Berta flail mower

[Jens767]

Hi

While mowing along a hedge last week, my Berta again picked up a string of barbed wire from an old fence. That’s one of the risks when mowing in tall vegetation in unfamiliar terrain, but luckily the flail mower is not that sensitive to fence wire. This time there was no damage done, but this is how one of the flails looked after an earlier encounter with barbed wire:



Due to the latest incident I wanted to check the mower thoroughly as I got home, and at the same time give the mower a good wash down. As I noticed the wear on the „Anti-Scalp Skids“, I thought that I would post this little update on the topic.

I got the skids last summer as mentioned in post #74, and since then used them for around 20 working hours. It is of course difficult to tell for sure whether they help or not, but looking at the wear of the skids, I think they do:



The photo is of the right-hand side skid, and it clearly shows that especially the rear part of the skid has taken some abuse. I feel that the flail mower „floats“ better since it got the skids, and it follows the terrain better, leading to hardly any scalping.


Best regards

Jens

 

[Big wheels are better]

Thank you Jens
We have been using our Berta 26" for one season (2019), it is a great machine! We are trying to get away from animal based fertilizers so we are cover-cropping and flailing all our gardens.
We bought our mower directly from EarthTools. It didn't require any leveling adjustment to fit our BCS732. We also used it to clear a path outside our electric fence, worked way better than a regular mower, the weeds took a lot longer to grow back + less places for the bears to hide

The weeds took longer to grow back? Why would the type of mower matter? Did you mow shorter?

 

[Jens767]

Hi Big wheels are better

I have had the same experience as WesKootenay, when it comes to weeds that has been mowed with the flail mower; it actually takes longer to grow back, and I think that it comes from the different ways different mowers works and cuts.

I basically mow in 2 different ways: either I cut the material with the sickle bar mower/drum mower close to the ground, and it is hand raked and removed, or I cut it with the flail mower, and it is left to decompose. The first case is usually very „grassy“ material, and the second one is pure weeds like common bracken/eagle fern.

Here I am mowing up to 6½ feet tall eagle fern with the flail mower a month ago:



When mowing with a well adjusted sickle bar mower especially, you will get a very clean cut, leaving the stems intact and the plant ready to grow again. When mowing with the flail mower however, the stems are more torn apart than actually cut. This leaves a much bigger wound to the plant, and a much larger surface for it to loose moisture. This will set back the plants a lot, and hamper new growth.

It is probably difficult to see on my foto, but just in front of the Berta, there are some stems left standing.

I hope this makes sense?


Best regards

Jens

 

[anomad]

Hi Big wheels are better

I have had the same experience as WesKootenay, when it comes to weeds that has been mowed with the flail mower; it actually takes longer to grow back, and I think that it comes from the different ways different mowers works and cuts.

I basically mow in 2 different ways: either I cut the material with the sickle bar mower/drum mower close to the ground, and it is hand raked and removed, or I cut it with the flail mower, and it is left to decompose. The first case is usually very „grassy“ material, and the second one is pure weeds like common bracken/eagle fern.

Here I am mowing up to 6½ feet tall eagle fern with the flail mower a month ago:

View attachment 3857832

When mowing with a well adjusted sickle bar mower especially, you will get a very clean cut, leaving the stems intact and the plant ready to grow again. When mowing with the flail mower however, the stems are more torn apart than actually cut. This leaves a much bigger wound to the plant, and a much larger surface for it to loose moisture. This will set back the plants a lot, and hamper new growth.

It is probably difficult to see on my foto, but just in front of the Berta, there are some stems left standing.

I hope this makes sense?


Best regards

Jens

That is impressive! I have never cut anything near that tall with my BCS and little DelMorino bush hog.

What purpose do the dual tires serve in your application? I have my BCS set in the widest configuration. I could use more flotation and traction on steep hills. Mowing steep hills I can't get a conventional tractor on is a primary use for me.

 

[jeepcoma]

Ferns are like tissue paper, they just dissolve. It also does a really good job on meatier growth like Japanese Knotweed and small trees. If you can get it to bend over far enough for a blade edge to touch, nothing stands a chance against the mighty flail mower! It's like suspending a wood chipper a few inches off the ground in its destructive power.