right equip. to mow field?

[Will_C]

I don't know my ground speed, but I can do about 3 acres in 2 hours if the grass gets knee high.

Will

 

[radman1]

This is based on my plans for my overgrown pasture fields... may or may not be for you.

Stop tilling it. You'll just bring up millions of old weed seeds. Spray it with round up after spring green up, let it green up, spray again. Drill seed in some praire grass/flowers so as not to disturb undesirable seeds (county farm services have seed drills to borrow). Then hog it, or better yet, burn it every three years to keep trees and woody growth from getting a foothold. Natives love being burned, invasives don't. Best practice is to hog/burn one third each year so animals can move to a different part of the field for nesting... as opposed to doing the whole thing at once, then it'd be bare one year.
The deer, rabbits, birds, bees, voles, butterflies, etc., will love it.

Exact timing for spraying/planting can be gotten from your local version of this:
Ohio Prairie Association

Pheasants Forever might even do matching dollars with you and provide expertise.

Like big e said, quit tilling the ground. You will never get past the weeds. I would till then drill/seed the ground. Even a poor seeding will eventually take over the weeds. I have 5 acres on my 8 acre lot devoted of natural grasses. I let my neighbor bale it for free on the late summer. Then I don't have to mow as much. Usually I will give it a final mowing in late fall with bush hog and it is easy to mow becasue the grass is short. I only mow it late fall because I take my kids and nephews snow tubing behind the UTV after winter snows.

Burning is ok but you have to know what your doing. My other neighbor burned his grass one year, got out of control and took 2 of my acres. I didn't really care but he said that was the last time he was going to burn. Burning also can make a bit of mess from the smoke and residual ash. Your neighbors may not care for the results.

If you bush hog, 2-3 times a year is enough to keep it under control.

 

[jenkinsph]

I bought a home on 9 acres 2 years ago. There is a 3 acre cultivated field previously used as a market garden on the property. I mow the grass with a JD 332. My plans previously were to simply keep the field black for a kept look. I have a Kubota b7610 and have tilled it with a 60" tiller. I have since decided to minimize soil erosion and overtilling of the soil. I would let natural grasses move back in and simply mow it a few times a year with a rear finish mower. My question to you folks is would a 5 ft. finish mower be ok to use a few times a year for this pupose and to share the work on the lawns with the 332? Or would a brush mower be the way to go. Thanks in advance!

Read the post again after all the replies, if you plant it in grass and cut it frequently you should be able to use either type mower. Frequent mowing has other benefits, really helps with the weeds and smoothing the ground. The problem would be if you let it get too tall you would need a brush mower and you would not be doing much to control the weeds.

For most lawns you should cut the top 1/3 off with each mowing, this is less of a shock to the grass. While you may not consider this part of the lawn some time spent cutting the field on a regular basis will yield the best results.
I have tall Fescue on my lawn and let it grow to a height of four or five inches and then mow it at three inches.

So I guess a lot depends on how much you wan't to manage the property. Frequent cutting will work best with an rfm and will yield the best results. Cutting infrequently when the grass grows tall will require the brush mower and will allow more weeds to grow and will not look as good.

 

[bgshgrr]

Many thanks, everyone!