Going rate to mow a pasture

[SusanO]

I hire mine out because the pasture is hilly and I don’t like driving on the hills particularly. And also - my grass is THICK and I am certain it would shut down my 22 HP tractor. My neighbor who is now deceased used to do it for me. I think I paid him $200 and a pan of banana pudding with whipped cream on top. He had a bigger tractor than I have and it took him a day and a half to do all 15 acres. Slow going in tall thick grass.

The rates have gone up and I have a guy that mows it for me - $500. He has a huge tractor and a 15 foot batwing mower and can do it in around 2 to 3 hours. He works out of town so it is hard to get him sometimes and even with that big tractor the grass in the bottom lands will almost choke the tractor out. He is close enough so that he just rides the tractor over - no hauling involved.

One year when he was not available I hired somebody else. His Kubota was bigger than my tractor but it was not a big tractor. When he came over to my place to price the job I questioned if his tractor was large enough because I told him that grass was tough. He assured me it was fine for the job. He quoted me either $200 or $300 - I can’t remember which. He started mowing in July. He still had not mowed the whole pasture by October. It was crazy. At the end I could have mowed a larger patch than he did with my riding mower. Everyday he would drive the tractor over with his truck and trailer. And drive it home that night. And park on my water meter although I asked him multiple times not to do that. So I was eager to pay him and see the end of him. This went on for months. Finally he threw in the towel, i paid him and have never heard from him again.

And a long time ago I traded out free mowing for “you take the hay”. I did not have cross fencing at the time so I was adamant about them keeping the gate closed. I heard from said nosy neighbor who sat outside in his chair all day - they were leaving the gate open since I was not around to keep an eye on things. And they round baled and I thought they were never going to pick the bales up. And the other thing - it was in their best interest to let the grass get tall before mowing. My one horse gets sores on her legs from tall wet grass so that wasn’t working for me either. Gonna stick with the guy that can get it done!

I do wish I had a bushhog to keep the pasture areas around the barn mowed on a more regular basis. But I don’t know how to do PTO, don’t want to deal with hooking it up and no where to put a bushhog that is under cover and accessible and not in the way.

[LCDR]

On a tangent, if you have not investigated equipping your tractor with a three point quick hitch, these hitches are pretty inexpensive and make hooking and unhooking most implements a job that can be done without getting off the tractor. Just google “quick hitches for tractors.”

Of course, with a rotary cutter you will still then need to get off to deal with the PTO connection. But, there are also quick connects for PTO shafts as well, though I have no experience with those.

[Djones]

@Equibrit

You have my sympathy for your loss … Put your big girl panties on and give it a try.

She asked about going rates to hire it done.
She wrote “Maybe next year I’ll be up to tackling it but not right now.”

Your definition of sympathy is…something else.

[Mcl1]

So sorry for your loss and I completely understand being overwhelmed.

Just wanted to put this out there in case it may be useful for you in the future or for someone else: when we bought our current property it was 30 acres of VERY thick and overgrown pasture. We do not have a tractor nor the budget to buy one. We ended up finding this pull behind rough cut mower used - brand is Kunz Engineering, it gets pulled behind an ATV or UTV. It has wildly exceeded my expectations - it will take down weeds 5 ft tall, crazy thick grass, etc. I would imagine a tractor would be far more efficient, but I just wanted to share that if you are not comfortable with the tractor/larger brush-hog, there may be other options that are easily handled solo. I can easily move this around by myself and operating it is very straightforward (I have never used a tractor brush hog though so maybe it’s the same).

For mowing your pasture now - do you have a Facebook? I often see people advertising mowing on Marketplace, and/or you could post to some local groups.

[Fruitarider]

I wanted to give a big THANK YOU for all your kind words, suggestions and encouragement. I did get one quote of $100 an hour using their tractor and brush hog. It usually took my husband 4-5 hours depending on how tall the grass was so that would cost me around $500. My next-door neighbor who farms hay and corn came over and has offered to teach me how to operate and mow with my tractor and I plan on taking him up on the offer. In the meantime, a coworker who grew up on a farm has offered to come over and mow for me. I also found a guy who cuts hay for the small hay growers in the neighborhood using a swather, but unfortunately my gate isn’t wide enough. Something I’m going to look in to changing for next year.

[NancyM]

I’m glad that you have some options now!

[SusanO]

I have a quick hitch that I use to hook up my arena drag (Steven’s?). I still have to get off my tractor to get hooked up and it is not that quick. Unless the universe is on my side that day and everything lines up perfectly and then it is pretty quick. But faster than not using one which was a total PITA to get everything level and connected. I don’t think I know any more curse words to use hooking up to a PTO.

[LCDR]

Mine is a Deere iMatch Quick Hitch. Back up to the implement, raise the three point, the hooks engage the implement hitch pins and top link and lock themselves into place, and I’m ready to go.

[OzarksRider]

Good to see you have the problem solved for this year. If you need to hire out the job in the future, be sure to ask what size brush hog will be used. The $100/hour rate you were quoted is in line with what I pay, but the guy I use has a massive brush hog so it doesn’t take as long to mow the fields as a smaller brush hog. Last year I paid $95/hour, and the total for about 20 acres was less than $500 because that big brush hog means fewer passes around the field.

And like others have said, I’m sorry for your loss. I know it must be tough.

[pony_grandma]

Good Grief - no wonder the neighbor free leased us 2 pastures because the agreement we offered was to mow it and maintain fencing. Heck of a deal was it !