush hog cut pasture or grass area will look real good once you establish a routine of cutting. My bahia pasture looks as good as my centipede lawn when viewed from comparable distances.

 

[_RaT_]

I have a 80" super duty Woods brush mower with 4 parallel belts driving 2 spindles. I have a 84" Landpride finish mower. I mow all pasture. After 3 years of use, the brush mower sits, the finish mower gets used to death. I much prefer the finish mower with four wheels floating over the surface rather then skids that are just looking for sprinklers to remove. The cut is far superior. If I'm mowing light tree clippings, my finish mower works super and pulverizes the branches. For really heavy duty stuff, the Woods brush mower is tougher, but, thats all done and now its nothing but lots of pasture grass and small sticks and saplings around my pond. Going against convention here, I much prefer the finish mower. Better cut by far and no in ground sprinklers destroyed. I have a 80" brush mower for sale, it comes with a beefy International 454D. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Soundguy]

Most of us don't have inground sprinklers in our extended pastures.

Also.. if the person is only buying one mower... a rotary is the best option. Let that grass grow real tall one time.. ( say the guy is on vacation.. or laid up sick for a couple weeks ). Once that vegitation comes back tall and thick.. you'll wear the finish mower out trying to cut it.

If you have both.. sure.. nock the heavy out with a few cuttings of the HD mower.. then maintain with the finish mower.. That's an ideal setup.. when you have both mowers. However many of us with lots of pasture to cut don't go that route.. and I deffinately wouldn't have inground sprinklers if I had animals.. somehow I see cattly and horses tearing up an inground sprinkler as bad or worse than a mower.. and in fact.. I really don't see a rotary mower hurting a flush mount inground ( pop-up ) sprinkler..... though the shear weight of the tractor driving over it seems like it may shear the head off the pipe...

Soundguy

 

[_RaT_]

You've never been to California. Northern California is very irrigation intensive, you have that luxury with a large mountain range extending to 14,000' elevations. Everyone has either in ground or above ground sprinklers if you have useable year around pasture. The Hunter small profile rubber sprinklers hardly get noticed by an animal. All my in ground heads attach via flexible PVC, almost impossible to break. The skids on the brush mower most definitely will remove the head particularly in a turn. If you have animals in the pasture out here, you really don't need to mow it. I have no animals in my pastures and mow once every 3 weeks with the finish mower. The grass is about 12" by then. I think that it depends on what your trying to do, even where you live as to what mower you ultimately need. I'm sure life in Florida is considerably different then here where we don't see rain from about May to October. We have fewer rainy days then "sunny" Florida. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[MicroPilot]

Just don't water, then you won't have to mow!!!

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[_RaT_]

That is an option.