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Post by kevlar on Oct 22, 2022 21:05:49 GMT -6
Wanting to get a mower for going around fields and keeping willows and bush from growing up in water ways and sloughs. What would be a good mower to get? We just have a 3 point hitch rough mower and it’s not bad for some stuff but not really heavy enough for some of the jobs I’m wanting to do, not to mention it’s not real handy to keep the trees cut back when you have to drive under the branches with a tractor with no cab! I’m thinking of something with one wing , would be nice to have the swing hitch but that gets pretty costly.
How big of stuff can some of these mowers cut? My brother in law has a Shulte, says it’s good and pretty much will cut whatever the tractor can drive over, haven’t looked at it up close yet. Not much for used around, I’m thinking people must buy them then keep it forever?
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Post by meskie on Oct 23, 2022 7:35:23 GMT -6
We got a 15’ Schulte this fall for exactly what you want to do. Doing around field edges and some sloughs. It’s kinda ugly and rough looking but it does the job. There was some used ones start to show up about a month ago on kijiji but they go quick. Priced out a new one and they were about $35,000 for the mid range one.
A 10’ mower would have one wing and out 15 has a wing on both sides. You can power out our 140 pto hp tractor in heavy slough grass and cat tails.
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Post by kevlar on Oct 23, 2022 8:03:40 GMT -6
I was just going to ask how much power they take. My brother in law said the one thing it struggles with is cattails, he figures it can’t shoot them out fast enough. Looked around a bit more last night, found some just into Saskatchewan in the 20,000 range. I would think biting the bullet and getting a decent one would be worth it, it should outlast me.
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Post by meskie on Oct 23, 2022 8:21:30 GMT -6
We couldn’t find one in the $20,000 range so ours was cheaper and right now it needs a new cv joint and a u joint on the one wing. Hadn’t been used in 4 or 5 years I think is biggest issue.
The smaller the tractor the less problems you’d likely have. Ours has a IVT in it and that sure is nice on the mower.
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Post by northernfarmer on Oct 23, 2022 9:16:13 GMT -6
I have a 20 foot woods batwing and find its bad for windrowing taller grass as I am fairly sure the Schulte does a better job with the twin blade setup and part of the problem is the woods is throwing material against the sides of the rear tires and causing that windrowing effect. In tall growth one has to either go very slow or lift up some as it takes so much power and the material can't get away properly and powers it down just for that reason alone if set low. Not sure how the various mowers are designed but the woods can be set to have the rear higher then the front and that can help some with discharging but would not leave as nice a job. It gets rather violent ( another words hard on equipment ) to be cutting/chopping up trees of any size but would say nipping at a few poplars that are two inches at the base with part of a wing is certainly doable and pass over the area more then once and in the opposite direction to catch the pushed over stump etc. Certainly not a tree shredder at all like one of those purpose built brush cutter units for a skid steer or at least my woods isn't.
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Post by kenmb on Oct 23, 2022 10:20:57 GMT -6
Tried to get my hands on renting one this fall for sloughs but booked up and neighbours needed work before he would lend it out so then looked at buying but they were selling fast so didn't get to use one at all.
I don't need one for willows but generally how well do they work for mowing sloughs? NF mentions poor distribution of trash so could a guy make a pass with harrow or cultivator to spread things around after? Or is it bad enough that spreading this way wouldn't work well.
In typical farmer fashion I am swathing sloughs and putting through the combine to chop and spread. Then a pass with cultivator with spoons to level out the ruts on edges and any lumps in the slough and it is actually the ideal finished job for me. Great spread of trash and a smooth finish. Just looks kind of ridiculous to use a swather and combine, but when depreciation means nothing then it is a workable solution. To that end I just about bought a 2388 combine for this purpose as well as spare parts inventory and backup machine. For the price of a decent mower this equipment purchase seems to make more sense to just cut sloughs.
A swing arm would probably be a nice option. Keep the tractor out in the open. The Schulte flex arm seems overly complicated for farm use but a Degelman swing arm would likely be something a guy would want to keep if I tried it.
