Wild About Tractors – Mowing

Reader Contribution by Billy Clark

Yes, I am wild about tractors!

Since this is a new blog, I thought I would make a sort of introductory post.

I am a 43 year old hobby farmer from the mid south US who works a full time job or two in order to support my outdoor country lifestyle. I have owned several tractors over the past 15 years of personal farming, as well as having driven a number of larger ones when working for a commercial size operation several years ago. I enjoy tinkering with things, and fixing what’s broken. To that end, many of my tractors have been “rescue” projects, purchased for smalll amounts because of their need for repair or restoration. I also operate a “Tractor for Hire” business on the side.

In my experience, when purchasing a tractor one must consider mowing requirements, and everything else will sort of fall into place. Mowing requires the most attention to horsepower (hp) vs. size, or width. We will be referring to power take off (PTO) hp, not engine hp as up to 20 percent of engine power can be lost through the driveline.

If you intend to mow the yard with a finish mower you can probably make it just fine with 25-30 hp or less as long as your mower isn’t more than 5 ft wide. If the yard is larger, or a wider mowing width is desired, you might consider moving up to the 30-40 hp range. Now, if you intend to cut heavy grass (as tall as the tractor) or brush (yes, bushes and even small trees up to 2 inches or more can be cut with a tractor and bushog) you will be glad you have at least 35hp and 40-50 would be better. This will handle a 6 or 7 foot cutter. A 30-35 hp tractor will operate a 5-6 ft cutter, but the load should be mininal such as grass that is mowed on a semi-regular basis, or you must mow in a lower gear. If you want a cutter over 7 ft it will have more than one set of blades and more than one gearbox which naturally compounds cost and maintenance.

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