opinions appreciated, flail vs bh for my land

[ugabulldog]

Is it good grass?If it is buy (finish mower for yard) then let the neighbor have the(big pasture)for a hay field(make him spray and fertilize)then set back and look at a nice hay meadow. Dont know if there is anyone interested in your area but alot of people around just let them have it aslong as it is well kept and that means( 0 maintance) for you.

I have tried this route in the past, didn't go so good, hard time finding someone as there are much bigger fileds around with less to cut around....

thanks for the replies so far,

 

[flusher]

I have read the threads on flails, but wanted others opinions on what fits my needs best. I don't mean to beat a dead horse with the flail vs... issue, but this is a big purchase for me and I want to make the best one.

I have about 10 acres of established pasture to cut. There are no rocks to worry about as it has been cleaned up already. I will make about an acre around the house yard and cut when needed every couple of weeks (don't need manicured lawn as this is the country) the other approx. 9 acres I would only like to cut two-three times a year. It is thick tall fescue that will be waist high when cut. I have a MF 245 (45 h.p., 43 pto h.p.) and plan to buy one 6' mower attachment, either flail or brush hog (and weed eat what it left close to the house). From what I have read, the flail would definetly have an advantage with less sticking out and be able to manuver around house, trees, fence better....the con being higher initial cost and maintenance. I have also read where it might be a good idea to have two sets of blades for a bh, one for around house and one for pasture, change as needed. I am still a little unclear on flails ability to cut over rolling land and also to cut without it touching the ground if I needed to raise up higher to make it through the thick grass. I have attached a picture of the hilliest part and also their is a good bit of flat also. Thank you to all who take the time to post and I will be happy to answer any other questions that might help.

I have 10 acres, 6 of which are hayfield that I mow (weeds, stubble, less than 18" tall). I run my 6-ft Hawkline brush hog in 4L gear on my Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto, 2WD, gear tranny 8F/2R) which gives me 6.3 mph ground speed with the engine running to give 540 rpm at the pto. The limitation is my butt, which takes a beating from the furrows in that hayfield. If the pain gets too bad, I shift to 3L which drops the ground speed to 4.3 mph. My hayfield is U-shaped so there is quite a bit of turning. I can generally get the field mowed in less than 3 hours. If I want a real short cut, I can adjust the top link and the mower trailer wheel to get the blade to kick up a heck of a dust cloud and tear the vegetation completely off the field. Don't ordinarily do that because my soil is gravely loam which does a number on the cutting edge. Recently, I modifed the mower and added an access panel to make blade sharpening/removal a lot easier.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/customization/214118-brush-hog-access-panel.html

I've have a 68" wide Value Line flail mower that I've used on the hayfield. I need to run that thing in 2L gear (3.0 mph ground speed) to get it to cut decently.

Good luck.