If a guy mowed willows I think you still need to kill them. Those things keep coming back. Was pushing a few out yesterday with the blade that I roughed up pretty good a couple years ago with blade after burning off the slough - and they are back to 5ft tall. So it might be worth your trouble to figure out what chemical does the best at killing them out right and best timing and deal with them once. If you don't kill the roots then mowing seems like a every season job.
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Post by northernfarmer on Oct 23, 2022 10:46:26 GMT -6
I found in the heavy tall grass and whatever weeds etc growing, if I chopped it down with the mower and then went over the area straddling the windrows the mower made and at times have to lift it slightly as it would push the mass of material ahead of the mower if the mower was set too low, it could help chop it up more and help reduce the windrowing effect. Like I said I only had the experience with this brand mower so don't know if another brand would do better. On a side note this summer the county mowed the edges of the ditches along the gravel roads and the growth was taller than normal due to the rains in the spring that got things really growing in ditches and I don't know what the heck they were doing to create this but they left huge piles of grass as in some of them being almost half the size of a round bale piled up and they are still there in the ditches. I just don't know how they created such an unreal mess, if the grass was stacking up on top of the mower and they shoved it all off once in a while or they were trying to mow the ditch twice and pushed up material in front of the mower on the second pass, never have seen such a mess in all the years the ditches have been mowed. They would have used an arm system to keep the tractor on the road.
I don't know if this is exactly the correct chemical to be using but some years ago I had sprayed some taller willows with Curtail M and I really soaked the leaves down and was using a wand from a similar to a quad type 12 volt sprayer unit. It doesn't kill the grass like roundup and I never had removed the trees either but that is 5 years ago and nothing has shot up from those dead plants so would guess I did wipe out the roots. The power company uses some chemical to spray under the lines for the purpose of killing smaller trees and not killing the grass but I don't know what that chemical is they use.
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Post by kevlar on Oct 23, 2022 12:03:53 GMT -6
My brother in law cuts and bales most of the sloughs here keeping them in check but some get missed on a wet year and get over grown. Water runs get willows growing in the middle then that forces the water out of the run causing erosion issues. I don’t mind the idea of running around with a mower every few years, be a lot easier than trying to spray it. Also makes working the headland a lot easier without tall grass and thistle growing there. If I had cattle, I would sow a 15 foot pass around every field that I could cut and bale, would also make field scouting a lot easier.
Can’t remember what it is that hydro uses, but I don’t think just anyone can use it.
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Post by skfarmboy on Oct 23, 2022 12:21:38 GMT -6
I have a John Deere 1518 (15 foot) mower that I purchased new for sale.
Just used it to mow sloughs (mostly cattails) for a years. It has been stored inside.
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Post by meskie on Oct 23, 2022 12:22:50 GMT -6
Remedy or grazon is what we use in our pasture to kill everything but grass. I think they changed the names and can’t remember what they call it now. Mowing around sloughs and the outside of the field makes it way nicer to seed into the next spring. I’d rather do that than use a disc as it makes the drill just push in loose mud.
Last year we mowed a bunch of sloughs then burnt them off and seeded through most this spring after some dirt work. Even ones we didn’t do anything with we seeded 5-10 feet inside where we did last year. The cattails and grass always seem to creep out.
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Post by Beerwiser on Oct 23, 2022 13:15:11 GMT -6
The county here runs deglman mowers and side arms. They used to have the shulte mowers and off set hitch, but the hitch was a pain for maintenance. When the deglman sales guy showed up to demo he said it would cut up to a 2" poplar. He wasn't to happy when I tried with him in the cab beside me. So they will cut a 2" tree, but the mower is not happy and you need a few passes to get a good result. Nice thing about deglman is the double deck, the top always looks nice no matter how beat to shit the blade side is. Also if you are running a winged unit you can change the rotation so it will spread nicely or windrow. Have to change out gear boxes to do it though and I am guessing that is what the problem is with NFs county as we had the same problem here at the beginning.
