Bush Hog Technique

JoeinTX · May 21, 2007

I shred exactly like I plow-clockwise fashion, cutting the corners, and then mowing out the corners when I am done. It still seems the quickest and best use of time for me. This is unless your cutting a circular patch.

As to the hawks, yes, it's nice to watch nature at work. Many wild animals don't associate farm equipment with danger, i.e. humans, and are pretty docile around them to the point of using them for their own ends. Several years ago I was shredding an old grass field late in the spring not terribly long after the quail had hatched and begun to move around. I remember having several hawks linger above me and the tractor, sometimes no farther than I could throw my hat, waiting as I flushed out the odd quail or field rodent.

While we often can't drive the pickup into the field without scaring-up the odd coyote or two, I have passed within less than 20' of a bedded down coyote on the tractor who pays little more than nominal attention to me. Since we, and very few around, have ever fired upon them from a tractor and since it doesn't move or sound like a vehicle, they don't seem to mind it much.

Gatorboy · May 21, 2007

I mow my field in straight lines.

This is hard to explain in words (for me anyways) but here goes (NOTE: I have a 15' flexwing mower):

- I start out making two rounds on the outside boundary

- I then make a parallel line cut about 75 feet from one end, proceeded by another one 75' further down.

- I now have 3 sections -- 2 small sections and the remaining field.

- I can then make parallel cuts, progressively taking care of the smaller sections (75') with nice wide turns, and minimize my running over the same cut sections. I try to alternate my lines so I get that nice looking pattern (like a baseball field)

- When those sections are complete I pretty much continue the same process for the remaining portion.

I hope that makes sense

Bird · May 21, 2007

I shred exactly like I plow-clockwise fashion, cutting the corners, and then mowing out the corners when I am done

One of my farmer friends in the hay business did something similar when cutting and baling hay; i.e., go back and get those corners when he finished the rest of the field. The guy I worked with cutting and baling hay, and I, did the opposite. We got those corners the first time we came to them, so we didn't have to go back. I have no idea whether one way actually has any advantage over the other, but I liked the idea of being through when we got to the middle of the field; whether working hay or the brush hog.

Farmwithjunk · May 21, 2007

Gatorboy said:
I mow my field in straight lines.

This is hard to explain in words (for me anyways) but here goes (NOTE: I have a 15' flexwing mower):

- I start out making two rounds on the outside boundary

- I then make a parallel line cut about 75 feet from one end, proceeded by another one 75' further down.

- I now have 3 sections -- 2 small sections and the remaining field.

- I can then make parallel cuts, progressively taking care of the smaller sections (75') with nice wide turns, and minimize my running over the same cut sections. I try to alternate my lines so I get that nice looking pattern (like a baseball field)

- When those sections are complete I pretty much continue the same process for the remaining portion.

I hope that makes sense

Hard to put into words, but essentially the same way I tried to describe regarding how I cut with the batwing or the mounted smaller mowers. With the smaller mowers, I have to cut at least 5 laps around the perimeter to give ample room to turn. The 15' batwing cuts a wider swath in 2 laps. I try to get that baseball field look too. I know it's just mowing a field, but why not make it look good while we're at it.

dknarnd · May 21, 2007

Bird said:
I have no idea whether one way actually has any advantage over the other, but I liked the idea of being through when we got to the middle of the field; whether working hay or the brush hog.

Boy do I agree here; when your cutting 5 acre fields with a 5' brush hog all you want to do when you get to the middle is turn for home! This year should be better, I'm picking up my 7' offset Bush Hog this weekend and that will be for the NH and the 5' will stay on the JD which will be used for the first couple passes around the edges where all the stones and logs are.

Glowplug · May 21, 2007

Farmwithjunk said:
I try to get that baseball field look too. I know it's just mowing a field, but why not make it look good while we're at it.

Ditto.

Of course, my "baseball field" of dreams is actually a field of weeds.

scott_vt · May 21, 2007

Farmwithjunk said:
Hard to put into words, but essentially the same way I tried to describe regarding how I cut with the batwing or the mounted smaller mowers. With the smaller mowers, I have to cut at least 5 laps around the perimeter to give ample room to turn. The 15' batwing cuts a wider swath in 2 laps. I try to get that baseball field look too. I know it's just mowing a field, but why not make it look good while we're at it.

