I know I should have posted this under the "farming" forum, but I feel I know you guys a little better so I thought I'd ask you first. I just put an offer on a new house sitting on eleven acres. I am debateing on buying the sellers John Deere Zero Turning Radius mower. Do any of you have one of those mowers that you pull behind your ATV? Approx. how many acres can you mow per hour? This land is rolling, has a few planted trees but is basically an easy mow, just pretty big. Also need info on Sprayers, spreaders, plows, maybe a disc for a garden. The seller also has a Ford 4000 tractor that he wants to sell, but I'm thinking I can do all of those things with my AC. What do you guys think?


Lance

 

Catlance:
Congrats on the deal, or good luck with it I should say! The 'Cat could definately do it, though I was kind of wondering if you are doing the entire 11 acres, or just a part of it. I can't give you specifics like you are requesting for the acres/hour though Swisher does make a couple pretty nice tow behind mowers for atv's. I guess it would all depend on the depth of the grass, and the speed of the actual mower engine. As far as the implements go, there are a lot of them out there. Cycle country makes a bunch, and one other company I know of for sure, but can't remember the name of it right now. The thing is, they're really pretty spendy. If you plan on doing the entire place, and the guy has the tractor, I'm sure he'd also have the implements there as well. You may be cheaper to go that route, but it's just a thought. I personnally think it would be pretty cool to have a couple of the different implements and make little deer food plots here and there, but thats just me. Would be kind of fun.

Anyhow, good luck, hope it goes through!

Mike

 

Mike,

Thanks for the thoughts, I will close on the property in about 3 weeks. I can't wait! Right now the seller is just mowing about 2 1/2 acres. He was using a 48" rider & that took about 6 hours. He bought that Deere ZTR & cut his time down to 1 1/2 hours. That leaves a lot of extra ATV play time but that ZTR is about $10,000. I think I'll shop around for a Grasshopper or some other used ZTR before spending that kind of dough. I'd like to put in a food plot also, and maybe a decent garden for the wife. Oh Well, lots of time to decide what to do, for now all I can do is think about it and wait.

Lance

 

Catlance:
Man, the next three weeks will be "itchy" for ya, sounds like! Glad to hear it is working out OK. Man, $10,000 for one of those mowers! That Swisher mower I was talking about is a 50" deck with 12.5 hp Briggs & Stratton engine and remote unit that mounts on your rack. It runs for $1900 and cuts from 2" to 6" depth. We actually bought a couple of these units, and the smaller trailmower at the farm store I work for. They are a pretty nice unit, and do pull nice behind a golf cart. I think they would cut pretty well for lawn grass, though I would have to recommend a brush hog behind a tractor for thicker, heavier stuff. 2.5 acres wouldn't be any trouble at all to mow with your atv. Go to Cabela's web site and you can see what it looks like, as well as a few other Weekend Warrior cultivator/implements and sprayers too. For sprayers, your choices are pretty much endless. Anything from 14 gallon units that mount to your rear rack, to 55 gallon tow behinds.

Keep in mind though with the sprayers, the larger tow behind units cost quite a bit more due to the trailer package they come with. If you buy just the tank and motor separate, and use your own trailer, you can save a bunch of money. Should you happen to pick up a sprayer, I would recommend getting one with a boom on it, then rigging it up with a hand wand sprayer as well. That is very easy to do. You'll need an additional "Y" with two way valves on each end, which is hooked to the main "Y" off the unit. Then, you'll need the appropriate hose fittings and clamps to run the new section of hose off the new "Y", which runs to your wand on one side, and the boom on the other. If I remember right, 1/4" hose works great, and you can get any length you want for "spot" spraying either from the seated position, or dismounting from your quad and getting closer to trees or flowers, etc.

Adding this wand to a boom sprayer is very easy to do, and makes your sprayer that much better. Now you'll be able to do those long rows or stretches of the food plots with the boom, then fold it up and slide in and out of the smaller treed sections or around your wifes flower beds with the wand.

Good luck with the new place!

Oh, one other thing-if you use Round-Up in the sprayer, always make sure you flush it out after each use! It is a pain to do this, but Round-Up will crystalize in the motor and tips, then you won't have a sprayer at all! They do make a special formula you can buy to run through it after each use, but a sufficient amount of clean water will work just fine. Sorry about the length once again!

Mike