[AT] OT- Gift Horse Lawn Mower

Sun Sep 5 19:39:47 PDT 2021

I intended to answer this but forgot until I saw a 6' Scag zero-turn at an
Amish consignment auction Saturday. Scag started making good commercial
mowers quite a few years back. I tried to get a BIL to look at one since he
was doing a lot of commercial mowing at the time. He was not interested but
later "discovered" them himself and bought 2 of them.  :-)

About haying... I guess I have not been communicating well about what we
do... There is no left over or waste ground here. I cash rent  much of the
farm out for grain farming. The rest, except for a 17 acre wooded mini-farm
in the next county, is in horses up to our elbows. Seven of our own and
currently 16 client client horses. That is pretty much our limit unless I
switch some more land from cash rent to horses (that pay).  :-)  We make a
lot more per acre from the client horses than we do from the cash rent but
I can't just give the boarding enterprise free-reign (sorry about the pun)
simply because at 79 there just isn't enough me to do everything needed.
The mowing that son Scott does with the big batwing is not wild growth. It
is controlling large weeds and tall grasses in pasture lots. Every square
inch of grass is grazed, even lanes and riding trails and wood lots.
Nothing is just wild growth. A few areas that are allowed to grow up in the
fall are basically "stored" standing grass for winter for our own horses to
supplement the cornstalks and soybean stubble that they over-winter on.
"Everything" is grazed... It is all a very complex mix of pastures, lanes,
paddocks, dry-lots and riding areas that are also grazed during times of
grass stress.
We have a small round pen about 35' but I'm ready to build a second one
about 50'. Not fancy but functional. Maybe a small set of bleachers under
the shade tree west of the arena.
There are about 4 miles of lanes, some of which are ridden and some are
mostly grazed but can be ridden at times. One client now wants a practice
jumping area. A previous client was into barrel racing. Who knows what will
be wanted next month.  :-)  Management gets a little intense now and then
but we generally love it. Now that it seems that the 90's temps are backing
off we need to start building a fire in a fire ring again. Sometimes that
is all that it takes to get folks to start sitting around in the evening.
It's fairly easy to distance out and burn a batch of marshmallows and talk
a while. It may be a little too soon...
Son Scott bales hay (big bales) from about 5 properties close but not here.

On Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 6:49 PM Mike M <meulenms at gmx.com> wrote:

> I bought a Scag 5 years ago, and have never looked back, cut my mowing
> time in half. I only cut about 5 acres. Farmer, why don't you have some of
> that hayed? I have a cattle rancher that hays my field. I used to bush hog
> it 4-5 times a year, I let him bale it free.
>
> Mike M
>
>
> On 9/1/2021 7:35 AM, Indiana Robinson wrote:
>
> I have been quite happy with my zero-turn. I bought it 3 or 4 years ago,
> I'd have to look. It's a Husqvarna MZ-61. 61 inch cut and a 27HP Briggs
> V-twin. It has a tall heavy fabricated deck, not a stamped one. One of my
> must haves was for large drive wheels and tires, not those fat little
> donuts they insist on putting on so many mowers these days. They would
> shake you to death in our use of it. We cut about 10 acres most weeks. I
> also cut under the electric fences on all of the horse lots several times a
> year. Son Scott mows the open areas with his MF-1155 and a 15' bat-wing
> mower a couple of times depending on rain and pasture loads. We also mow
> all of our road ditches with zero-turns, some of which are too steep to mow
> safely with a tractor type mower. Some areas are wooded and that is where
> the zero-turn shines. As much as I love the zero-turn I do have to admit
> that there are times I would rather sit and mow in a more relaxed manner
> holding the steering wheel in one hand and a cold drink in the other.
> :-)   When you are mowing with a zero-turn it's all business... It simply
> requires both hands full time to steer. You never relax... You tend to work
> as fast as you can drive and cut clean even in close quarters and on rough
> ground. After about 3 or 4 hours of that you are ready for a break.
> This MZ-61 has been pretty much trouble free especially considering the
> kind of heavy use it gets here. I replaced the electric mower clutch
> switch, the deck belt and it's on its third set of blades.
>  I try to change oil about once a month depending on use. Oil is cheap,
> even premium oil... The same with grease.
> BTW, I recently read an article where Briggs is now recommending full
> synthetic oil for their engines... I don't think I had read that before.
>
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 10:43 PM Jim Becker <mr.jebecker at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Scrap iron is about 7 cents a pound.  References on the web come up with
>> weights between about 500 and 750 pounds.  500 * .07 is $35.  So I’d say
>> the value as you got it was $35 to $50.
>>
>> Jim Becker
>>
>> *From:* Mogrits
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, August 31, 2021 9:02 PM
>> *To:* Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group
>> *Subject:* [AT] OT- Gift Horse Lawn Mower
>>
>> I recently mentioned looking for a Zero Turn mower to a friend and he
>> said he had one to spare. He said his wife wouldn't use it anymore so he
>> "bought her a new one". That's an even funnier statement if you knew them.
>> He said for me to take it, work on it, and pay him what I thought it was
>> worth. Uggh.
>>
>> It's a 2011 Toro SS5000 Timecutter 50" cut with a Kawasaki 22hp engine.
>>
>> Drained and freshened the gasoline.
>>
>> Three of four tires were flat but will briefly hold air...a couple days
>> anyway, after I plugged a rear. The rears are worn out and need
>> replacement. The battery is weak but will hold a charge about a week. The
>> deck belt was broken so a replacement was fitted to reveal a bad idler
>> pulley (I should have known something broke the belt). So that was fitted
>> only to reveal a bad spindle. Bought and replaced. So, mower deck problems
>> solved.
>>
>> First use revealed it to be a NASCAR mower, only turning left strongly,
>> and it wound up in our pond and had to be pulled out with a tractor! I
>> stayed dry and only the front wheels got wet. So internet search revealed
>> how to balance steering and I used all the adjustment to no avail then
>> inspected and found a badly worn drive belt. I acquired and replaced that
>> and lo and behold, I think if I undo my steering adjustments and figure out
>> how to re-attach the foam pad piece to the steel bucket seat I may have a
>> mower I can use.
>>
>> So I guess, after replacing a battery, two tires, deck belt, a spindle,
>> tensioner pulley, drive belt, probable soon drive tensioner pulley and seat
>> repairs my question is this...
>>
>> What would you pay this good friend for this neglected mower?
>>
>> Warren
>>
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>
>
> --
> --
>
> Francis Robinson
> aka "farmer"
> Central Indiana USA
> robinson46176 at gmail.com
>
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-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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