Flail Mower Bush hog or flail mower for field grass?

[newbury]

I've lived in Vermont with similar "rock". One summer my Dad got peeved about a rock that was sticking up in the garden. The garden was based in glacial till so he knew it wasn't bedrock. By the end of the summer he had dug a hole, by hand and shovel about 8' in diameter and at least 5' (shoulder) deep. This gave him about 1' around the rock. He won, but it wasn't worth it.

The real solution is to host an EOD party for the local National Guard Ordnance Disposal and let them test out explosives

 

[leonz]

We always had a fun time underground when they were shooting/disposing of the mortar shells that they disposed of at the Seneca Army Depot when the base was in closure mode.


They would take a pallet box filled with outdated mortar shells from the bunkers in one photo op example and set off a charge and the rock being so tight from Seneca lake to Cayuga lake the vibration was bad enough to activate the 2 plane seismograph at Snee Hall which is the location of the geology department on the Cornell University Campus

 

[JoeinTX]

For the OP's original question.........regular shredder ("bush hog") for the piece of ground in question.

It's the simpler and quicker method of cutting ground faster. Fewer moving parts, more inertia to power through thick spots, simplicity of repair.

Flails are good and have their place, but if I'm hacking through an acreage w/o any worry of collateral damage, then it's a shredder.

 

[flusher]

We have been mowing about 10 acres of field grass (Timothy, Rye, vetch, garbage weeds, etc) for years. We have the opportunity to purchase an 88" Ford flail mower for $600-$700.

Compared to an 88" bush hog, is the same cutting width flail mower going to be able to handle 3-4' tall grass and weeds at the same speed? Will we have to go slower for the flail mower? Is the flail mower going to be able to handle the tall grass or are the belts just going to slip on it and everything get wrapped around the shaft?

We have some rocks that bang the heck out of the bush hog, so that's why we are considering changing what we cut it with.

Mowing with a 55HP, Kubota M5700 today.

My bush hog is a 6-ft Hawkline and my flail is a 68" Value Leader. The hog is used for tall stuff (2ft up) and the flail is used for shorter stuff (hay stubble, etc). I generally mow in 4L gear with the hog and 2L or 3L with the flail (with engine rpm set to give 540 rpm at the pto.

 

[spo307]

The flail will not like 9" rocks... I think no mower would, either remove the rocks or cut at 11", I have a Alamo super heavy duty 88, i cut between 2-5 acres, when cutting grass above 2 feet, I cut 1 foot high first at a good speed, depending on terrain.. Terrain dictates speed with any mower... period.. my father cutting upper field

 

[horse7]

I wish we could. We dug all around just one of them and we could never move it. It was a granite chunk larger than the tractor itself. Just the tips of these things are sticking up. If I had a jackhammer, I'd consider breaking off what sticks above ground. No place to rent heavy equipment around here though.

If you can get a generator and hammer drill, pins and feathers (and a bit of sweat) will remove the parts sticking up. I break up rocks too big for my bucket to carry with pins and feathers. Removing the projecting pieces of rock has to be cheaper than damaging a bush hog or flail.

I have a bush hog 278 to remove very heavy brush, much of which is gone now on my property although there is an acre or two to go on the slopes (in case you are wondering why the brush isn't gone, the brush is interspersed with 4"+ trees; doing too much clearing at one time causes excess erosion also). Like to get an 88" flail with hydraulic offset to maintain the grass partly for better weed control, and partly for safety due to less chance of throwing objects a great distance.

 

[VroomVroom]

question. A bush hog has rotory blades like a lawn mower with smaller blades attached to the end if it? Where as a flail is just loosely hung cutters around a spinning drum? We get a lot of alder here but they may be small in diameter, say 2" but maybe be 6 or 8 feet tall or more. Which would be best?

 

[DAY]

Fence in the 10 acres, lets goats/sheep/cattle do the mowing. And then eat them in the Fall.

 

[steinpiaz]

Worth a try, but we get a lot of cut brush and my neighbor has a small sawmill, so what I do is pile slash over the big rocks and have an annual bonfire. Granite and heat don't do well together and if you get a hot enough fire going it breaks them down pretty fast. Sometimes it takes 2-3 years. Sometimes it cracks it enough to let more moisture in and then freezing and thawing during the winter finish it. Best it to torch it after a bit of rain as if the rock has a lot of moisture soaked up it will crack apart much faster.