Grillo 107d to mow down field?

[Beauly]

Hi,

About to buy a slightly used Grillo 107d. I have a 2 acre field that was a hay/farm pasture field in the past, and is clear but has lots of grass. Terrain is level but is not smooth due to years as pasture etc. Thoughts on best implement to keep this field mowed down? ( no plans for lawn ) Flail? Brush hog?

Thanks,

J

 

[farmerboybill]

Fastest would be a sickle mower, as long as you don't need the material ground up. It's actually slower walking, but cutting widths are so much more - up to 72 inches (realistically 40 or 53 inches, the 72 is special order and very expensive) per pass. Rough-cut mowers and flail mowers will grind the material up, but only mow at 20 to 32 inches, depending on make and model.

Are you planning on doing more than recreational mowing on this property?

 

[mkeith]

Hi,

About to buy a slightly used Grillo 107d. I have a 2 acre field that was a hay/farm pasture field in the past, and is clear but has lots of grass. Terrain is level but is not smooth due to years as pasture etc. Thoughts on best implement to keep this field mowed down? ( no plans for lawn ) Flail? Brush hog?

Thanks,

J

I think the brush-hog style mower is the most straightforward choice. Flail is good, too. It does a better job of mulching everything. I wouldn't get the sickle-bar unless you want hay or straw. My experience with the sickle-bar is based on an old one, and may not be representative.

But what I found is that unless the grass is moderately tall, it doesn't do a good job cutting. It just kind of pushes everything over. If you wait until the grass and weeds are tall, then you are left with tall stuff lying on the ground, not mulched up at all. For me, for some areas that is OK, because I can rake up the weeds and feed them to the goats, or use them as browns in my compost. But at some times of year and in some areas, I just want to reduce everything to mulch. The flail mower is great for that. Also, the flail mower kind of stripes the area, which looks nice. Some of the areas I mow are kind of utility access roads. Mowing along the road with the flail mower leaves nice stripes that make it look a bit more tidy.

Oh, the other thing is, you can probably go faster with the brush hog in taller or heavier weeds.

--McKenzie

 

[Beauly]

Fastest would be a sickle mower, as long as you don't need the material ground up. It's actually slower walking, but cutting widths are so much more - up to 72 inches (realistically 40 or 53 inches, the 72 is special order and very expensive) per pass. Rough-cut mowers and flail mowers will grind the material up, but only mow at 20 to 32 inches, depending on make and model.

Are you planning on doing more than recreational mowing on this property?

Hi!

Thanks for this note. When you write "recreational mowing"' a phrase I am not so familiar with, what do you mean? Am I planning to "hay" it? No, I have planted grapes, 4-150' long rows, so want to mow between the rows, and otherwise just want to keep the grass down. Longer term plan is to build a house on this land.

How slow is flail or bush hog/mower?

Thanks very much,

J

 

[wstr75]

I have flail, bush hog, sickle bar and finish mowers. I could do without the finish and bush hog mowers. The sickle bar is only used when dealing with knarly stuff like saplings and underbrush stuff. I'd be nervous using a sickle bar mower in a vineyard. It would be my luck to inadvertently snip off grape vines at the ground when trying to trim out the big weeds. The flail mower is my go to mower. The 38" finish mower does a good job mowing and bagging, but it is so far out ahead of the mower that it takes constant mental effort to not run over ornamentals, drive into problem spots or do close trimming along a line. The Zanon mower hacks stuff off several inches above the ground. Hacking is the word and it describes what the brush/weeds look like afterwards. Initially I wrongly had set the Zanon too close to the ground and wore the bolt heads on the blades. Wearing the blade bolt heads is a no-no as when that bolt decides to wiggle out of the hole, the blade is centrifugally heading someplace and for that reason, I wear steel toed boots. One time a blade bolt broke its head weld and we never found the blade. It may still be orbiting the Earth.

Flail mowing is the ticket. Big items like rocks and wood pieces roll out in a slow velocity safe manner. A flail mower is a mulching delight.
Bill in NC

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey Beaully,

I call mowing any lawn recreational mowing - it's a task that apparently gives the mower joy, but really serves no other purpose. You're mowing a vineyard to ease in working it. That's not recreational. The guy down the road that mows his lawn and the two empty lots beside him (and then yells at kids who play on it) is recreational mowing.

They're not slow to walk behind, but they make a narrower cut. This means more time behind them. I agree with Bill that a sickle mower may not be ideal in a vineyard. It's more for mowing for haymaking in open areas, but it would also work for the vineyard if it's laid out well. The Berta flail mower is very nice in the fact that you can remove a baffle under the deck and spit the material out a little coarser. You can put the baffle back in to finely chop up garden waste.

 

[mkeith]

Hi!

How slow is flail or bush hog/mower?

