conflicting advice on using bucket with rotary cutter

[ssgp2]

It depends. I assume that since you asked the question, your experience with the tractor is limited, but will increase with time.
Is it your property that no one else has access to, where you know there isn't anything to hit, or other?
If "other", leave it on and lower it to use as a "feeler" and can be used for self recovery or any number of other tasks that come up.
I do a lot of "other" tractor work. Even in a field I have mowed several times before, my FEL found a transmission that wasn't there the last time I mowed it.

 

[charles todd]

I usually have pallet forks or grapple on when mowing. Bucket rarely. Though pallet forks suck when trying to push out of mud. When cutting hay usually have nothing or a bale spear.

CT

 

[Liquidsilver]

If I had nice smooth fields, I'd remove it... but I'm always needing to knock down low branches with it, or put the rocks I don't want to mow into smaller rocks in it, or finding big downed limbs I need to push out of the way with it.

 

[WVH1977]

There are times where having the loader off is better and there is times when the loader on is better. Depends on what you are doing. I cut a big piece of property at our hunt club every year that is 800 acres. It is all wooded and I use the grapple bucket to move fallen trees and logs on the ground. When cutting open areas no loader all day. Definitely easier to maneuver. I used to have a dedicated tractor with cutter. Wish I still had it.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Nice Goldenrod crop
lol

Isn't that something! That was a customer's field, he sure liked the way it looked when I was done.

SR

 

[Hay Dude]

Cut 35 acres today. Loader came in handy, even with a bale spear, to knock off branches.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I can see taking it off if you're in a field that you know. Either yours or one that you repeatedly mow several times a year. Make sense then, as you know where any obstacles like stumps, rock piles, downed tree piles, rolls of fence or piles of T-posts are.

But for a field that you don't know well, or haven't mowed before, I would leave it on.

Most of my mowing is on fields owned by others, that get mowed maybe every 5 years or so. That may change this year, as we're coming out of our drought from the last few years, and we're getting a ton of rain this spring. So fields are coming on hard with grass and weeds now.

But the unseen hazards for me are hidden rock piles, and hidden coils of old fence wire. Downed trees and branches are usually pretty easy to spot in tall heavy growth. But not wire. I've been pretty lucky so far and not had to stop and unwrap wire from the mower spindle. But I've come close a couple of times. Some guys are pretty good about keeping their pastures "clean" of junk. And some really aren't.

I like using my bucket as a "feeler" in front of the tractor while mowing.

 

[Jstpssng]

It's really a matter of preference. I don't have the big fields which others do and prefer to leave mine on, as it's convenient for pushing things out of the way. Last week I was down at my mother's, mowing up and down some hills with a bit of a "pucker" factor. Going down them I kept the bucket low and my hand on the control, in case I wanted to drop it fast. That came in handy once, when a woodchuck burrow collapsed under the RF tire. That big mower on back can a nice counterweight but doesn't do much when mowing and there's no weight on the 3pth.

 

[Hay Dude]

Few more mowing pics from today

On the way home, got stuck at the RR crossing. Not once,

But TWICE.

 

[meackerman]

my land is flat, I'm lazy and just leave my FEL on when mowing.

for a field that I had never mowed before, I'd be inclined to leave the FEL on and run it as low as I could to help find any surprises hiding in the field.