If you only mow 2x a year with rotary cutter in the mid south

[John Fitzgerald]

What times of year would be optimal? I am thinking around July 10 and October 10 to achieve optimal control of small brush and big weeds.
There is one area on my place that is a real pain to get into due to a creek.

 

[bigtiller]

Could the primary nesting season in your area be avoided?

 

[EddieWalker]

Late June so it's short before fireworks start going off. Then some time in October before the grass goes dormant and stops growing.

 

[nybirdman]

I used to BH twice a year;found too many little critters brush-hogging in July.Now I wait until the middle of August.We do about 50 acres total with two tractors.

 

[ovrszd]

Could the primary nesting season in your area be avoided?

I'm with you. I mowed some CRP on 3 August and ran into a covey of Quail that could barely get up out of the growth on their wings. I quit and went back on the 15th. They could avoid me then.

 

[Creamer]

I'm with you. I mowed some CRP on 3 August and ran into a covey of Quail that could barely get up out of the growth on their wings. I quit and went back on the 15th. They could avoid me then.

August in Missouri - isn't that a little late and a lot of weeds have gone to seed?

 

[ovrszd]

August in Missouri - isn't that a little late and a lot of weeds have gone to seed?

Guess you gotta decide what price you want to pay. As nybirdman mentioned, mowing early has a high price for wildlife. Also understand we are talking about mowing CRP or something similar that is full of many varieties of wildlife which find security for their youth in that growth. I guess if I was mowing a grubbed pasture and just wanted to control weeds I'd mow when it looked like it was needed. Probably could avoid any young wildlife that happened to be in there by sighting them in time.

 

[robbyr]

CRP?:confused3:

 

[LD1]

Conservation reserve program.

A program where a field is no longer farmed and the govt pays you to not farm it. There are limitations on what you can and can't do with the land. Like controlling invasive weed species, if and when it can be mowed, etc.

It's the govts way of controlling the amount of ground that can be farmed, and thus the supply.

Don't want an oversupply of corn and beans that drives the price per bushel way down.

 

[rustyshakelford]

Conservation reserve program.

A program where a field is no longer farmed and the govt pays you to not farm it. There are limitations on what you can and can't do with the land. Like controlling invasive weed species, if and when it can be mowed, etc.

It's the govts way of controlling the amount of ground that can be farmed, and thus the supply.

Don't want an oversupply of corn and beans that drives the price per bushel way down.

Also to prevent over farming for the ground and to help prevent soil erosion and wildlife habitat....basically a churched up way of saying what LD1 did

Brett