Brush Cutters and Walk-behind Tractors

Does anyone have experience with brush cutters and walk behind tractors?

I’m in the process of acquiring 11 acres of land through a tax-lien foreclosure that is going to be turned into a hobby orchard. The land is undeveloped with a few large trees but mainly just brush. The property is zoned commercial as it’s right next to a Meijer (like a Target for those not in the Midwest) so I need sure it looks like it’s being used for agriculture as soon as possible to qualify for a $6,000/yr property tax savings.

The three options I’ve identified for getting the property cleared are buying a new Grillo walk-behind tractor and brush cutter for about $4,000 [link], buying a 40+ year old Gravely for $500-750 [link], or renting a brush cutter for about week $330 [link]. The Gravely is tempting, but it seems like it could be a constant struggle to keep the thing running. Renting would be okay in the short term, but eventually I’ll want to get some sort of tractor so in the long term it might be better to just bite the bullet and buy now.

Anyone have experience and advice regarding this sort of equipment?

Hi John,
I can't say that I have experience, other than watching them work. However, if it was my property, I would rent the brush hog immediately to get things down, and then I would be using some sort of livestock (goats, sheep, cows, geese, etc) to keep it shorter in the long term. This way the area gets fertilized, mowed, and I have another product to sell.

Hi John,

Are you dead-set on getting one of those walk-behind tractors?  They are nice.  But the reason I ask is that 11 acres is a LOT to bush hog by walking.  The acreage I presently own I needed to bush hog when I first owned it.  I did not have a tractor then, nor could I afford one.  I simply hired the task out.  If memory serves, I paid less that $300 for about 5 acres of land to be bush hogged.  You might get a better price per acre than I did.

I know the satisfaction of doing this task myself, but if you really need the job done quickly, maybe hiring out is a good option?

And then if you have more time, I would seriously consider a small compact tractor for maintenance.  It is truly amazing what one of those machines can do.

But it is your land and your money.  You make your own decisions.

Whatever the case, congratulations on getting the 11 acres!

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:I know the satisfaction of doing this task myself, but if you really need the job done quickly, maybe hiring out is a good option?

Great idea about hiring a pro to do the initial clearing. I figured I was looking at several thousand for a pro to do the initial clearing, but if I could have someone do it for under $1000 that would save me a ton of work for few just a hundred more than I would spend renting a brush cutter.

I have an old brush cutter like I saw all my childhood in the backpage ads of sporting magazines. It runs well, and I can say the idea of clearing 11 acres with it does not appeal to me. By this, I mean brush no taller than about 3 feet and no woody stuff bigger than about .75 inch. Thicker brush than that would probably take me so long that the first part would need mowing by the time I finished the last. It is not a fun (OR EASY) machine to use.

Jordan Holland wrote:I have an old brush cutter like I saw all my childhood in the backpage ads of sporting magazines. It runs well, and I can say the idea of clearing 11 acres with it does not appeal to me. By this, I mean brush no taller than about 3 feet and no woody stuff bigger than about .75 inch. Thicker brush than that would probably take me so long that the first part would need mowing by the time I finished the last. It is not a fun (OR EASY) machine to use.

Yep. I was figuring the better part of a week to clear that much land with a walk behind. In the past, I rented one for a weekend, and it certainly was a workout.

We have a DR Field and Brush mower. Great machine for us. We used it quite often when we bought our property to clear some areas and cut trails. Now we use it just for maintenance. Do 11 acres no thanks and yours sounds fairly easy. I think for what you want maybe a a small compact tractor as said above. You could buy a used brush mower for the tractor. Check on having it done and then what you need to maintain what you have and your budget. Is there a farmer close by that maybe would do it if was clean of debris?  

John,

I want to echo much of what Michael said above.  I know that they are not cheap, but a compact tractor could be very useful here.  If your only need up front is mowing, maybe consider a tractor that can run a 5’-6’ bush hog and get a loader along with it.  A loader is just so useful that I can’t imagine being without one.