Mornin Bill,
Kind of late to jump on this bandwagon now

but I kind of use the same method myself !

I started using this method because the lower part of my property is fairly steep and I only feel comfortable turning at the bottom and rather than making long passes at the bottom of the field while cutting air is easier and more efficient to divide the fields up into strips to maximize cutting time !

Of course Im only using a 5ft hog

Farmwithjunk · May 21, 2007

scott_vt said:
Mornin Bill,
Kind of late to jump on this bandwagon now but I kind of use the same method myself ! I started using this method because the lower part of my property is fairly steep and I only feel comfortable turning at the bottom and rather than making long passes at the bottom of the field while cutting air is easier and more efficient to divide the fields up into strips to maximize cutting time ! Of course Im only using a 5ft hog

Uh....Scotty....? Whatta you doin' in my pasture buddy?

Picture #2 looks enough like the pasture next to the house that I had to look 3 times to convince myself it wasn't.

And talk about mowing lots of ground with a small mower? I'm leaving in a couple hours to start on a mowing job we just took. 71 acres divided into small pastures, the BIGGEST being 4 acres. It a horse bording stables. (Arabians) The gates are all 8' and under. Gotta mow with the Massey and Ford, 6' cutters. We'll be there a while.

Glowplug · May 21, 2007

Farmwithjunk said:
And talk about mowing lots of ground with a small mower? I'm leaving in a couple hours to start on a mowing job we just took. 71 acres divided into small pastures, the BIGGEST being 4 acres. It a horse bording stables. (Arabians) The gates are all 8' and under. Gotta mow with the Massey and Ford, 6' cutters. We'll be there a while.

Sounds sort of like my place, only bigger. My land was originally for horses. 10 stall barn with indoor riding arena and 16 acres divided up into many small paddock fields. (Note: horse barn makes great tractor storage). Most of my "fields" are about 1.5acres. Biggest is probably 2.5acres. There are 8' wide "runs" between each paddock that have basically turned into long strips of jungle. I have been talking about taking out all that intervening fencing for years and opening it up into one big pasture. Sure would make mowing easier. . .and more enjoyable. And, in my opinion, would look better. Then I could get a 15' flex-wing mower.

Sure, may be overkill, but what the hay. (No pun intended). My ideal mowing set-up would be a 15' Rhino flex-wing and a 7' Bush hog 297. I guess I can keep dreaming huh.

Bird · May 21, 2007

when your cutting 5 acre fields with a 5' brush hog all you want to do when you get to the middle is turn for home!

My own little pasture was only about 7 acres, but at least 3 times, I mowed a 30 acre pasture with two ponds some fences, trees, etc. for a neighbor with my 5' brush hog and a B2710.

That was a 20+ hour job in 2 days each time.

scott_vt · May 21, 2007

Farmwithjunk said:
Uh....Scotty....? Whatta you doin' in my pasture buddy?

Picture #2 looks enough like the pasture next to the house that I had to look 3 times to convince myself it wasn't.

And talk about mowing lots of ground with a small mower?

Afternoon Bill,
Well on a real nice day the small mower doesnt bother me too much especially with a good cigar !

But when it gets blazin hot, then I really wish I had a 6 footer on there, and it does get hot out in the middle of the darned field !

Runner · May 21, 2007

Just the other day, I was out mowing my pasture with my lawn tractor....(see my other posts...)... and had plenty of time to think about this topic. I've been mowing grass since I was 4 (about 44 years now) and have always wondered how to get rid of the "lumps" that happen when you try to turn corners while mowing relatively square lots. I always thought I was just too dumb to figure it out.

I've tried everything from just cutting them off and going back for them later (time-consuming) to easing back into the next swath after the turn by only cutting about half the mower width until the middle or so of the next side (don't get much grass cut and the mowed area turns into a parallelogram).

So far, the only method I've found that works is the 270 degree turn or stopping and backing up to make a square corner.

I always thought that when I "graduated" to a bigger tractor, this problem would magically go away, but this thread shows that ain't so. Looks like I'm in good company.

Runner

MadDogDriver · May 21, 2007

That's the joy of tractor driving.

