# Acreage mowing help



## secuono (Jun 7, 2011)

I don't know if this is the right section or not, sorry if it isn't. Couldn't find a better spot. 

I have 4.5 acres of rolling hills, some good flat areas, a bit marshy spot, two spots where the mountain rock protrudes maybe 50+ sq ft of an area. The plants are a mix of good grasses and then some odds and ends the horses ignore and are just in the way. The weedy plants they don't eat grow very fast, tall and dense. 

I used a weedwhacker for the dogs side yard, it also has this crazy weed mix. I plan on doing a little at a time as the whacker charges back up in the field. It's a lot and I was wondering what I could use beside the mower & weedwhacker. I know they used a rope and wood board to make crop circles, they flattened the plants. Would I be able to do the same with a similar device? Anyone else use something other than a tractor to keep up with their acres? 

Our neighbors cut everything for us soon after we moved in. I don't want to ask them to do it for us all the time. They did it for free before, I have no idea how much would be a good amount to even offer for the work.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jun 7, 2011)

Why don't you ask the neighbor how much they'd charge?  Flattening the plants won't do anything to promote new growth.  You really should get it mowed if you can.


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## patandchickens (Jun 7, 2011)

Flattening would be somewhere between utterly useless and counterproductive. Don't even think about it.

Frankly for 4.5 acres the most efficient thing is to hire someone. If you rotate your grazing intelligently using electric tape and step-in posts, you will not have to mow nearly the whole thing, just the weediest bits and the "roughs", and maybe some that threatens to get too tall and weedy IF you're trying to keep it all super-good grassy pasture.

If you want to do it yourself but don't want to buy a tractor or a lawn tractor (for riding mower, you need fairly flat non-bumpy non-punched ground AND a weedwhacker to reduce the worst parts to mowable height), then basically you have two options that I can think of. 

One option is to learn the art of using a scythe. If you are physically sound and fit, and have some reasonable am't of free time on an ongoing basis, and are willing to buy a PROPER scythe and learn how to use AND SHARPEN it properly, this is a realistic option. Otherwise, not so much IMO.

The other option is to buy a wheeled string-trimmer. I very strongly recommend the DR brand one, mine was about $600 new two years ago but that was in Canada and not on sale, so you might be able to get one a bit lower, I dunno? It is EVER SO MUCH better than the Craftsman model I struggled with for some years prior, and not really that much more expensive. It does a 22" (ish -- I forget exactly) cut and is good for everything short of real saplings and 1"-diameter thistle "trees". It takes me about 2 hrs to mow 1/2 acre but that will vary A WHOLE LOT depending on how thick/bad your weeds are, how bumpy/pockety/rocky your ground, your energy level, the weather, etc etc. And of course you may or may not even have to mow *all* of any given half acre. 

Not owning a tractor myself (or riding mower either) I would say that the DR wheeled string trimmer makes life survivable. I would _rather,_ however, have a tractor or lawn-tractor, if the winning-lottery-ticket fairy ever wanted to visit me 

I am also finding that intelligent rotational grazing by the sheep helps QUITE A LOT to keep the rough/tall parts of the horse pastures under control. The only thing is, then you need to worry about predator protection for the sheep. If you have reasonable perimeter fencing AND electronet AND somewhere to lock the sheep up securely at night that's ok; if they'd be real exposed, though, it'd be risky. I suppose you could just try some cheap feeder lambs and see what happens. I am really pleased with how they are maintaining/improving the horse pastures and reclaiming some meadowy bits that've gotten fairly weedy and wild.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat


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## secuono (Jun 7, 2011)

It's mainly the weeds that I need to trim. I found two black rat snakes[6ft and a 4.5ft] the other day and I really don't want to step on one while walking through the 3ft weeds. Nor do I want the horses to get bitten. The grasses they eat are still low. Most of the weed plants grow on the rocky/high areas where it's more risky for the tractors to be on/go over. They went around one rock because it was just not worth the risk.


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## patandchickens (Jun 7, 2011)

Black rat snakes aren't hurting anyone and help keep the rodent population down. The only possible thing that could bite your horses is copperheads and they are not generally meadow-dwellers. (There are also cottonmouths, rattlers and I think coral snakes in VA but they're NOT going to be in your horse pasture, with the concievable exception of the rare rattler if you were in the mountains and the horse pasture was small and surrounded by rocky outcrops and woods). 

But, for cutting down weedy patches, whatcha want is definitely either a regular weedwhacker or the aforementioned wheeled version. And with them it is easy to go around rocks, stumps, etc

Pat


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## secuono (Jun 7, 2011)

I know they eat rodents, but they also eat eggs and birds. The field mice aren't an issue. And I'm sure if I or the horse stepped on the snake, it would bite. I'm not wanting to treat a bite and also not trying to keep them at bay. 

