Zero-turn mower and drag together? One Fell Swoop, please

[Simkie]

@mvp

Yes, but why would I hire out the dragging?

Because you seem to have zero desire to purchase the equipment to do it yourself?

Things we have done with our tractor just in the last couple months:

Mowing
Dragging pastures or driveway
Spraying herbicide
Moving manure
Moving piles of brush
Hauling wood
Hauling equipment from place to place
Taking the trash down the drive
Spreading wood chips or manure
Moving a ridiculous amount of rock
Getting rock out of the ground
Moving soil

I realize you’re not planning on doing all those things, but we didn’t, either, when we got the tractor. It’s amazing how things come up.

Dragging seems to be one of those things a zero turn just isn’t suitable for, unless maaaaybe you get a very small drag? But man, that’s a spendy piece of equipment to risk in that way. Perhaps you can plan on picking up manure, or feeding small amount of oats (so the birds will pick apart your piles) or really cultivating your dung beetles, instead of planning on dragging?

There’s certainly more than one road to Rome. If you’re just absolutely wedded to the zero turn, and refuse to entertain the idea of a second piece of equipment, perhaps an alternative to dragging is an option. Or teach the horses to pull a drag!

[ASB_Stars]

I have about five acres, and a zero turn (his name is Bueller) and a gator (Cocorillo). If I need a skid steer, I rent one. I haven’t needed one in a long time, but it’s better to use than a tractor with a bucket, for me, when I need it. The gator pulls the chain harrow, and is invaluable for taking out hay, cleaning sheds, mulching and more. Bueller just has to cut the paddocks- I use a Honda self-propelled lawn mower for the yard, which is relatively small, and has a ton of landscaping.

Works for me!

[lorilu]

I have a Kubota zero turn. I was told using the drag would harm the hydraulics. Pulling a cart is fine, but not the stress of the drag. So I drag with a JD Gator, and mow with the mower.

[mvp]

It sounds like you have a good team. Who do you have do the fence lines? Can Bueller get all up in there? I’d like to think so, but I have a feeling he’s a bit of a slacker; maybe not the machine for detail work?[quote=“ASB_Stars, post:22, topic:761441, full:true”]
I have about five acres, and a zero turn (his name is Bueller) and a gator (Cocorillo). If I need a skid steer, I rent one. I haven’t needed one in a long time, but it’s better to use than a tractor with a bucket, for me, when I need it. The gator pulls the chain harrow, and is invaluable for taking out hay, cleaning sheds, mulching and more. Bueller just has to cut the paddocks- I use a Honda self-propelled lawn mower for the yard, which is relatively small, and has a ton of landscaping.

Works for me!
[/quote]

It sounds like you have quite a team? Also, do you pronounce the LLs in Cocrillo the spanish way or the English way? Can Bueller do the fence lines, or is he too much of a slacker for that level of detail?

ETA: ASB_Stars (and all y’all with fencing), I just learned about this bad boy. And I saw a video of it in action. Looks awesome. It’s owner say it’s way faster than weed wacking around the fence lines:

https://www.drpower.com/Power-Equipment/Trimmer-Mowers/Tow-Behind/DR-Tow-Behind-Trimmer-Mower/p/TT13072BMNgsa=true&ctm_id=TT13072BMN&src=AW1BA80XE4163309&gclid=CjwKCAjwuIWHBhBDEiwACXQYsQeNpslUTEmJywlfnZZT8DO89iGufOnNgLmn4tZ1uF1cxYYd_RhbBoC2RIQAvD_BwE

Yanno, everyone, I have driven lots of Utility Things with dump beds while working for other people. The seem useful when hauling the manure. But I don’t want to clean stalls or (when I get old) even manure into the bed. I’m short and I think I’ll use up my shoulders lifting all the manure that high.

It sounds to me like the best combination is to buy a hard-core lawn tractor and plan to pull a drag behind that. Perhaps the speed of the zero-turn is not my friend if I also want to do the dragging effectively.

[mvp]

@Simkie

@mvp

Yes, but why would I hire out the dragging?

Because you seem to have zero desire to purchase the equipment to do it yourself?

Things we have done with our tractor just in the last couple months:

Mowing
Dragging pastures or driveway
Spraying herbicide
Moving manure
Moving piles of brush
Hauling wood
Hauling equipment from place to place
Taking the trash down the drive
Spreading wood chips or manure
Moving a ridiculous amount of rock
Getting rock out of the ground
Moving soil

I realize you’re not planning on doing all those things, but we didn’t, either, when we got the tractor. It’s amazing how things come up.

