Please help me decide

[WTA]

I have a 25 acre horse farm. It's 4 separate grass pastures that are irrigated and grow like crazy for West Texas. 2 of them we cut and bale for hay. We also have about 3 acres of yard, orchard area and other manicured grass to mow.

Last year I had to go buy a new farm tractor and I got a big one by small farm standards. It's a 95 horse new Holland with 4 wheel drive and an air conditioned cab. I currently have a real piece of junk John deere stx38 riding mower that I am about ready to park at the end of my shooting range and use for a machine gun target. I paid a hundred bucks for it and I guess I've gotten my moneys worth out of it but now the drive belt is broken, blades are totaly wasted, ignition switch is bad to where I have to jump the solenoid to start it and I really don't want to fix it any more. I only get about 6 months of mowing out of the blades on it and what sucks most is I have to go to a JD dealer to get new ones. I try to avoid that place like the plague.

My great debate is whether to get the new GT 1554 cub cadet garden tractor , a used 14 foot JD shredder or a new landpride 10 foot shredder for behind the tractor. All three are in within the budget.

I will only need to mow the pastures 2-3 times per year but the yard, fence lines and orchard once or twice a week.
With the big tractor mounted mowers I can get nearly all of it and do it in an air conditioned cab but then I'll be forced to fix the old JD mower for another season of use in order to get under all the trees and up close to the fence. I really hate the idea of going through all that again.

If I do have to go out and mow a pasture on the cub cadet, I'm confident it will do it but the blades may not be too happy with me afterwards. One pasture is wheat and the other I would have to mow is native grasses that get 6 feet tall. The wheat field gets mowed off, plowed and replanted every fall for grazing over the winter.
The native grass field I just planted and I will only have to mow it occasionally this year while it establishes to keep the weeds down and spread the seeds.

I may have to borrow a shredder for that one I guess but noone near me has one over 5 foot wide. My neighbors would look at me funny with that thing behind my big tractor but maybe it would be worth it for one year till I can afford to get a big mower for my tractor.

Do you all think I should get the big cubcadet now and the 14 foot mower for the tractor next year or the other way around? I just can't make up my mind. I had an older cub cadet once before and just loved it. I wish I still had it.

 

[micman32]

Man that is a tough one! Sounds like the shredder for your big tractor would be the best option for the pastures but you would only use it a few times per year as compared to the 2 times per week with the mower.

I would definately use the Sabre for target practice because it isn't worth all the fixing up you need to do to it.

Maybe a 3000 series Cub would be a better option for you if you want to mow pastures with it. They are heavy duty. But they do cost more than what you want to spend.

Michael

 

[JSharp]

You'll be OK along the fence lines but you don't want to use a 1554 for your pastures or natural grass even once a year.

I have about 2 acres of prairie grass I've mowed with my 2554. Deck all the way up and as slow as I could run. That was the end of my first deck belt and it only had 40 hours use before that. I decided that was a failed experiment and I bought an old farm tractor with a 5' bush hog to to mow that area if I want to in the future.

If you really want to mow pasture or tallgrass get a mower designed for it and use your big tractor. Even borrowing a little 5' model will be much better than trying to do the job with a garden tractor.

For your native grass you might consider just letting it grow and controlling the weeds with 2,4-D or another broadleaf herbicide. You can spray once the grasses get about 4" tall even in an establishment year and it's a lot faster than mowing. I bought a 15 gallon ATV sprayer to do just that. Those grasses will re-seed if left on their own and mowing too often inhibits their ability to put down deep roots...