Guess I'll just keep up with the daily mini mowing. Today I did most of the secondary backyard.


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## patandchickens (Jun 7, 2011)

secuono said:
			
		

> I know they eat rodents, but they also eat eggs and birds. The field mice aren't an issue.


No, but now that you own a barn, sooner or later RATS will be 



> And I'm sure if I or the horse stepped on the snake, it would bite.


Rat snakes can *barely* break the skin on nekkid human skin if you hold them and let them. They _won't_ do anything to you if you step on or surprise them, and are not even capable of breaking the skin on hairy horse legs. Even if you do manage to get a rat snake to bite you, there is nothing to "treat" other than a small abrasion much more minor than plenty of other little boo-boos we all get in the course of everyday activities. Perhaps you are thinking of VENOMOUS snakes which as mentioned are not an issue except possibly a rare copperhead (again, that's _not_ really their habitat tho, and frankly you're likelier to encounter a copperhead around the farm junkpile or pile fenceposts or woodpile or something like that than out in a pasture, if you were to encounter one at all)

It is however a good idea to keep weedy patches down just because it increases your usable pasture. See my first post for recommendations on what to mow with.


Pat, not technically a herpetologist herself but spent 6 yrs of grad school in a lab full of 'em and have caught/handled/surprised/etc many many snakes over the years, including while "off duty" around barns


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## secuono (Jun 7, 2011)

What will the rats be looking for in the barn? There is nothing there now and over winter there will be just hay, nothing else. No feed or treats or food of any other kind. 
They bite and constrict, that means they can kill my chickens. I have very young chicks out in the coop with the adults. I'm not taking the risk. Are you going to tell me next that foxes are good around the farm and hawks, too? 
There is a wood pile/metal pile at the fence line to the barn, I have to cross that to get to the horses. I don't bother snakes I find out away from the house. But the ones near the house are only a few feet from the ducks, chickens, cats, dogs, us and the ROAD. They will get run over, killed by the dog or a human will take it out.


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## goodhors (Jun 7, 2011)

If you plan to use a string trimmer much, you need a gas powered one.  The electrics just don't have enough power.

I got a "professional" class one, the kind lanscape services use.  Has a straight shaft (more powerful and longer reach), able to use THICK string.  Thick breaks less easy, takes down more weeds of larger diameter.  I recommend getting a round string, which does not seem to get hot and weld the coils together on your spool.  I have a 5 gallon bucket of "edged trimmer string" and it never gets used.  Must be 7-10 varieties in there, but when used very long they weld themselves together.  Having to stop and cut the coils apart is MADDENING, when trying to get things accomplished!!  Really cuts into your production work.   I need to keep the weeds off my electric fence, so we have got literally "miles" of fence to trim regularly and anything that slows me down is a PITA. 

Those trimmers that you push along do really clean things out!  My friend has one and loves it.

I am fortunate to have a tractor and bush hog to keep my pastures mowed with.  Just use the weed whacker on the fence lines.  Mowing often does improve the grazing, and you want to prevent the grass going to seed.  Once the plants set seed, they consider they are done growing for the year, job is finished.  If all your grass goes dormant, you reduce quantity of grazing plants.

I also would ask the neighbor what they would charge to come mow for you on a regular basis.  How often would depend on how fast your plants grow.  I have mowed 4 times in the last 3 weeks, to keep things down.  Had to wait until the water was off the field, still left mud ruts on soft ground.  Grass was up over 2ft tall in some fields, just couldn't get in there.  Seems like we got flooded about every 7 days, just a WEIRD spring season.  Went from cool to HOT in about a week.  Many still don't have crops planted, too wet.

Then with neighbor mowing, you would only need to weed whack the areas he can't get over, rocks, very wet, drainage ditches.  Much more do-able with the weed whacker in your spare time.

Not sure what your budget is, but you might start "looking around" and learn about small tractors.  Knowledge is power.  Learn the good and bad of older stuff.  Easier to fix yourself,  simpler design, but may be hard to find older parts.  Could be cheaper purchase price.  Check out newer machines, learn why do folks like or hate their models?  BIG question to ask, "Would you buy another machine just like it?"  That REALLY was a deciding factor for us in choices!!

Newer may be easy to find parts for, more dealers, but difficult to work yourself on with computer parts.  Prices will probably be a bit higher, may be more common to find in good condition.  Have to figure what else you can use it for, so how large of horsepower do you need?  What other implements could work on it, be useful around your place, like a flat blade or loader, drag or disc to work your land.  Might be awhile before you can afford to buy a machine, but you will probably want one eventually to make your life easier.  Our tractor is the hardest working "horsepower" on our place, things are VERY difficult during those periods when it needs a bit of fixing and I can't use it!!


