I did three tests. My place was a dairy farm for generations and then it was a sod farm for a while, grass grows really well here. However, to keep it grass it needs to be mowed at least once a year or it gets taken over by briars and eventually forest. I have five mowers that I regularly use -- a push mower, a rider mower, a flail mower, a drum mower and a rotary rough mower. If the grass goes more than a month or so without getting cut it gets so tough that only the rough mower and the drum mower can cut it, it jams and breaks the lesser mowers. I like to have mown trails through and around my hayfields, and I usually use the rider mower for that. As I noted in the other thread, so far this year I've broken two mower drive belts, three spindles, one mower pulley and two blades on the rider mower. That's pretty much all from overloading in tall grass. I've also pretty much given up on using the flail mower because it will jam in the tall grass and when that happens things break.
First test: this is a patch of grass that I mowed once in May and haven't since. It's not as tough as a spot that wasn't mowed all year, but it's pretty tough. It's hard to photograph grass but it's about 18" high, with seedheads. In my experience this would break a rider mower or a flail.
For comparison's sake, I did two passes with the rough mower and four passes with the rider mower with the Meg-Mo. Meg-Mo is on the left:
Closer up. It cut it all, but there is some striping . Notice that there are very few clippings on the Meg-Mo side, whereas the rough mower side is covered in clippings. It mulches a lot finer and throws the clippings a lot further.
I'm pleased, I frankly can't believe my little mower cut that stuff at all.