When I first bought a tractor, it was a JD2305 subcompact tractor and I absolutely loved it.  I ran a 4’ bush hog easily along with several other 3 point attachments plus a loader.

Now I own a JD2038R compact tractor (37 hp vs. 24 hp and a much, much larger tractor frame).  I have a 6’ bush hog, a 7’ grader blade and a loader (and I have a couple of other attachments I would like).

I went up to a much larger frame tractor for one reason—bush hogging my roughly 4 acres was taking too long with the smaller tractor and a 4’ mower.  My ground is quite rough and the short wheel base and small tires really felt each and every chuck hole in my field.  Additionally, my tractor frequently overheated owing to being so close to the ground that chaff constantly fell on my engine air screen, plugged it and blocked air flow.  As much as I loved that tractor, bush hogging was an arduous all-day event that was always hot, dusty, and really took a toll on my back.

Moving up to my larger tractor has been a night and day difference.  Mowing takes a couple of hours, the engine doesn’t overheat, and the ride is much smoother while cutting with a much larger mower.  Ironically, I don’t put hours on the new tractor as quickly as the old one because I get the work done so much more efficiently.

You have 11 acres with quite a project.  A good tractor could be a very good, useful investment for you.  I am not trying to make your decision for you, this is your decision.  But I can see a place where a larger compact tractor can work for you quite well.  As much as I love those little hand tractors, I can’t imagine mowing 11 acres with them—I had issues mowing less with a larger tractor!

But you do as you see fit.  Good luck!

Eric

John,

I already mentioned in some other thread that mowing a large acreage with brush hog will be a killer workout. I mowed my orchard (around 7000 m2, so less than 2 ac) once with a rented brush hog from Home Depot. It took me 7 hours, made blisters on my feet, shaky hands - total exhaustion from noise, dust, vibration, turning. If you plan to do it more often, get a used compact tractor, but not too compact, because lack of power steering when you have to make 100 turns is not pleasant either. Tractor will do tens of other tasks for you. I can not imagine not having one - just dragging building materials (I build with masonry materials only) is worth having one. On top of that I use it for discing, harrowing, wood chipping and log transporting.

Eric Hanson wrote:You have 11 acres with quite a project.  A good tractor could be a very good, useful investment for you.  I am not trying to make your decision for you, this is your decision.  But I can see a place where a larger compact tractor can work for you quite well.  As much as I love those little hand tractors, I can’t imagine mowing 11 acres with them—I had issues mowing less with a larger tractor!
But you do as you see fit.  Good luck!
Eric

Thanks for your suggestions. I asked this also asked this question on another forum, and the response has universally been that getting a walk-behind would be a bad idea for such a large property. It's taken a while, but I think the point has gotten through my thick skull. ;-). Something like a  JD2038R would be great, but it's rather spendy (plus transporting it would require upgrading to a vehicle with a higher tow capacity).

After the advice I've received, I'm now thinking about hiring out the initial brush hogging of the property and then doing subsequent mows with a rented zero turn mower like this one [link]. Does this seem like a more reasonable plan?

John,

No need to buy a tractor that costs over 20k used. I bought my Yanmar for 5k, with 900 hours only. Look at JD 1050 or 950 (made by Yanmar) - they are reliable, relatively easy to repair, parts are available, no nonsense emission controls or computers. Or bigger Massey 250.

I have noticed that someone recommended using grazing animals to mow grass in the orchard. I consider it the worst possible advice - these animals will destroy all your young trees in few hours. People should stop having fantasy of bucolic picture of an orchard with sheep or goats eating grass between the trees. It would ONLY work with a 30 year old trees, but who on permies has such an orchard? Definitely not someone who is asking questions about establishing it :)
My sheep (St Croix) are so destructive and I plan to fence all my fruit trees next year. Even pigs destroyed the trees - even worse than sheep. They were pulling the branches and chopping them off.