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## dianneS (Jun 7, 2011)

I usually have a neighbor mow my pastures but his mower is so big, he can't get along my stream or pond banks and he doesn't get in close enough to my wooded area either.

This year I'm renting a self-propelled walk-behind brush cutter/mower.  It does weeds up to 30" high and I think the deck is 30" wide (or more).  My local rental place has them for $85 a day or $130 for the weekend (friday evening through monday morning).  I may rent it for the whole weekend so I don't have to rush and I'll use it to do other areas of my property as well.

I know other people who use these walk behind mowers to do rough terrain or tight areas where tractors don't fit and they do a wonderful job.  I'm looking forward to getting things looking neat as a pin around here this summer.  I just hope its not sweltering hot when I decide to rent this thing!


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## patandchickens (Jun 7, 2011)

secuono said:
			
		

> What will the rats be looking for in the barn? There is nothing there now and over winter there will be just hay, nothing else. No feed or treats or food of any other kind.


Hay and a place to live is all they necessarily need.

Plus presumably you will have chicken feed on the property, even if not in the barn, also chicken poo which they'll eat too. Chicken feed/poo = tasty, barn = great place to live.

I'm just telling you how it usually works. You don't have to believe me; find out yourself the hard way if you prefer. It may take a few years if you are lucky, but barns plus livestock eventually equals rats, to some degree or another.



> They bite and constrict, that means they can kill my chickens. I have very young chicks out in the coop with the adults. I'm not taking the risk. Are you going to tell me next that foxes are good around the farm and hawks, too?


You CAN more or less keep snakes away from chicks and eggs. (Thru appropriate mesh and keeping the area immediately around the coop mowed low and clear of clutter). Rat snakes don't bother healthy adult chickens.

You CANNOT keep snakes out of your pastures no matter how you try, and mowing 3' weeds to 6" won't make much if any difference in that regard either.

(Frankly, you can't do much about foxes or *anything* about hawks, anyway. So I don't see the relevance, just sarcasm. And yes, actually hawks do do some good by helping control rats and in fact sometimes snakes as well, although of course they will also take your chickens when they can)



> There is a wood pile/metal pile at the fence line to the barn, I have to cross that to get to the horses.


If you're concerned about snakes, that's a much much bigger threat than tall weeds.

By all means mow your weedy patches of pasture; by all means keep snakes outta your eggs and brooders and growing chicks; the two are just not really related, is all.

Just sayin',

Pat


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## goodhors (Jun 7, 2011)

secuono said:
			
		

> I know they eat rodents, but they also eat eggs and birds. The field mice aren't an issue. And I'm sure if I or the horse stepped on the snake, it would bite. I'm not wanting to treat a bite and also not trying to keep them at bay.


The reason you have few mice or rats COULD be because the snakes are taking care of the problem for you!  I would agree that those rodents will move right into your barn, even without any grain or feed products to eat.  The sheltered location, protection from predators like the Hawks, lets them breed and establish healty colonies to take over a place.  

If you have birds, you are going to be feeding them something, which will entice the rodents to come and eat.  Rats will eat your eggs and grain, mice will spread disease and eat grain.  Heck they just take it from the bird feeders.

While you see the snakes as chick eaters, maybe with some modifications to pens, holding areas, you will redirect the snakes into mouse and rat tunnels to WORK FOR YOU in rodent removal.  Hawks are top of the food chain, huge hunters because they use so much energy trying to get a meal.  Domestic fowl need to have covered pens, places to run if left to free range, so hawks don't hunt them.  Without the hawks you would be overun with rodents, rabbits, mice, rats that reproduce constantly.  So to allow your domestic birds to do what you want, lay eggs, grow to butchering size, you have to protect them.  Having mice and rats among them is not going to be a healthy choice by removing hawks from the eco-system.

Balance of nature is delicate, and if you take out the parts you don't like, other parts go unhindered until they over-run the place.  Rats will eat baby chicks if they are hungry and populous.  Rodents SURE WILL raise your feed costs by eating the bird feed!  MOST chickens probably will not fight the rat for grain.  Removing the varmint eaters, non-venomous snakes and hawks will turn the healthy, breeding rodent population loose.  They multiply exponentially, in VERY short time spans.  Hawks and snakes take a LOT longer to grow up, reproduce enough to be helpful to you by working on rodents.  You need to think of Hawks and snakes as "unpaid pest removers" so you give them a positive spin.  That really is the reason they exist!  Would you rather meet rats that bite, carry disease, or a rat-eating snake who will mostly try to run away if you meet him?  Skies belong to the Hawks looking to reduce rodent populations.  So domestic fowl need to be covered, protected from them.  Chicken tractors, electric fences, other methods allow grazing your birds without having to hurt the Hawks.  Big fines if you get caught killing the big predator birds. 