Thanks very much,

J

This is not so easy to calculate. If you use a sickle bar (which I don't recommend) you mow a very wide swath. But you probably cannot go full throttle as it is hard on the sickle bar, and it may self-destruct prematurely.

If you use a brush hog or flail, you go full throttle, but the swath is not as wide. Gear selection depends on how heavy the brush is. In your case, if it is just grass, and you stay on top of it, you can probably go at full working speed for either the flail or the brush-hog. It is very possible that it will be just as fast as the sickle bar, depending on mower width. I imagine two passes with the 26-inch Berta flail will take about the same time as one pass with a sickle bar, but you can go twice as fast.

If it was heavy or tall brush, you probably would need to take the flail down to a lower gear, and then the calculation is more interesting, and favors the sickle bar. Because the flail mower does more chopping, it would be more likely to have to slow down due to heavy brush than the brush hog. But as I said, in your application, this might not matter.

I have the BCS 853 and the 34 inch Berta flail mower. And I have an older BCS sickle bar mower as well. And a 20 inch BCS brush mower.

Best regards,
McKenzie

 

[jomifo]

Hi all-
One benefit of a sickle mower is that the bar extends beyond the width of the tractor allowing cutting underneath fence lines, trees, etc. That benefit probably doesn't apply to a vineyard, but thought I'd mention.

 

[Beauly]

This is great!


Thanks all for thoughts and comments, keep them coming. Flail mower sounds like a good option, just my luck it is the most costly one!

J

 

[1bush2hog]

I have a sickle bar and ended up ordering the Berta flail after having issues (operator induced) with the sickle mower, as it is a little too delicate for some of the rough areas I mow. The flail is a little heavier, but is also a huge improvement for my mowing purposes. The flail just laughs at the hidden sticks and rocks that were hard on my sickle mower. The sickle does work great in tall grass though, but if you have other potential uses in the future, you may want to bite the bullet and just get the flail

 

[Beauly]

I have a sickle bar and ended up ordering the Berta flail after having issues (operator induced) with the sickle mower, as it is a little too delicate for some of the rough areas I mow. The flail is a little heavier, but is also a huge improvement for my mowing purposes. The flail just laughs at the hidden sticks and rocks that were hard on my sickle mower. The sickle does work great in tall grass though, but if you have other potential uses in the future, you may want to bite the bullet and just get the flail

Well I should include some pics of the land. Probably less that 2' of grade change (all in one direction), over the entire field, otherwise flat. So I suspect fairly smooth sailing for the sickle bar mower.
So looking at $11-1200 for a sickle and $1500+ for a flail?

 

[Beauly]

Well I should include some pics of the land. Probably less that 2' of grade change (all in one direction), over the entire field, otherwise flat. So I suspect fairly smooth sailing for the sickle bar mower.
So looking at $11-1200 for a sickle and $1500+ for a flail?

Ok so I bought a 53" sickle bar, it's blue.

So I bolted the Grillo to BCS adapter on the 107, and then bolted the mower transmission onto the adapter which was bolted on the the actual sickle bar with the two bolts.

Question,

I bolted the blue plastic cover down at its nose to the yolk of the sickle bar transmission down at the center of the bar and then attached the two horseshoe metal brackets to the big bolt at the top I'd the blue cowling to the top of the transmission. When the PTO is engaged, and the sickle bar is moving, should the blue cowling shimmy back and forth? What's up with that?

Further in my 3 minute 25' test swath, the wheels seemed to shimmy in unison with the sickle bar, ( first gear, 1/2 rmps on my 107d with Honda 11hp. Does this all seem normal?

Thanks for thoughts,

( oh it's a dry transmission)

 

[farmerboybill]

Half throttle is too fast. Run it at an idle or just above.

Yes, the cowl should shimmy. It does this to shed grass as it falls down on it.

 

[Beauly]

Half throttle is too fast. Run it at an idle or just above.

Yes, the cowl should shimmy. It does this to shed grass as it falls down on it.

Ok, good to know.... And news to me....

Thanks very much!

 

[Beauly]

Ok, good to know.... And news to me....

Thanks very much!

Ok..this just in.. Took the Grillo over to the land last night, backed it off the truck and set into the field, wow!!! Throttle set at 1/4, gear number 2, off we went. The 53" sickle bar had NO issue cutting neatly through all the mass, the only issue was physically getting through, over, and past all the grass/hay. I should have got this rig together about a month and a half ago. The "shimmy" blue cowling is indeed essential, and it was quite an adventure to drive over the mass and bulk of the cut material; wrapping around the tires, around the extension axle, ( my 107 has wheel axle extensions so there is space inside each wheel where grass got snagged by the brake cable brackets and started then to wind up inside the space between the tractor and the wheels). But on the whole, there was nothing stopping me. I mowed up and down between the rows of grapes and then started to mow the field on either side. I stopped only because I had to get back and cook dinner, and am looking forward to heading back out and mowing the rest of the field! 53" sickle bar seems like the right choice so far!