Using Horses for reducing grass

[CRTreeDude]

As I might have mentioned, we have 500+ acres which is being turned into forest. For the first year, we have to really keep up with the trees. This includes cleaning around the trees as well as mowing between them. Some of it we can mow with a tractor / brush hog – but not everywhere since it is a little too steep in places for that.

We have about 12 horses who’s primary job is to eat grass – they do it very well. They are a bit fat though 😆 I would like to put them to work mowing grass. Anyone with experience in this?

Thanks

[goodcompanion]

Where are you in Costa Rica?

You are involved in similar work to my father, who is a partner in TFI (Tropical Forestry Initiative) in Tres Piedras. Just wanted to mention that–sorry for being off-topic.

Mowing is great work for horses and mowers come in all sizes. I have a McCormick #9 high gear, one of the more popular mowers, with an added tongue dolly and it is really super. But there are a lot of options out there for mowers.

By and large, except for reel mowers (for that golf-course finish), any sicklebar mower you can buy is going to be an old one. So your choices are to buy one with the intention of rebuilding it or to buy one already rebuilt. Lynn Miller has written a lot on what to look for with both types of purchase. If you get a good machine and take care of it it should last a lifetime. I have seen them go for as little as $50 to over $1000.

Erik

[CRTreeDude]

Hi, we are up in the Northern Zone. Our website is http://www.fincaleola.com

I will have to look up the Tropical Forest Initiative.

I will have to see if I can find some mowers and have them shipped down. I probably should start with one but I could easily see having 3 or 4 before long.

A sickle type would probably be really good – Might not be that hard to make either. They use sickles over in Guanacaste, perhaps one could be modified

[goodcompanion]

Sicklebar mowers are different from sickles. Most weigh maybe 500 lbs and are pretty bulky.

You would probably not be able to make one, unless you had an army of tico machinists, tool-and-die makers, and a foundry. But you could maintain one once you had it.

You could mow several acres in a day depending on your grass and your horses. But this is not a beginner thing to venture into–best to get your horses accustomed to other tasks and machines first. The mower is a hard pull and makes a lot of noise. You want to have your animals well-mannered before you try it out.

The various manufacturers made mowers of all sizes, some with smaller horses or mules in mind.

[Anonymous]

Why not diversify and use cattle or other money makers to harvest the grass for you?

[CRTreeDude]

After a couple of years we can, but the first years we cannot because the cattle, etc will play with the trees and damage them.

After 2 years or so (depends on species) we can use horses, sheep and young cattle. So far, horses are the best, after that, sheep.

For the first couple of years, it is very manual. If we didn’t care about the shape of the tree when we finished, it would be different.

[CRTreeDude]

@goodcompanion 122 wrote:

Sicklebar mowers are different from sickles. Most weigh maybe 500 lbs and are pretty bulky.

You would probably not be able to make one, unless you had an army of tico machinists, tool-and-die makers, and a foundry. But you could maintain one once you had it.

You could mow several acres in a day depending on your grass and your horses. But this is not a beginner thing to venture into–best to get your horses accustomed to other tasks and machines first. The mower is a hard pull and makes a lot of noise. You want to have your animals well-mannered before you try it out.

The various manufacturers made mowers of all sizes, some with smaller horses or mules in mind.

Thanks – good advice. Our horses are bomb proof. They are very used to machinary and some of been used to haul logs, etc already. The horses that will be used first are roughly 8 years old.

Horses here pretty much free-range inside the farm, they don’t stay in stables. They are very used to tractors, brushhogs, weedwhackers, sawmills, etc. If we are riding on a road (very common – dirt roads) and a large truck goes by – they don’t even act like they notice.

The tools (and expertise) is in the zone to make such things. But, to purchase would be easier and cheaper. But, we may well be able to modify something to work. There is no hurry since what we currently do, works. (brushhog, weedwhackers, machetes)

We will start with logging since that is the immediate need (and two of the horses are already trained to it) – then we will look into the other.

Perhaps something that is a really advantage down here is that rarely does someone care what race the horses are – just do they work well. No one keeps a bad horse or a spooky one. There are too many good horses around.

[Author]

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