Need advice on mowers

[Old Buck]

I have a 7' brush hog that is great for maintaining trails in the woods and mowing lanes. The problem is when I mow my clover patches it tends to pile clipped material in the tire tracks and can smother strips of vegetation. With the 7' width I'm also laying down a lot of the stuff I'd like to mow with the tractor tires before the mower gets to it.

What kind of mower for legumes have you guys found success with? I'm looking at 10', 12' mowers and also a 15' bat-wing. I'd like to get more ground mowed with each pass so that the tractor tires are flattening a smaller percentage of my legumes before the mower gets to them. I'd also like to be able to lightly top a legume stand or mow material low as needed. I'd appreciate input before I make a decision.

Old Buck

 

[dbltree]

Rotary mowers of the Brush Hog Type are notorious for that problem.

here's a couple possibles:

You can buy older sickle bar mowers at auction fairly cheap.
Sickle Bar Mower

The disc type is more expensive:
Disc Type Mower

Otherwise the batwing type mowers are most popular around here for all purpose mowing of CRP. They will cut wider then your tractor but still can "windrow" and your driving over your clover:

Batwing Rotary Mower

 

[ibohunt65]

I just bought a 15' batwing for that exact purpose. It worked well and I was able to cut a heck of a lot of ground quickly. I sprayed poast on my clover and it really did a number on the grass which limited the amount of clippings left laying on top. I still get tire marks but not as many.

 

[bjkpharmd]

Old Buck- Are you mowing at full PTO speed? I run a 7' now, bascially the same width as outside tire width but rarely have a problem with tire tracks. Once in a while I do if the grass is high or a little wet but really it is only cosmetic. The weren't meant to be finish mowers. About the same as trying to do fingernails with a chainsaw.

 

[blake]

I would suggest that you purchase some of these. My buddy Headgear says they are better than a mower.

Sorry guys, weak moment...

 

[strutnrut]

I just bought a 15' HX 15 JD batwing mower and it works great.. The only problem with sickle mowers is that they don't chop up the material very well and it can just lay there and kill what is under it. I would go with a rotory cutter...

 

[dbltree]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm looking at 10', 12' mowers and also a 15' bat-wing. I'd like to get more ground mowed with each pass so that the tractor tires are flattening a smaller percentage of my legumes before the mower gets to them. I'd also like to be able to lightly top a legume stand or mow material low as needed. I'd appreciate input before I make a decision.

Old Buck

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm just wondering if your letting your clover get to high before clipping Old Buck?
The rotary mowers are the most versatile because you can wack down brush, stalks etc. with them. I try to keep my clover clipped frequently so that it doesn't get to tall and heavy.
With any of the larger rotary cutters you can raise it up and just clip it.

If you have smaller plots and trails the 15' may be a little large but if you have big CRP fields it would be a whole faster.

I would suggust a pull type though. The one I use is a 10 foot 3 pt hitch and it bounces a 150 hp tractor around pretty good when I raise it up.

Works good as far as clipping anything from clover to 8 ft cedar trees though!