Mowing The best equipment

[garyrt]

I have a 160 acre farm with about 50 acres of pasture that I need to mow.
I would be mowing grass/weeds as I had it bush hogged last year.
Any advice on what size JD tractor ( HP ) and what size of mower.
I am thinking I would need about a 60 - 70 HP tractor and maybe at least a 7 foot mower. (would not need a finishing mower)
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dmay]

I have a 160 acre farm with about 50 acres of pasture that I need to mow.

Welcome! Why not get some four legged pasture mowers, sit back, relax and let them do the work. :laughing:

I had 80 acres, 25 was horse pasture and 55 was hay production. In the summer I would welcome friends and neighbors to send over their younger horses to join my exisitng four legged pasture mowing herd. I found six to eight horses working outisde 24/7 made for a well mowed pasture.

For the hay production I had a Massey 265 (65hp) and a NH489 (9') mower conditioner. I would do half the field at a time so about 25+ acres at a time. Would take me about 4-6 hrs of mowing depending on hay growth and ground speed. If I did the whole thing that would be 8+ hrs with a 9' mower. I would not enjoy mowing 55 acres with a 7 foot mower very often.

 

[JD5210]

I would start with a little math on how long it would take to mow 55 acres with a 7 foot mower. It takes me 2 hours with a 6 foot finishing mower to cut 6 acres. I am moving right along.

Make sure you match the PTO HP with the HP rating for your mower. Have you looked at a flail mower. I have only read about them, so hopefully others will give you some input. Not pushing JD, here is a URL. I had to look it up, but here is a definition. Flail mowers are a type of PTO driven implement that can attach to the three-point hitches found on the rear of most tractors. The mower is best used to provide a rough cut to taller grass where contact with loose debris may be possible such as roadsides.

Flail Mowers from John Deere

You might look at this URL as well.
John Deere John Deere offers a full line of rotary cutters, flail mowers, and flail shredders

 

[Bigfoot62]

First of all, Welcome to the forum.

To give you good advice, we need to have a better idea of what you're working with.
Will the 50 acres of pasture be grazed? Do you just need to cut it once or twice per year to clean it up?
Are you trying to cut it for hay or silage?
Is the ground relatively flat, or is it hilly? Obstacles in the pasture? (trees, crossfences, creeks, etc)

BTW, not trying to pick a fight, but unless you have a "golf course" quality pasture, I would stay away from flail mowers. They're expensive to buy and maintain and easy to break.

 

[Verticaltrx]

I would be looking for a tractor with around 65 PTO hp, and a 10' pull-type bush hog. If you want to go for a 3pt hitch 10' bush hog you'd need about an 85 PTO hp tractor to handle it.

You're looking at mowing 3-4ac per hour with a 10' bush hog, I personally wouldn't be looking for anything smaller for that kind of acreage.

 

[garyrt]

Thanks for all the responses. Sorry I didn't provide more info in my initial post. The pasture is currently being grazed. I would be looking at mowing once, maybe twice per year. This would be just to keep the weeds and light brush from growing. Last year, around August, the guy that leases the pasture mowed about 6 acres around the house. That pasture looks so much better than what was not mowed.
All the pasture is open and flat with no obstacles. Question is, do I spend the money for a tractor and mower or just pay someone about $10 - $15 per acre to mow. I have the time to mow and could probably use the tractor around the farm, anyway. Then I could mow when I need to, instead of trying to get someone to mow when they are busy with other things.

 

[CBB]

The simple answer is let someone else mow it as you may not have the time you do now in the future and it would take a lot of years to offset the price of the equipment against just paying someone a fee. Figure it out and you could probably pay someone 75 years to break even on buying the equipment...That said, if you need a tax write off buying equipment is a good way plus you have the use of the equipment you bought. I was looking at buying a piece of equipment to spread mulch and luckily could rent one, which gave me a clearer view which was to keep paying people to spread the mulch by hand. The number of years it would take to break even was too many plus I was providing employment to people instead of too a machine. I instead traded in my crappy Kioti and bought the JD 5320n with a cab...finding ways to spend money is never hard on a farm. Good luck with your decision.

 

[dmay]

Thanks for all the responses. Sorry I didn't provide more info in my initial post. The pasture is currently being grazed. I would be looking at mowing once, maybe twice per year. This would be just to keep the weeds and light brush from growing. Last year, around August, the guy that leases the pasture mowed about 6 acres around the house. That pasture looks so much better than what was not mowed.
All the pasture is open and flat with no obstacles. Question is, do I spend the money for a tractor and mower or just pay someone about $10 - $15 per acre to mow. I have the time to mow and could probably use the tractor around the farm, anyway. Then I could mow when I need to, instead of trying to get someone to mow when they are busy with other things.

Do you own a tractor today? If no, are you considering purchasing new or used?

Are you retired? Reason I ask is mowing 55 acres will small equipment will take a lot of time. Maybe you have a lot of time on your hands and would find this pleasureable to do twice a summer.

Cost to buy used 65hp tractor + hay mower = ~$20,000
Cost to have 55 acres mowed twice per year = $1,650 / year
Cost to add more four legged pasture grazers = possibly FREE

Two years ago I sold my 1973 Massey 265/FEL for $12,500. 1973 NH489 mower/conditioner for $5,000. $17,500 total.

 

[AKfish]

If you lived around here... there'd be people beatin' down your door to pay you grazing rent for their livestock - horses and cows.

And they'd split the cost of replacing/repairing the fences!

Or if the ground was suitable for hay - there'd be alot of interest in upgrading the ground for hay production. Herbicide treatment followed up with a good no-till drill for interseeding and in a couple of years; you'd be making money instead of spending lot's of money!

AKfish