Mowing May be buying a small farm. Bush hog question.

[pipefitter]

I may be purchasing a 23 acre horse farm in the future. I have no real desire to raise or board horses, but that may change. There is probably 10 acres in hay, but I have someone to handle that. I also have about 6-8 acres I'll need to bush hog. My concern is my little tractor. I have a BX 23 that has served me faithfully, but can it deal with bush hogging that much acreage every few weeks? I have a 60" belly mower for it, but the terrain is a little rough and I don't know if that would work out. I haven't bought the bush hog,(or the farm), yet. Thanks!

 

[Turbys_1700]

I would expect your BX could handle a lighter duty 5 foot hog. You are looking at 6 hours more or less in time per cutting. So the answer is yes given the time required. If hogging is the only extra activity required then you certainly could get by with your current tractor.

 

[jeff9366]

You have two issues:

Small wheels on the BX. How rough is the 6-8 acres you wish to cut? If the tractor is sawing violently, you cannot get a reasonably smooth cut. A Bush Hog, however, can mow much rougher land than a belly mower.

BX tractors most often pull 48" wide Rotary Cutters. Allowing for a 6" overlap, that gives you a 42" swathe. Not very wide. How much time to you wish to devote to mowing?

 

[bcp]

Mow every 2 or 3 months instead of weeks. Let it look like a meadow, not a lawn.

Bruce

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

People ask me why I trade tractors so often and so many times. Many times it has been because my needs have changed by aquiring and disposing of property. I disposed of my rental acreage last fall and disposed of some of my Kubotas. This Feb I bought an additional 28 acres of wooded and subdivided cleared lots. I then purchased a bushhog to mow the subdivided acres/6 building lots and to mow the small trees growing on the mountain acres plus traded my old XB boxblade for a bigger Landpride boxblade and reaquired another Post hole digger (Landpride hydraulic) and purchased a grapple and traded my B2650 to a heavier L3901.
I think you need to hold off purchasing the mower and give some serious looks at buying a bigger tractor with more ground clearance and HP which will handle a larger bush hog and possibly other implements you may want when you get the additional land in hand and roam it for a few weeks. May sound ridiculous to you now but you may see things differently when it's actually your and not just in your future.
I'm the guy that says bigger isn't always better, it's just bigger and have down sized as often as I've gone up in size but match the tractor to the needs. I've owned a couple of BX25s and they are great and you may want to keep it if you can and get another bigger tractor.

 

[pipefitter]

Thanks for all the responses. They all make a lot of sense. I haven't walked enough of the property to tell just how rough the part I'd cut would be, and that was one of my concerns with my BX. Letting it look like a meadow, and not a lawn is good advice, too.

 

[nybirdman]

Absolutely no need to cut every couple of weeks.Over-kill and hard on the wild-life(think nesting birds ect.)I used to cut mine twice a year(30+acres) and now cut it once in August.I think you may want to move up in size to a large "B"or small "L" sized tractor.
Pipefitter?I had 42 years in the business.

 

[TripleR]

I agree in essence with JOHNTHOMAS and snagged his "bigger is not always better...", but...

Costs vs benefits, I have a BX2660 with a 48" cutter which I have used on fields etc., 3-4 acre fields and between newly planted trees. It takes quite a bit of time and is rough on my old bones. However if I had to choose between the time and discomfort as opposed to spending a big chunk of change for a bigger tractor for something I did three or four times a year, I'd keep the BX.

Now full disclosure, it doesn't take much for me to buy a new tractor and at my age "benefits" weigh a lot more than "cost", so I use an L5740HSTC with LP RCR2672 for small fields and the BX only where nothing else fits.

 

[brown40]

I think Kubotas are great--the BX TLB setup is one of the most capable little packages out there. However, if I was looking to match a tractor/cutter setup for maintaining acreage, the B series and below probably wouldn't show up on the radar.
You already have the tractor though, and are just looking to keep a field under control. If its a nice field and you want a lawn finish, see how it works before you plan to buy (sounds like you are expecting it). You could keep up on a short (lawn style) field, but I wouldn't risk damaging a more expensive finish belly mower trying to beat it back 1-2x year.
If you mow it regularly and don't stray into larger stuff theres no reason you couldn't turn a light duty 60 a couple times a year. Maybe you can get it to haying quality and leave the cutting to the other guy?

 

[pipefitter]

nybirdman, I retired from DuPont's Spruance plant after a little over 40 years almost 3 years ago. I was in pipe the last 18 years I was there. They began using more and more contractors and gave us a pretty good retirement incentive. I still miss the work and the guys I worked with. I'm still not sure I'll be buying the place, although buying a place with some land is something I really want to do. The area I live in has become way too crowded.