I've never used a 3pt mower. I'd like to be able to cut the pasture around 8" and most seem to only go up to about 5". Is there any reason you can't run these suspended from the 3pt hitch or do they have to be used on their wheels for some reason?
I have a B2710 and I'm cutting clean pasture grasses. Will it turn a 6' mower?
thanks
If you are talking about a 3 blade finish mower, then the answer is yes. I believe Kubota offered a 72" MMM for the 2710. 3pt mower should have similiar power use requirements. The story is different if your talking rotary cutter (single spindle Brush Hog). You may be able to run the cutter, but it would work the tractor pretty hard if you were to use it in heavy grass or brush. I have a 4ft King Kutter rotary mower for my B2400 (24hp 18pto hp) and in tall, heavy( 3ft+ pasture grass) it works it hard enough to bring engine temps up above normal. I could probably run a 5ft, but I use the 4ft and am confident I won't hurt the tractor.
Mark, are you talking about a brush hog or a finish mower. The B2710 will certainly turn a 6' mower of either type unless you get into really heavy stuff, but I used 5' mowers of both types myself. Personally, there's no way I would attempt to mow with the 3-point holding the mower in the air. For one thing, a 6' mower is going to be pretty heavy so you've got more strain on the 3-point hydraulics than I'd want to put on it; you're bound to do at least some bouncing as you go. Secondly, if you get things to bouncing, you're going to be mowing different heights in different places. And if you are talking about a brush hog type mower, I think 8' above the ground, the grass will be so flexible that the blades will just bend it over instead of cutting it off; a problem that will still exist, just to a lesser degree perhaps, with a finish mower. And last, why would you want to cut anything to leave it taller than 5" anyway? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
I'm talking about a 3 blade finish mower, and I don't mow wet or take heavy cuts.
Pasture grass should be maintained between 8-12" for best health. We rotate the horses to eat it down to 6-8" then take them off until it grows up to about 12". In the spring and fall it requires some mowing. 5" is too short.
Well, you might be able to do it, Mark, but I'll be surprised if you get satisfactory results with the mowing and no damage to the tractor or mower, but it's not something I would try to do.
I use a finish mower on the pasture because I use the same finish mower on most of the lawn. The pasture is smooth, we overseed every year and use an herbicide, so it's no different than mowing regular grass except it's taller. If we had another few horses I probably wouldn't need to mow at all. But it does look nice mowed and our house is situated so the pasture is our view. A couple times a year I mow much shorter to keep the weeds from going to seed.
Thanks for the explanation on using 3pt mower. I'll find something that mows as high as possible and go with it. Don't want to damage anything or kill myself.
