Field to lawn in 3 months?!

[Olly P]

Bit of a late reply on this thread but the grass and weather came up well for our big day.

[Jeremy Harris]

Looks really great!  Love the cable drum tables.

[Olly P]

Thanks it was a lot of work as we did it all ourselves and there was a separate rope and pole marquee for the ceremony. We also made the decorations, table centres  photo booth etc etc   We had an absolutely brilliant day and night, made even better as we are building our home here starting in the spring. 

 

The cable drums were great but proved difficult to get hold of as most electrical firms return them for a surcharge. 

[Mr Punter]

Fantastic.  We did our wedding DIY on a shoestring with help from friends and family.  I think it helps make it special.

[vfrdave]

@Olly P @Onoff I have a 0.75 acre field/paddock and have been mulching it once a year this last few years.  Have looked at many countax/Westwood mowers potentially to tend a bit more to the field.

 

What height of grass can they cope with? Can they stick a bit of abuse?

 

Alternative is a tow behind atv flail mower, don't have an atv though.

[Olly P]

On 28/12/2021 at 17:56, vfrdave said:

@Olly P @Onoff I have a 0.75 acre field/paddock and have been mulching it once a year this last few years.  Have looked at many countax/Westwood mowers potentially to tend a bit more to the field.

 

What height of grass can they cope with? Can they stick a bit of abuse?

 

Alternative is a tow behind atv flail mower, don't have an atv though.

For that size of paddock a westwood or countax would do the job well. Mine has cut very long grass you just need to go slow  then cut every week or two to keep it tidy. I would recommend getting a newish one with hydrostatic drive. 

[dpmiller]

@vfrdave I picked up an AGS Gardencare hydrostatic machine for good money and - you know how rough our site is yet- it cuts perfectly well at the fully-raised "travelling height" setting.

 

/for info the AGS machines are the same as Starjet and made by Seco in the Czech republic. The same factory produces for a number of the bigger names too...

[vfrdave]

1 hour ago, dpmiller said:

@vfrdave I picked up an AGS Gardencare hydrostatic machine for good money and - you know how rough our site is yet- it cuts perfectly well at the fully-raised "travelling height" setting.

 

/for info the AGS machines are the same as Starjet and made by Seco in the Czech republic. The same factory produces for a number of the bigger names too...

So many on marketplace etc hard to know what to touch. Don't want to spend big money as will probably invest in robot mower for the garden. Hopefully get a fence up at some point and sheep will take care of the paddock.

[IanR]

Unless you plan to cut the paddock every couple of weeks during the summer, I personally wouldn't go with a "garden" ride-on that has a belt-drive deck. My experience is that the belt-drives can't carry the torque to cut/mulch longer, thicker grass (plus the weeds/thistles that invariable grow in paddocks).

 

I'd go with a commercial machine with hydraulic decks and +30hp. Something like a Toro Groundmaster, Jacobson, Ransomes, John Deere etc.. For 0.75 acres an "out-front" would be fine, you'd not need to go all out with a "bat-wing". The ones with the large multi-blade rotoary decks are better for a paddock rather than the separate individual rotary decks that golf-courses use, that will stripe. 10 year old, Ex-council machines can be picked up for around £6K or £7K at the auctions.

 

The tow-behind, flails are fine, but still lack horse-power, so tend not to have too-wide a cut. They're also not as "nimble", being towed behind a quad so take more work to get in to corners, close to hedges/fences and around trees.

 

Even with the sheep, you'll still need to top the paddock a couple of times a year to take down what the sheep won't eat.

 

Edited to add:

As an example
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224592270153?mkevt=1&mkpid=2&emsid=e90001.m2368.l2648&mkcid=8&bu=43410497432&osub=99cbb4b05dbdf6c33b48b5e144fe02c7%7ETE81002_T_ALL&segname=TE81002_T_ALL&crd=20211231033000&ch=osgood&trkId=0A49DCE4-7C49D327D74-017DD3B73FF2-0000000002195827&mesgId=3041&plmtId=700003&recoId=224592270153&recoPos=2&sojTags=osub%3Dosub%2Csegname%3Dsegname%2Ccrd%3Dcrd%2Cch%3Dch%2CtrkId%3DtrkId%2CmesgId%3DmesgId%2CplmtId%3DplmtId%2CrecoId%3DrecoId%2CrecoPos%3DrecoPos%2Cchnl%3Dmkcid

Edited December 31, 2021 by IanR

[joe90]

Or get one of these ?

 

[IanR]

I went with an offset verge flail for the paddocks, so that I could takes the hedges back as well:

 

[vfrdave]

I only have 0.75 of an acre, not sure I can justify a fergie like you @joe90 never mind @IanR option or suggestions above.

[joe90]

2 minutes ago, vfrdave said:

I only have 0.75 of an acre, not sure I can justify a fergie like you @joe90 never mind.

I only have 0.5 acre (but it’s fun to own), also have saw bench, carry all  and made a crane for it. Over 60 years old and still goes well, all parts available and mendable with a few spanners .

[Iceverge]

 

Another vote for a proper tractor. Get an old Ford or Massey. They're reliable, cheap to run and go forever. Also you can absolutely abuse them and they just take it and take it. Our Ford 3000 is almost 50 years old, has had little love and I still use it on the farm for all the job's that aren't too big for it.  As far as i can tell it need's to be refuelled about once a year! 

 

They're probably cheaper to own than a compact utility type and certainly cheaper for parts. Also I'd like to see a baby kubota try and pull a 3 furrow plough!