Hey Farmers, Hydraulic Pump

[QRTRHRS]

Couple of more tips for you.

Jim, a skid loader if maintained will hold its value and hold up real well. I had a contracter pound in fence posts for me with a Case with steel tracks. He did minimal or no damage with that. Take a skid with no tracks and they can dig things up quickly. One bad note on skids mentioned not long ago, they do beat on you.



When talking flail mowers, I think of vertically mounted short blades, chains, whatever. All my experiance is with the brush hog style. Anyway, these monsters weigh heavy on your power unit when you use them. That is where the ATV would really quickly loose out on mower size.



The more width the better in terms of how much you can cover how quickly. I find when I mow, I have to keep 6 to 12 inches of overlap what with the gyrations of the mower and tractor so I don't miss spots. I mow 25 acres, the largest area maybe 12 and the rest broken up with fencing. With my 15 foot wing, I can do that in roughly 5 hours. It would take me five hours to do just that 12 acre area with the six foot mower.



There is one more style of mower for grass only. Sort of like the old sickle bars but they have a series of round discs say about 8"-10" inches in diameter with pinned blades. Kind of like weed whacker heads but heavy duty. They run very smoothly and take less HP to move.

 

[illflem]

Re: Couple of more tips for you.

Originally posted by QRTRHRS





There is one more style of mower for grass only. Sort of like the old sickle bars but they have a series of round discs say about 8"-10" inches in diameter with pinned blades. Kind of like weed whacker heads but heavy duty. They run very smoothly and take less HP to move.

What you speak of is called a disc mower. They are taking the place of sickle bar cutters in many hay swathers now because of easier/less maintenance and no clogging in downed crops. They will cut more than just grass but the discs are designed so the blade only cuts the plant stem once, you don't want fine ground hay. The one cut rather than fine grind is why they take less hp. All of them I've seen are hydraulic or pto-hydraulic combo and very expendsive.



Here's info on one http://www.newholland.com/na/Products/Discbine.html

 

[QRTRHRS]

My neighbor has a 3pt made by Vicon. Much simpler than the offset ones with swing booms, etc. His is much more like the old sickle bars.



One important point, as you mentioned, the disc mower is for haying. As such, it will merely lay over the grass as oppossed to shredding it like a flail mower would. The grass would lay in big clumps.