What mower should I get?

[Chucknbob]

I'm trying to keep a couple acres of pasture mowed down. I plan to mow every few weeks. I've b6100 hydro.

My question is, would a mid mount mower or a 3 point rear mower be better for my needs?

 

[Russell King]

Not real sure what you mean by "mowed down" but here are comments from my experience on ~4 acres that were fairly overgrown. Overgrown by mostly tall think Johnson grass and a few (less than 2 inch) saplings and weeds. Also there were quite a bit of downed limbs from trees.

I elected to get a shredder (brush hog) that was capable of cutting through it. The shredder is not capable of a good lawn type finish but is capable of a taller cut. I value the taller cut to try to leave seed heads on some of the better grass and keep my field more native grass. The shredder can cut up to around 10 inch tall. The mower weight is carried by the tractor so you will need to add weight to the front of the tractor.

If you spent time cleaning up the limbs and cutting down the saplings you could have spent time getting it cut down with a finish mower. A finish mower will give you a better quality cut but will be slower in tall grass. It can not cut taller than around 6 inch. Weight not carried by tractor, but by 4 wheels on mower.

All that being said the mower I want now would be a flail mower. They seem to be the better for getting a field cut down to size and then keep it maintained with a better cut. The shredder leaves the cut part of the grass fairly intact so if it gets too tall you have windrows. I don't think the flail mower would do this. I am not sure how high these can cut but I believe they get into the 8 inch height. They do not have wheels so you are carrying the weight on the back of the tractor.

I would not get a mid mount mower since you have to mess around with getting it hooked up underneath the tractor. The rear mounts are fairly easy to hook up and no crawling around under the tractor. I guess if the mid mount deck was drive over and fairly auto hook up then that would be OK. I have heard a fair amount of complaints they are difficult to attach. Never had one myself.

 

[Chucknbob]

Thanks. I guess I could clarify. By mowed down I mean I just want to keep it from getting overgrown. I don't need a nice, pretty lawn. I'll have lambs grazing, so I want it to be at least 5-6" tall after I cut (short grass isn't good for them). I plan to mow once a month or so, I want to make sure it won't bog down a finish mower.

The time to mount doesn't bother me, the only jobs for this tractor is to mow and clear snow. Hopefully not at the same time

 

[skeets]

Lambs???? you do know they grow up in sheep and will eat everything they can find,, you know this right? And unless you have a ton of thistles and scrub grass I wouldn't worry to much about mowing, how many lambs do you have anyway. As I recall its 5 Ewes to an acre and everything should be good

 

[Chucknbob]

I usually just get 3-4 lambs in spring and move them to the freezer once it gets cold. I don't keep nearly enough to keep the grass down. I don't want to keep it lawn height because eating grass close to the ground increases the chance of them getting parasites.

Unfortunately i do have a fair amount of thistle. The lambs actually help with that.