Dragging seems to be one of those things a zero turn just isn’t suitable for, unless maaaaybe you get a very small drag? But man, that’s a spendy piece of equipment to risk in that way. Perhaps you can plan on picking up manure, or feeding small amount of oats (so the birds will pick apart your piles) or really cultivating your dung beetles, instead of planning on dragging?

There’s certainly more than one road to Rome. If you’re just absolutely wedded to the zero turn, and refuse to entertain the idea of a second piece of equipment, perhaps an alternative to dragging is an option. Or teach the horses to pull a drag!

Not wedded to the idea of a zero-turn. I own none of this equipment yet, so I’m free to date all possible machines and systems for managing my farm.

But they make (big ass) zero-turns with horsepower above 30 and some of the chain harrows recommend less HP than you can buy in a zero-turn, so I thought it might be a possible and cool combination.

The way fertilizer is done here involves a very big hopper because you test your soil and then have the Professional Ag Dudes custom-mix fertilizer for your soil and crop. They mix the right ratios and amounts of stuff into their spreader, you pick it up, spread it and return their spreader. Here it is behind my truck, for scale:

For my dinky place, that hopper is maybe 1/3 full. But any tractor that wanted to earn it’s keep on my place would have to be able to pull that.

[clanter]

@mvp

But they make (big ass) zero-turns with horsepower above 30

really the horsepower rating is not the issue, the problem is like using a truck to pull a large horse trailer with an automatic transmission… you need to keep the transmission fluid cool.

These zero turn things have to keep the hydraulic fluid cool otherwise the life of the pump is shortened

[Ponycatraz]

@mvp

ETA: ASB_Stars (and all y’all with fencing), I just learned about this bad boy. And I saw a video of it in action. Looks awesome. It’s owner say it’s way faster than weed wacking around the fence lines:

I rented one to try and hated it! Might be great if you have a nice smooth area but it was a pain to push through the rough areas. Our pasture was old farmland so lots of small plow ruts.

Decided to buy a good brush cutter instead. Got a U handlebar Echo with a Stihl harness and it is so fast and easy.

Ended up buying 2. One has the blade for scrub and the other has the line for trimming.

[ASB_Stars]

I have Mr. Tanaka, the weedeater for fencelines, as well as all of my road frontage. The road frontage is on a steep slant in many places, so a mower (too wide) or the push weedeater, wouldn’t work. I fenced as close as I could to the road, wat back when, without including these grades. The nice thing about the grades is that I have never had a car run through my fence. Well, except for the guy that parked in the neighbor’s driveway above me, and ended up going through three fence lines, but that is a tale for another time.

[lenapesadie]

We call them buggies here. Lime comes the same way. I’m confident my dinky tractor won’t have a problem towing one. If I understand Mr LS’s mechanical talk, the tractor is geared low to optimize its pulling power. I have an ancient Ford 8N. She’s tough as nails. My place is so little I’ve used my lawn spreader thus far (you know the hand push kind).

I can see the draw to the zero turn, mowing goes way quicker with one. In my area, the grass grows so much that the time savings of mowing with a zero turn would be enough to justify a second piece of equipment to drag with. Obviously YMMV depending on your grass growing conditions and stocking rate etc.

The state vet’s personal farm is up the road from me. She keeps it absolutely manicured looking. I’ve not seen any dragging going on in her pastures. They mow like 4 days a week though. Sometimes as many as 3 mowers at once, finishing mower behind tractor, zero turn and a riding mower. I suspect the mowing obliterates the manure piles sufficiently for her stocking rate. Her fence lines are sprayed to avoid the need to weed eat. She just weed eats around her house.

Both of my direct neighbors use a zero turn to mow. Neither have fences, but are able to get right up to the trees. One is a 70 year old lady and she has commented that the zero turn is a more comfortable ride than her previous traditional lawn tractor. Something to consider as well.

[EssexFells]

Since (I think?) you mainly want to break up the manure piles (rather than dethatch or aerate pasture, for example), you could try just dragging a section of chain link fence behind your zero-turn. Since it doesn’t dig in, it won’t create much drag on your ZTM. Not saying your ZTM is designed to even pull that, but it’s a calculated risk you could reasonably take.

[Simkie]

@mvp

But they make (big ass) zero-turns with horsepower above 30 and some of the chain harrows recommend less HP than you can buy in a zero-turn

As you’re finding, the HP isn’t the limiting factor.

There’s no doubt that a zero turn is probably the best mowing machine. But you want one tool, so it’s got to be more of a “jack of all trades.”

Why does your tractor have to pull the fertilizer buggy? Sure, it probably can–that’s a pretty basic weight rating–but how were you going to pull it if you had the zero turn, and why is that not an option if you go with a tractor?