Best mower for ROUGH terrain?

[Coolbreeze89]

Hello everyone! We have about 4 acres around our house (not our pastures) that my husband diligently mows to keep the bugs down and the living pleasant. He has been using a 60” zero-turn gravely mower for 8 years which has held up fairly well. Unfortunately, it has been getting more and more challenging, due to exploding pocket gophers, mild pig rooting (kunekune, not traditional farm pigs!), some dog digging, and changes in terrain due to torrential rains (we have some nice rolling to the land that is less-nice after multiple inches of rain!) The physical jarring for my husband has become so severe that he won’t even dream of letting me help (he is in excellent physical shape; I’m ... average! ). Soooo, I’m looking into whether there is a different kind of mower that could better handle the really uneven areas (and that I could do, to help out on the task). I’ve never used a traditional riding lawnmower - anyone have good experiences? Or a “lawn tractor”? We do have a compact Deere 3038 tractor with shredder, but we can’t use it due to many obstructions and crisscrossing plumbing pipes (placed too shallowly by original owner), and we try to keep the grass shorter than the tractor could do, to minimize burrs and excessive crickets/grasshoppers in the summer (even with my 40-odd chickens helping).
Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

[Bruce]

I don't understand why you can't use the JD to mow with relationship to pipes not buried as deep as they should be. I don't know about you, but I mow above grade

I bought a flail mower for the fields for a similarly sized tractor. I wouldn't mow the lawn around the house with it due to the number of "obstacles" and the weight of the tractor. I could have gotten a rotary cutter but they have a much bigger "footprint" and storing would be more difficult. Besides that I wouldn't be able to put the tractor in the barn with a rotary cutter on the back, not enough depth and it would be a lot less convenient using it for rear weight when moving my wood racks.

 

[Xerocles]

Remembering that this is BackyardHERDS. Decorative fencing across the front of the property, and a herd of attractive sheep?
Or a few of the really CUTE rabbits. And a couple of push mowers. Befriend the local HS cheerleader squad, invite them over to pet the bunnies each Saturday. Then when the teenage boys show up (because of) the cheerleaders, hand them a mower. Probably even get some free fence post work while the boys try to impress the girls with their strength and prowess. I'm old. Does this still work? I remember a neighbor of mine who got a lot of free labor out of me and some of my friends due to a couple of winsome daughters back in the day. Build it and they will come!

 

[Baymule]

Electric netting fencing with step in posts, sheep and managed intensive grazing (MIG). Move the netting, move the sheep. Graze as close as possible. move to next patch. Or, just permanently fence and make more pasture. We have probably 1 1/2 acres of "yard" and just turn the sheep out. For what they don't eat, we have a push mower and our neighbor has a big push weed eater that we borrow.

 

[mysunwolf]

I have a Snapper riding mower, one of the newer styles that look like a traditional lawn tractor, and I LOVE it. It's super rugged, and I've used it to mow our fields which have all of the above described issues! I mowed while I was pregnant up until the last couple months and it's not super bouncy. I have lots of herd animals but sometimes mow to keep up appearances for neighbors and family who don't want scraggly pastures or POOP (God forbid lol).

 

[Baymule]

Good to hear from you @mysunwolf I miss your updates! How are you, farm, baby and life in general?

 

[mysunwolf]

Good to hear from you @mysunwolf I miss your updates! How are you, farm, baby and life in general?

Hey Baymule, I miss the BYH community! Don't have much time for it with life getting in the way these days, but everything is going really well and we are coming into spring with big plans! Won't derail this thread, but I'll post a journal update soon Thanks so much for checking in, it's good to hear from you.

 

[Coolbreeze89]

Electric netting fencing with step in posts, sheep and managed intensive grazing (MIG). Move the netting, move the sheep. Graze as close as possible. move to next patch. Or, just permanently fence and make more pasture. We have probably 1 1/2 acres of "yard" and just turn the sheep out. For what they don't eat, we have a push mower and our neighbor has a big push weed eater that we borrow.

All of my herd runs free in this area - (now) 15 goats, the three bottle lambs (almost weaned!), and the Kunekune pigs. The chickens get a few hours of free-ranging, too. One big happy family! My hubby is hoping the sheep like grass more than my goats. Maybe I feed everyone too well with their alfalfa and pellets?!?

 

[Coolbreeze89]

I have a Snapper riding mower, one of the newer styles that look like a traditional lawn tractor, and I LOVE it. It's super rugged, and I've used it to mow our fields which have all of the above described issues! I mowed while I was pregnant up until the last couple months and it's not super bouncy. I have lots of herd animals but sometimes mow to keep up appearances for neighbors and family who don't want scraggly pastures or POOP (God forbid lol).

This is exactly the kind of experience I wondered about - thanks!

 

[Coolbreeze89]

I don't understand why you can't use the JD to mow with relationship to pipes not buried as deep as they should be. I don't know about you, but I mow above grade

I bought a flail mower for the fields for a similarly sized tractor. I wouldn't mow the lawn around the house with it due to the number of "obstacles" and the weight of the tractor. I could have gotten a rotary cutter but they have a much bigger "footprint" and storing would be more difficult. Besides that I wouldn't be able to put the tractor in the barn with a rotary cutter on the back, not enough depth and it would be a lot less convenient using it for rear weight when moving my wood racks.

Wait, you mean I shouldn’t be mowing “subterranean”?

I’m debating getting a “finishing mower” attachment, and then using that wherever (I think!) pipes aren’t... then hubby can mow the pipe areas (and around obstacles) with the zero turn? For a couple grand, though, I could just buy more sheep, right @Baymule ?

I know the pipe worry may sound crazy, but there is a maze of pipes (that we haven’t sorted out completely) due to old wells then city water, and interconnected pipes from a (now-demolished) old second house and the house we live in...plus pipes that go out to the pastures. What we DO know about the maze is from repairing pipes as they’ve broken!