@Cristobal

It was I, who suggested the animals. And simply to fence in the orchard, and let the animals loose would not work. I totally agree with that. My suggestion was over simplified. The original question was "long term", and over the long term, a tractor loses value with work, while cows, sheep, pigs, geese, etc will generally increase in value. Also if things happen to the supply chain, I think your average person could be taught animal husbandry far easier for far less money than someone could be taught to do machining work and to build a tractor. So in that way, I think the animals are more sustainable.

There are different ways to protect the trees. Around here, people generally need to protect their trees from deer and voles. Doing so, would provide a decent amount of protection from smaller animals that do not prefer the branches. The more domesticated breeds of sheep, I am told, prefer forbes and grasses over brush. Geese, certainly prefer grass over branches. These types of animals would probably do ok with minimal protections to the trees. If you wanted to do other animals like cows, pigs, or goats, you would need more protections. Probably an electric fence in rows between the trees. I would be leery of the first couple years, where a single bite from a cow would pretty much eat the whole tree, but by the time they are 4 or 5 years old, they aught to be big enough that they could be fenced out easily, and probably survive if something escaped.

I'm not saying that everyone should use animals for undergrowth control, but I think people should consider it. Maybe a tractor works better and faster for some people. Maybe they like dealing with the engine work and don't mind the noise. Some other people prefer dealing with the animals and fencing and less noise. Maybe they like doing other things while the animals mow. Maybe they don't mind dealing with the manure and escapes. I don't think either one is wrong, I think it depends on the person and the situation.  

Hi John,

I'm a big fan of walk-behind tractors.  We've had a BCS 740 (diesel) for about 8 years.  We originally got it as a kind of experiment to see if a walk-behind could do all the jobs we needed to do.  The big selling points for us were the very low fuel consumption (less than 1/2 litre an hour [0.13 Gallons]), the ability to work in small spaces like closely planted shrubs etc, and the range of implements available for it.

We have a small 20 acre farm. One of the jobs each year is to cut about 9 acres of grass and scrub.  We make between 400 and 500 small bales of hay from 5 acres of the grassland.  It’s a lot of walking but it’s very enjoyable and it keeps me fit.  It’s not that difficult to do, and I’m nearly 70.

We used to use an implement very similar to the one in your picture (in Europe it’s called a rotary mower).  From the picture It looks like it might have a 70cm or 80cm (30”) cut.  That will be a lot of walking!  We now use a 1.5 metre (59”) reciprocating scythe mower, this takes half the time and is easy work for the tractor.  It will cut through woody shrubs up to about 1” thick.

John,

I was going to echo a bit of what Cristo already said.  I mentioned my JD2038R simply because that is what I have.  I did not want to make you think that I was intentionally steering you towards that specific tractor, nor even JD in general.  As Cristo already mentioned, the used market can be a source of very good bargains, even for low hour tractors.  In the JD line, there is an economy line--the E series--that might well fit your needs for less money.  It does not have as many bells and whistles as the "R" series (I bought mine because it was the last tractor I will own so why not), but covers the basics well.  And there are other brands that might well come in for less money than JD.  Kubota, Kioti, Yanmar, and others are often mentioned as being more value minded whereas the JD line is often considered more of a prime-feature line, though this is subjective (I had a choice between JD and Kubota to stay within a reasonable distance.  As it was, the 2038R just checked all the boxes).

Another thought:  it might be tempting to think about mowing the whole 11 acres now and planting those 11 acres soon.  But once you have planted trees, how do you plan to mow between the rows?  A walking tractor certainly will.  A subcompact tractor almost certainly will.  A larger compact tractor (just using my 2038R as an example) might or might not.  It would probably fit between the rows, but once the branches spread, it might get a bit tight--I don't know what kind of spacing you are thinking about.  Also, since we are on the topic of mowing an orchard, a very popular option is a flail mower which is ideally suited to mowing in those tight confines.  You can certainly get one for a walking tractor but you will spend all week mowing, just to start mowing over again!  You can certainly get one for my 2038R.  You CAN get one for a subcompact but they can be difficult to find and you might be surprised to find that they cost MORE than their larger cousins.  I owned a 4' BEFCO flail mower for my old subcompact, and it was AMAZING, but it is just too small for my current tractor.  