For herbicide control of brush, the active you need is triclopyr. Industrial trade name is garlon and the ag version was fencerow. I forgot what they changed it to, but will look it up. The best way I have found to get clean brush areas is spray them first and hit them with the mower once they dry up.
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Post by OptimallyDismal on Oct 24, 2022 6:48:47 GMT -6
Tried to get my hands on renting one this fall for sloughs but booked up and neighbours needed work before he would lend it out so then looked at buying but they were selling fast so didn't get to use one at all. I don't need one for willows but generally how well do they work for mowing sloughs? NF mentions poor distribution of trash so could a guy make a pass with harrow or cultivator to spread things around after? Or is it bad enough that spreading this way wouldn't work well. In typical farmer fashion I am swathing sloughs and putting through the combine to chop and spread. Then a pass with cultivator with spoons to level out the ruts on edges and any lumps in the slough and it is actually the ideal finished job for me. Great spread of trash and a smooth finish. Just looks kind of ridiculous to use a swather and combine, but when depreciation means nothing then it is a workable solution. To that end I just about bought a 2388 combine for this purpose as well as spare parts inventory and backup machine. For the price of a decent mower this equipment purchase seems to make more sense to just cut sloughs. A swing arm would probably be a nice option. Keep the tractor out in the open. The Schulte flex arm seems overly complicated for farm use but a Degelman swing arm would likely be something a guy would want to keep if I tried it. If a guy mowed willows I think you still need to kill them. Those things keep coming back. Was pushing a few out yesterday with the blade that I roughed up pretty good a couple years ago with blade after burning off the slough - and they are back to 5ft tall. So it might be worth your trouble to figure out what chemical does the best at killing them out right and best timing and deal with them once. If you don't kill the roots then mowing seems like a every season job. Just curious about the price of a 2388, I would like to get one as well, but in Manitoba the lowest price is $25000 it seems, with most in the $35000 ballpark, kind of like 9600's advertise from $10000 to $80000, quite a range. I think next year they will really lose their value because the number of people looking for this size and age of equipment is dropping fast? |
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Post by kenmb on Oct 24, 2022 9:21:19 GMT -6
Next town over guy has one for $23k with around 4400/3700 hrs for 2002 with pickup. At $35k I wasn't really thinking of one but I was really contemplating of mower with flex arm for $23k and when I get into such thinking I consider what else $23k could be used for. And up pops a 2388.
He was using it in canola and had a shaker bushing fail and broke a rail so I couldn't get my hands on it to use this fall chopping sloughs. Have to talk with him again as to whether I pick it up yet or follow up next summer. Yes, there were 6 or 8 units for sale last month for $35k range. I don't have shed space for a second one but like the idea. Much less stress if a machine goes down in harvest and I can be running again 30 minutes later. The only question is whether I look for a really nice 2nd 2388 and run them for 5-8 more years, not get one at all and still go to a newer machine in a couple years, or buy the down and dirty cheap option and see where things go in a few years.
Getting back to Kevlar post about mowing willows, I wonder if mowing them when young would kill them off. I suspect it may. Most trees/plants die when you remove +90% of top growth, especially in a dry time of year. I was thinking in terms of well established willows like I was working on. Those things would come back. Young ones might die if cut off.
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Post by bob123 on Oct 25, 2022 16:29:57 GMT -6
i saw a couple 2188s on Kijiji today for 13k i think. in some form of running condition
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Post by OptimallyDismal on Oct 26, 2022 8:03:43 GMT -6
I have just been looking at Manitoba Kijiji lately, didn't think of Sask.
There are not many 2188's around here, more 2388's, I am not sure about how much difference there is, whether it is best to go to the 2388.
Although a 2188 in really good shape would still be great for me.
Kind of like 9500 vs 9600 JD's, not many 9500's lots of 9600's and anyone with a 9500 seemed to go to a 9600 within 1 or 2 years.
It appears there are a lot more of everything in Sask!
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