Clipping Pasture

[Billy Foster]

I just blew the motor on my brush mower and of course I need to rotary mow some pastures. I hear people talking about clipping there pasture, I am assuming with a sickle bar mower? When you do this I would expect one would keep the bar raised up to chop the weed, i.e. milk weed, dog bane, fern, golden rod. Do you put a wheel or skid on the outer shoe? I would be interested how people accomplish this. I really need get these fields cleaned up before too much of this weed goes to seed.
Billy

[Does’ Leap]

Billy, on my mowers (MD #9), there are adjustments on the inner and outer shoes for setting the cutterbar height. I am cutting some gnarly pasture, and the highest setting seems to be fine as long as your stumps are cut low (I hit one the other day). Otherwise, I haven’t found a wheel to be necessary.

George

[Billy Foster]

Besides looking though old posts I was looking in the old JD manual I have. George the JD doesn’t have an adjustment on it, too bad that would be the easiest solution. It looks like just a wheel on the outer shoe on the JD is all that was used, I assume one raises the inner shoe to the first “notch” on the lift lever. I am thinking it would be better to have something on the inner shoe as well to take the weight of the bar off the horses. I may make a skid for the inner shoe as well. I intended to give clipping a try this weekend but I spent most of it replacing the motor on my rotary mower.
Billy

[Donn Hewes]

Billy, I have mowed many pastures at 3″ tall. I basically keep my mower set up hi and mow all my hay and clip pastures at the same height. Moving the inner and out shoes is too much work for me. I am pretty sure most JD have an adjustable shoe (or wheel) on both ends of the mower. if you are clipping a pasture that has been grazed at all the heavy grasses that you mow will shrink down and not stop your regrowth. I do most of my clipping in May or June when I will get the most bang for my buck. Early in the year you will get fast regrowth and you can kill a lot of weeds before they seed.

One word of caution for McD owners (and probably other makes as well), The latch pawl (on the handle for raising the bar and holding it up) has two positions. For regular hay mowing you should not be locked in either of these, as the mower bar is meant to rest lightly on the ground. If you lock it in the first notch it may hold your bar up a little depending on how your lifting parts are adjusted. For some mowers this will give a little higher clip and for some it might not. The second notch should hold the cutter bar well of the ground. You can use this to clip a little bit of cover crop or something, but for general field use, being up in the air like this is hard on the mower, and if it is rough ground at all it will risk breaking or bending the latch pawl bolt.

hey George, did you do any damage when you hit the stump? I once caught a stump right at the end of the bar and before I knew it I had cracked the mower body from pitman shaft to rear axle. Really nice mower too. I pretty much won’t mow in a field with stumps, but were there were one or two I have used a “dirt” chain on the chain saw to lower them and round off the edges right to the dirt. Now they are safe for the mower.

[Jim Ostergard]

Billy, a quick question on your rotary mower. Is it a DR? And, how long before the motor blew? Sort of noodling getting one. Thanks

[Does’ Leap]

“hey George, did you do any damage when you hit the stump? ”

Hi Donn:

I think I knocked my lead back some. I started with a lead somewhere between 1 5/8 and 1 3/4″ per LRM’s recommendation for a 6′ bar. I am now down to a 3/4″ lead. I cut 4 acres with it last Friday and it performed admirably on some second cut. However, there was an odd sound and feel about the mower.

I know you are not a big fan of LRM’s method of adjusting the lead and timing. Can you remind me of why not and what, if anything, you would do in this case?

Thanks.

George

[Billy Foster]

Jim
The mower is more than 8 years old (Swisher brand). It has been used almost weekly in the growing season for those 8 years. It was a briggs engine but I think it held up well considering the treatment it has gotten. Yesterday I finished replacing the 10hp engine that went with a 18hp 2 cylinder that I had. I was surprised it pretty much bolted up. Still need to hook up the starter, throttle excreta but I think I will be back in business soon . I don’t know much about DR’s mower but I think the stuff they make is pretty good, so I have heard. I think a small rotary mower is one of the most important pieces of equipment a “grazer” can have, however I still think I am going to do some clipping with the cycle bar, I like that it does not require gas.

[Billy Foster]

Donn thanks for the info, I will let you know how it goes. Just picked up some new 218 haybine guards and over serrated sections, should be mowing 2nd cut this weekend….weather permitting.
Billy

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Billy, If you get a chance before you put your new guards on; put each one in a vice. Heal in the vice, front pointing to the ceiling, top facing you. heat each side and and use a cold chisel to bend the top up just alittle. They start out with less than a 1/4″ opening – maybe 3/16″. Increase it to about 3/8″ or just under a half. These will plug less for trapping fraz(chewed up grass) on top of the knife. You need oxy -acetylene to heat these easily. Best to heat it just above the joint – heat it until it is red, but don’t melt it! That way you are heating a little thicker piece of metal, and not heating the working part so much. Some 218’s I bent with out heat, but then I started breaking them. Heat makes it much easier. Do you have any stub guards for your mower? Not so urgent with the second cutting but you will want them for the first cutting and heavy clipping.

[Billy Foster]

My tanks are empty so most likely I will have to wait on bending the tops up. I would think it would be easy to bend them on the bar as well, just take the knife out first? Are those cast iron or cast steel? They look cast iron.
I have been thinking about the stub guards but have not gotten to ordering one. I keep thinking if I could see what one looks like I may be able to make one. Any chance you could snap a picture of one of yours?
Billy

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