I could go on and on, but I should end here before I stray way too far off topic.  As always, this is totally your choice.  You decide what is best for you.  Walking tractor, subcompact tractor, compact tractor, Flail Mower or not, that is something you have to decide for yourself.

Best of luck!

Eric

Hi John,

Your original question is about people’s experience using different types of tractors and mower attachments.  Three types of mowers have been discussed in this topic; rotary mowers,  reciprocating scythe mowers, and flail mowers.  Over the years we have ended up buying all three types.  They are all still in use today.

We mainly use the rotary mower to cut an area of lawn directly around the house, this discourages snakes from coming rear the house as they don’t seem to like crossing short grass.  The rotary does an excellent job as long as the grass is dry and the cutting blades are sharp (ours also optionally collects the grass which we use for mulch).

The reciprocating scythe mower is used for hay making, clearing scrub land with woody plants, and for cutting long wet grass at the end of the year.  This mower requires very little power from the tractor.  You can run it in a high gear almost on idle revs.

These days we only use the flail mower when we want to cut grass and shrubs into small pieces for mulch or to make ‘chopped’ hay bales (30 lbs) which many people like to buy as bedding for small animals or for mulch.  The flail mower requires the most power from the tractor compared to the other 2 types, and uses more fuel.

Cristobal Cristo wrote:I have noticed that someone recommended using grazing animals to mow grass in the orchard. I consider it the worst possible advice - these animals will destroy all your young trees in few hours.

So at my previous property, I did consider getting grazing animals, and started acquiring fencing for them. In the end, even discounting any damage they might do to trees, I ended up pulling the plug on the animal project as it seemed that the amount of time needed for the animals would dwarf the amount of time they would save me mowing. Of course there are other benefits to having animals, but in my situation the benefits just weren't worth the costs.

Cristobal Cristo wrote:John,
I already mentioned in some other thread that mowing a large acreage with brush hog will be a killer workout. I mowed my orchard (around 7000 m2, so less than 2 ac) once with a rented brush hog from Home Depot. It took me 7 hours, made blisters on my feet, shaky hands - total exhaustion from noise, dust, vibration, turning.

Indeed. I used one while back to clear out a few acres as well. It was quite the workout so that's why I was figuring a full week to clear out the property. I definitely would not need to go to the gym that week.

Richard Cleaver wrote:We have a small 20 acre farm. One of the jobs each year is to cut about 9 acres of grass and scrub.  We make between 400 and 500 small bales of hay from 5 acres of the grassland.  It’s a lot of walking but it’s very enjoyable and it keeps me fit.  It’s not that difficult to do, and I’m nearly 70.

Thanks for the info. About how long does it take you to cut the 9 acres?

John Wolfram wrote:
Thanks for the info. About how long does it take you to cut the 9 acres?

It depends a lot on the weather, the speed that you like to walk at, and the implement that you are using.  I can cut about 2 1/2 acres of long grass on a dry, sunny day, with a 59” reciprocating scythe mower (about 7 to 8 hours).  With shorter wet grass and a 34" flail mower, in a lower gear, it takes about twice as long - and a lot more fuel.

Matt,

Yes, animals are definitely more sustainable - especially if you have both sexes and enough plant matter.
In dry summer mediterranean climates sheep will be always attracted to irrigated orchard's green leaves as a tasty change from monotonous dry grass diet. I have 7 year old pistachios and olives and they ate all leaves and destroyed some branches as far as they can reach. For me animals and plants can not be mixed - there is such a competition for green matter.

Also, in general I'm not too concerned with grass between the trees, because I disc between the rows to retain more moisture for the trees and lower the fire hazard. I planted my orchard on a old classic 10 x 10 m grid (except for sour cherries and plums) all on standard rootstocks - long living big trees, good anchorage, more drought resistant, longer waiting time for fruits.