Mowing acreage.

[Omega Woods]

I mow 4 acres, some of which is bumpy as heck, with a Scag Cheetah with a 61" deck. Not cheap but the seat is double mounted (suspension seat mounted on a movable platform) which keeps me from getting beat to death. I haven't had it very long but I don't know what I did without it.

 

[steve tym]

Why don't you want to drive on it? You have a tractor, use it. Get something that you can use to cut it in a fraction of the time. I've been cutting about 5 acres with my 21' FM for 10 years. I run ag tires. Never seen the issue with that setup. I would never try to cut all that grass with one of my ZTs.

I'm concerned about the R1's tearing it up.

 

[mikester]

 

[workinonit]

The only time ag tires even remotely cause an issue is when it's wet. I never tear up turf with them turning. And they don't mash grass down as bad as turf tires do. Less surface area. Now if you are maintaining a golf course I might understand the issue.

 

[steve tym]

If you want an acre ease rotary mower with an offset hitch that is one option;
but it is just one more piece of equipment to own and maintain.

Your mule is going to give you a better ride than the rider or the quad and it has
more power as well.

Hard sod is not going to dent even with loaded tires if that is what your worried about.

A rotary mower is going to leave cut grass on top of the sod and create dead spots if it
is very long.

A finish flail mower will leave very small clippings and you will be able to recut
those clippings the same day to may them dissolve faster.
You would be able to mow once every 2 weeks with a finish flail mower and keep the sod grass
at a 2 inch height.

Good point about the cuttings sitting on top.
If I don't get to it soon enough, and it gets too long.......
I hadn't considered a finish flail mower. How big can you get them?
Still worried about my R1's, they leave tracks in my hard packed gravel driveway.

 

[Yander]

I'm about to make about 4 acres mowable.
Brush hog?
Tow behind for my lawn tractor?
Something else?

Yes

 

[lman]

I figured they use big tractors to make hay and it looks good when it grows back, so why wouldn't grass that you mow with a tractor be the same way. Of course there are only a couple of cars that go down my road daily so I'm not trying to maintain a golf course. I mow in a different pattern each time so the tracks would be at different locations. It seems like I always have other things to do besides mowing grass, so I just want to git-r-done. The 12' mower helps me do that.

 

[Yander]

I'm concerned about the R1's tearing it up.

Now the details are coming out. R1s won't tear up dry ground and if you are only wanting to keep vegetation down use a bushhog 3 or 4 times a year when it is dry. Easy problem solved.

 

[D&D]

He passed about 6 months back and this last week I finally decided I was going let about an acre of my yard grow to see what develops with the idea of slowly managing that section into a wildlife food plot, native grass/forbes patch (lots of wildlife in the neighborhood - deer/turkey/rabbit/fox/flying squirrels/birds/etc).

Adding some wildflower mix wouldn’t hurt, especially in the aesthetics dept.

 

[Brown Dog]

It depends how smooth the ground is. It's a lot to do with a 60" zero turn or even a 72". …

I mow 15 acres a week with a 72” 4cyl Turbo Diesel Zero & Bush Hog another 7 acres every other week all here on the Farm.