Mowing Rotary cutter in place of finish mower

[BX25HD]

I am about to trade-in my BX25 for a L3700SU. Currently I mow around my house, my parents build site, and some fields totaling about 6.5 acres with the 60 mmm on the BX. When I buy the L3700SU I will be using a lot of my cash for a down payment to keep the monthly payments low. So in saying that, I will not have the cash to buy a good finish mower at first. So here is the question. Would my 5 rotary cutter pass for cutting yard grass for now? Would it tear up my yard to much? If I raise up the wheel and try to float the deck above the ground would it look okay? You can't see any of my fields or yards from the road, I'm not trying to win a beauty contest. I just want to keep everything even so that it does not drive me crazy.

By the way, my BX25 is still for sale. I will be trading in the tractor soon though. Here is a link to my criagslist ad:
2010 Kubota BX25 Tractor, Loader, Backhoe

 

[Haywire]

Didn't keep that BX long did you?

 

[Dr. Bob]

I have mowed grass with a rotary mower and a finish mower. THere is no comparison; the finish mower wins! (by a long shot)
WHy don't you give it a try and see if you like the results.
In order for you to have a chance at success the blades must be SHARP. So, remove them and sharpen them as you would a lawn mower blade.
THe biggest problem mowing with my brush hog was dispersing of the clippings. It did a very poor job of dispersing the clippings and that caused problems with windrows of clippings.

 

[BX25HD]

Didn't keep that BX long did you?

I bought it in April of 2010 while we were building our house. It is a great little tractor. I have close to 250 hours on it now. I am going to start using another 9 acres of our land. Having the bigger tractor is sure going to help.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Glad there is no requirement of how long one has to keep a specific tractor or I'd be in bad trouble. I've had some for a year, a couple for three years and some for under a year. Have a F2680 that I'm about to get paid off so I've had it for about 38 months (42 months financed) and plan to keep it longer.
Tractors are not, I say, NOT people. Keep people and trade "stuff" when some thing else will meet your needs better or you just get tired of it, if you can afford it.
I'd do the rotary mower and then decide if it does it well enough before buying the Landpride rear finish mower with rear discharge.

 

[BX25HD]

Right, like I said, this is just until I can rebuild my savings a little. Maybe using the rotary cutter will get me through the rest of the season.

 

[Grandad4]

Can you use the cutter as a mower? Depends on how "finished" you expect the place to be. If you're keeping a finely-groomed lawn (mowed every week at 4" or less, watered when necessary, fertilizer, weed control, clippings taken up, etc.), no, a brush cutter isn't in the picture. If you figure to keep it a bit taller (say, 6") and generally have a more rustic look, the cutter is probably going to be OK.

Here's a random photo from our place, taken a few weeks ago, showing a field that we keep mowed with the cutter. I had just mowed the previous day in anticipation of weekend guests (one of whom is driving the Super M). You can see the clippings, it's all about 6" tall and looks fine as a field (but nobody would ever call it a "lawn", which is OK with me).

 

[mozark]

I had a Massey TO-35 w/ a 5 footer I sharpened the blades on and dropped it down to about 4". It did a respectable job (it was difficult to tell from the cut of a rider), but your ground needs to be pretty smooth and level and you have to go slow around corners or it would tip to one side and dig in. It will leave a pretty good windrow if you let the grass get too tall.