[AT] Flail mowers - now pasture drainage

Mon May 18 16:14:04 PDT 2015

Hi Charlie, congratulations to your niece that is a huge accomplishment!

The pasture drains to a "private drain" as it is referred to in the 
county map. The problem I have is that the former owner thought that the 
way to get it to drain was to dig it deeper, so that now a drain that is 
a trickle downstream, it now 15' wide and a foot deep across my 
property, and is moving nowhere fast. I made a earth bridge over the 
ditch and ran a 16" drainage pipe under that. I think what I'm going to 
do is block off that pipe and hook up a trash pump to pump all the water 
to the other side. Then I'll work on filling in the ditch to make it 
narrow and shallow like it should be. I've even considered burying a 
septic tank and having the field tiled to it, where it could be pumped 
downstream. Another thought would be to dig a deep narrow (18") trench 
where the ditch is now and having it tiled to there, where then again it 
could get pumped downstream.

Mike M

On 5/15/2015 7:45 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> Greetings from Jacksonville FL.
> Down here to watch a niece graduate from law school.
>
> Mike is there any where for the pasture to drain to?
> I hope you aren't the lowest piece of land around and everyone
> is draining on you.  Assuming there is some change in elevation
> somewhere you might eventually have to build some slope into
> it.   It can be done with bottom plows with time and patience.
> More info on the land would help.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike
> Sent: Friday, May 15, 2015 11:34 AM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Flail mowers
>
> Mowing infrequently is a huge part of the problem Charlie, and it's not
> because of not wanting to. The land is wet until around June, and I
> can't get on it to mow. I am working on solutions to get it to drain
> better, but it's a slow, trial and error process. Now that I have a 4
> wheel drive tractor, I could probably mow it sooner, but would make a
> mess in the process. Last year I couldn't mow until the grass was 6 feet
> high. I think I would have been better off leaving it alone and burning
> it off in the Spring.
>
> Mike M
>
>
> On 5/15/2015 4:00 AM, charlie hill wrote:
>> Mike, if you are cutting it infrequently enough that you have a problem
>> with
>> large windrows of grass then a finish mower is NOT going to stand up to
>> the
>> task.
>> Or at least the ones I've been around will not.   A good bush hog with
>> good,
>> sharp
>> blades on it will mow a pasture to look almost as good as a finish mower
>> but
>> you
>> can't let it get so high or mow in wet conditions.  Also some bush hogs
>> have
>> removable
>> discharge panels so that the grass can blow out the rear or to one side.
>>
>> I always try to mow pastures in a pattern such that I'm cutting back over
>> any windrow
>> I leave with the next pass of the mower.  In other words, if my bush hog
>> is
>> leaving
>> the windrow on the right side I work around the pasture so that the right
>> side of the
>> bush hog is always toward the uncut grass.  On the next pass I'm
>> re-cutting
>> the windrow
>> along with the next portion of grass.  If you are getting a lot of windrow
>> it's because
>> you are cutting more grass than the bush hog is able to disperse, just the
>> same as with
>> your lawn mower.
>>
>> I've never used a flail mower but a friend of mine used to use one to mow
>> his mobile home park.
>> It does a fine job.  However, they are a bit more of a maintenance
>> challenge
>> than a bush hog or
>> finish mower.  Still even with a flail, if the grass is too high and thick
>> it has to go somewhere and
>> it will pile up.   The key is to keep the pasture mowed more often.
>>
>> My two cents worth.
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mike
>> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 10:11 PM
>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>> Subject: Re: [AT] Flail mowers
>>
>> ?? so yes on the flail or keep the hog, or go with a finish mower?
>>
>> Mike M
>>
>>
>> On 5/14/2015 8:54 PM, Spencer Yost wrote:
>>> A tough finish mower used a few more times a year than I would a bush hog
>>> does great in my 4 acres.
>>>
>>> Spencer
>>>
>>>> On May 14, 2015, at 20:11, Mike <meulenms at gmx.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I have about 5-7 acres of horse pasture that i mow, and have been using
>>>> a brush hog, John Deere 513? What I don't care for is how it leaves
>>>> windrows and clumps of the taller grass. I would be interested in
>>>> getting some opinions on flail mowers.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Mike M
>>>>
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