I would suggest you add cleaning up any woodpiles, junk piles to your efforts.  WEAR GLOVES to move things.  Rodents LOVE these kind of shelters, which is partially why snakes hang out there waiting for meals to run by.  Without shelter, both rodents and snakes of any kind will find other places to go instead.


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## carolinagirl (Jun 7, 2011)

you know what my husband and I do if we are riding down the road and see a rat snake cross?  We jump out and grab it!  We take him home and release it in the barn.  The barn used to be so overrun with mice it actually stunk in there, like mouse urine.  And we only had hay in there, nothing else.  But it was a warm dry place for them to spend the winter so the mouse population got out of control FAST.  Now...there are NO mice in the barn.  I don't ever see the snakes.  I know rat snakes will eat chicken eggs, but rats will kill chickens too.


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## Margali (Jun 7, 2011)

goodhors said:
			
		

> Not sure what your budget is, but you might start "looking around" and learn about small tractors.  Knowledge is power.  Learn the good and bad of older stuff.  Easier to fix yourself,  simpler design, but may be hard to find older parts.  Could be cheaper purchase price.  Check out newer machines, learn why do folks like or hate their models?  BIG question to ask, "Would you buy another machine just like it?"  That REALLY was a deciding factor for us in choices!!
> 
> Newer may be easy to find parts for, more dealers, but difficult to work yourself on with computer parts.  Prices will probably be a bit higher, may be more common to find in good condition.  Have to figure what else you can use it for, so how large of horsepower do you need?  What other implements could work on it, be useful around your place, like a flat blade or loader, drag or disc to work your land.  Might be awhile before you can afford to buy a machine, but you will probably want one eventually to make your life easier.  Our tractor is the hardest working "horsepower" on our place, things are VERY difficult during those periods when it needs a bit of fixing and I can't use it!!


I just got an old IH Cub Cadet 125 for $340. A great deal for a heavy duty steel framed mower in running condition. The new cub cadets are junk but this 1968 model is still running good. Built tough so it can pull a good size plow. Can also modify to have a front-end loader and dozer blade.

Definitely look at older machines. They were built before cheap parts and planned obsolescence was the norm. Research the exact model though before purchasing to see if you can get parts and manual.

Margali


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## secuono (Jun 7, 2011)

The barn only has two short sides, more like just shade than a barn. Chicken, duck & horse feed is kept in the house. 
The smaller I had to get rid of, it was half in the coop going for the little chicks. The other was huge going to the dogs. The cats are 6 and 8lbs, I can't be sure the large snake wouldn't try to get them. And they can puncture the skin, maybe the ones you ran into Pam never got in deep, but many many sites say they can and I'm not risking it. 
I don't know why all my threads end up not about what I wanted...which is how to trim grass/weeds w/o tractors and other large equipment. 
Why do we always have to butt heads, Pam?
I'll try not to go after any other snakes, but those were the only two one day after the other right in the middle of high traffic.



We had a riding mower at the renters house. It broke down and we were able to fix it up. I forget what brand it was, but getting a riding mower is in the plans for one day.


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## patandchickens (Jun 7, 2011)

secuono said:
			
		

> Chicken, duck & horse feed is kept in the house.


You're missing my point, it's not in the house when they're eating it and when it is out there to be eaten there WILL be some spillage and it DOES attract rodents. It's not a theory issue, it's what actually HAPPENS.



> The cats are 6 and 8lbs, I can't be sure the large snake wouldn't try to get them. And they can puncture the skin, maybe the ones you ran into Pam never got in deep, but many many sites say they can and I'm not risking it.


Well, now that you live in the country it would really be worth learning more about snakes, because you cannot avoid or get rid of them and have some major misconceptions about them that are likely to result in poor property- and animal-management decisions.

Note that I never said that nonvenomous snakes can't break human skin. Just that it is inconsequential. Their teeth are literally about a millimeter long. Seriously. Have been bit by MANY snakes over the years, I speak from experience here.



> I don't know why all my threads end up not about what I wanted...which is how to trim grass/weeds w/o tractors and other large equipment.


I HAVE answered that in considerable detail, for all the good it seems to have done. 

YOU are the one who brought up the snake thing; as a result of which I was just trying to gently explain the reality of the situation as I tend to assume that people actually want to know more about the world they live in.


Pat (not "Pam")


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