Doesn't matter if it's a little 20hp garden tractor, a 40hp CUT, or a 500hp Monster the physics are the same within the limits of what you're pulling. It makes for some great dreaming and experimenting too.

patrick_g · May 21, 2007

A friend's grown son came over today with a 60 horse ZETOR tractor with a disk(?) mower and mowed about 30 acres in one of my pastures. Probably will get another 20 or so tomorrow before he switches to the round bale machine. His dad and I will turn and windrow the already cut grass while the son is finishing the cutting tomorrow.

It seems the best improvement of brush hog technique is to get a WIDER MOWER.

Pat

Farmwithjunk · May 21, 2007

Glowplug said:
Sounds sort of like my place, only bigger. My land was originally for horses. 10 stall barn with indoor riding arena and 16 acres divided up into many small paddock fields. (Note: horse barn makes great tractor storage). Most of my "fields" are about 1.5acres. Biggest is probably 2.5acres. There are 8' wide "runs" between each paddock that have basically turned into long strips of jungle. I have been talking about taking out all that intervening fencing for years and opening it up into one big pasture. Sure would make mowing easier. . .and more enjoyable. And, in my opinion, would look better. Then I could get a 15' flex-wing mower. Sure, may be overkill, but what the hay. (No pun intended). My ideal mowing set-up would be a 15' Rhino flex-wing and a 7' Bush hog 297. I guess I can keep dreaming huh.

Just got home from mowing 6-1/2 hours. SIL mowed all day. (12 hours) We probably got a little more than 1/2 of the 71 acres cut. Some of the paddocks were as small as 1/2 acre. There must be 1000 miles of board fence on this place. Cutting against it wasn't fun, but just imagine PAINTING all of it! (I'm trying to imagine knocking it all down!)

OWner is in a nursing home with no hope of getting out. No known heirs. As soon as his life savings runs out, the conservator sells the property. In all likelyhood, fences go away and streets go in followed by houses. Until then, we mow and weed- eat.

dknarnd · May 22, 2007

Farmwithjunk said:
In all likelyhood, fences go away and streets go in followed by houses. Until then, we mow and weed- eat.

This was a sad post to read....this is what is happening to our beautiful country.

several years ago I bought back a 7 acre parcel of land, paying $55,000, that my parents sold off of their farm back in the 70's for $800. The parcel does have well, septic, power and a POS mobil home now where it didn't when they sold it. I removed the mobil home so it is now just a vacant lot.

Bird · May 22, 2007

It seems the best improvement of brush hog technique is to get a WIDER MOWER.

I don't know about "best", but it's sure the "fastest".

scott_vt · May 22, 2007

dknarnd said:
This was a sad post to read....this is what is happening to our beautiful country.

Mornin dknarnd,
I absolutely feel the same way, Im not sure I want to see what it looks like in 50 years or so !

schmism · May 22, 2007

ok ill step up and show my noobness

i never gave one thought to how the hog likes to cut... clockwise vs counter (ie left edge faceing open already cut vs right) that might explain the tendacy for my hog to windrow the cuttings so bad that it looks like its been raked into rows when im finished as i always seem to cut counterclockwise (right side open) but it seems most say thats backward and windrows really bad

(go figure)

anyone cut from the center out? in a north-south straight line approach... (cut one pass around the perimerter, then divid the feild in half (long dimention) so that that your 180 deg turn at the end traverses min already mowed ground.

when the sides become smaller than the middle you do the inverse... mowing north-south in just one section, then moving to the other?

as for my method.... cut 1 or 2 permierter passes, then back and forth stearing out of the row (toward my mowed area) so that the tail swings around and clips the end of the unmowed row, so that when i spin back around i dont need to catch the very very first of the row with the hog as i caught it as i peeled out of the row just before.... (make sence?)

EddieWalker · May 22, 2007

When I was in high school, I had a job at the ice scating rink. One of my duties was to cut the ice with the Zamboni. I was tought to cut around the outside perimeter, then make a pass down the middle. Then to overlap each cut on one of the ouside lines and the inside line. I would work from one outside edge towards the middle until I was in the middle working the oposite outside edge.

Ever since then, I always mow the same way wether it's on my ride along mower, or my CUT. I always make one pass around the outside of whate I'm cutting, then one pass down the middle until I'm done.

I've never considerd, or even tried to make square corners, and honestly don't want them. I like to follow my treeline, or my fence line with nice round corners that flow with my woods.

Never heard of counter clockwise or clockwise either. Not sure why one is better then the other.

Eddie