I’m selling our ancient tractor and brush hog, which have been constant problems with upkeep, and hoping to buy a used zero turn mower for our very flat 3-4 acre pasture. If I mow weekly to biweekly, will a zero turn mower be able to keep up? I’ve read several threads on here and the answers seem uncertain. I’ve never had a ZT mower before; how high can you usually raise the deck? Are they a better option than a conventional lawnmower for pastures? I don’t mind putting a few hours a week into mowing the pastures, so time isn’t a problem. Just don’t want to spend $3-$4000 and ruin a mower in the first year. If this is doable, any particular brands to stay away from, or that are better than others? I know commercial ZT mowers are preferred for this type of mowing and if I can find one in my price range, I’ll go with that. Just hoping to get any guidance toward or away from particular brands/models, etc. Thank you!
I’ve considered a similar transition and I was told by a couple of “mower folks” the limitation is deck height (provided your land is groomed enough not a bang a ZT up). The zero turns even at max mower height will mow too close , especially when hot and dry?
I use a zero to do my place, and I love it. You can set them high enough- just take a look at what settings they have on whatever one you are considering. I used a John Deere this Summer that was fabulous. They are fast, nimble, and powerful.
I have a Kubota zero turn for my 2.5 ac pasture in Ocala. I also mow under the trees on another two acres. Does fine, but realize you may not be able to raise the deck up above 4.5 inches - I often mow with the deck raised as high as it will go using the lift rather than the regular height adjuster. ALso, IMO the plastic chute for the clippings is a PIA. Mine is removed BUT I recognize that this is NOT safe as the edge of the blade is RIGHT THERE.
Don’t you use your tractor for so, so much else?
If you don’t at all, then just a mower would work.
We use the JD 54" zero turn along the fences and in the small pens and rarely in the bigger 1/2 to 1 ac pens.
For more, the tractor with the shredder is better, takes much less time.
Then, the tractor is used to mow around the fields and bigger pastures and bar ditches.
We also use the loader and pallet points and hydraulic post hole digger and pole pounder and blade and arena plow, etc.
We could mow with the zero turn, but it would take longer and be more rough traveling.
As far as that grass chute, when the mowing is really windy and dusty, it helps keep dust down.
Otherwise, we drilled two little holes on the end and mow with it lifted up with a bungie, so we can get close to fences, to load it in a trailer, etc.
We swapped out our tractor and Brushog for a ZT a few years ago. It was a fantastic decision for us. The tractor mowed at 5 mph and the zero turn mows at 11!
We use it on our 5 acre pasture as well as another 3 acres of lawn. It deals with the tall growth in the pasture well. While it’s not a brushog it handles scrub grass and weeds. If an area is really dense or stalky I may need to mow twice to get it perfect or mow with an overlap so all of the blades aren’t in the super thick tall grass. Even doing that it is still much faster than the tractor.
I do have a zero turn jack so it is easy for me to pull the blades off and sharpen. The sharp blades seem to help a lot with even mowing the pasture or the trails through the scrub fields. The other benefit is that I don’t need the lawn perfectly dry to mow like I did with the tractor. I can mow even if it is a bit squishy.
We have a Ferris IS 600z. There were several brands we were looking at, but Ferris ticked all of our boxes and has a great local dealer. The deck goes up to 4.5” which helps us tackle thicker/taller patches and we don’t have to worry about burning the grass.
I am so glad we made the change. I would never go back. A couple of unintended side effects is the money we save in fuel as it is much more efficient and the money on fluids. The cost of the yearly hydraulic fluid/transmission fluid maintenance on the tractor is more expensive then all the maintenance and gas for the zero turn.
yeahI did that for a while. I hit too many fenceposts with it and it finally tore so… off it went.
We use a Zero Turn to mow our pastures (4.5 acres total) and it works great. Much faster and easier to handle than the tractor. However, ours is a big commercial mower with a diesel engine and it was much more expensive than $4000.00 to $5000.00. You want a big wide deck so that you can cover more area quickly. Also, pastures are not lawns, and are rougher on your equipment, so I would be careful about build quality of whatever you buy.
Our ZT is a Kubota and we have been really happy with it.
We have a Skag cub. We co-own it with our neighbor. We both have 2 acres of hilly property but not horse pasture. That thing is a tank. We have used it a few times at a friend’s pasture when her riding mower died and the pasture got pretty high. It worked great.
We used to have use of an Exmark walk-behind zero turn mower. Used that on some heavy growth.
Both Skag and Exmark are great commercial brands. My husband does all the maintenance of both mowers. I would not hesitate to use either brand for pastures. Both were purchased well used.
Thanks, everyone. This is great info. Other than the obvious time-saving with zero turns, are they generally better for this type of work than a traditional (non-zero-turn) mower? Is one style known to be more rugged? Thanks again. Starting my search in earnest today!
And Bluey, the tractor we had was such a problem that we were never able to use it. Neither my husband nor myself is any good with mechanical issues, and no one else had been able to help us keep this particular tractor running consistently, so it was of no use to us. A gentleman who is quite confident in his mechanical skills was thrilled to buy it cheaply yesterday and I was thrilled to get rid of it!! It did not have a loader anyway, which I could have found a million uses for:)
YES.
Much better, easier to work on and repair and maintain.
More important, riding mowers are harder on your back, bounce you around more, even can buck you off.
Now, if you only have one arm, the other injured, then riding mowers manage better, the voice of experience.
When I had shoulder surgery, I had to let someone else mow for me, but still could run the big tractor with the shredder ok and could have a little riding mower also.
Zero turn require two hands to operate.
When wanting to pull a little wagon, riding mowers do that well.
Zero turns are not made for pulling.
For mowing itself, zero turn is all around the better mousetrap.
You will rarely see a commercial mower business with any other than zero turn.
I love my zero turn. We have around 3-4 acres in pasture (and some of that is lawn) that we mow. We mow it at the highest deck height (5") which has worked really well for our pastures. We send it yearly for maintenance but my husband has had no issues with doing a lot of it himself. We just like to have it looked over yearly by a professional.
We have a commercial Grasshopper. They are very popular in our area, and ours is tough! We have used it to brush hog a bit to make some trails in our woods. We’ve had it about 4 years now and it’s held up well.
I bought John Deere’s entry-level commercial ZT last year. I mow about 10 acres with it: about 2-3 acres in yard and the remainder in pasture. The yard was mowed weekly, maybe a bit more frequently depending on the growth rate, and the pasture was mowed every other week.
It worked out beautifully. It was exponentially faster than the riding mower for the yard. For the pastures, I went at about half speed, but it was still faster than the fellow I used to hire to mow my pastures with his tractor and bushhog. I started mowing at the end of March and mowed everything regularly through September. I stopped mowing the pasture then and continued to mow the yard through the very end of October. It has 132 hours on it (including a couple of hours of using it to empty my manure cart).
It mowed like a beast, even when the grass got really thick. At the height of mowing season, I lifted the deck all the way up (it regularly adjusts to 5”, so about 5.25” is what you get).
I considered the dealerships I had around me, the relationship I already had with the JD dealership, price, and the warranty while I was shopping. Once I decided on JD, I test drove mine and a couple of the higher-end commercial mowers. I ultimately decided on the one I did for comfort. It was a much smoother ride than the others (I believe due to having pneumatic front tires instead of solid fronts). I got the 60” deck.
I’d love to get a tractor for the FEL, but I had to choose one. I’m pleased with my choice, because I would still be mowing my yard with the lawn mower, and I save myself at least two hours a week just in yard mowing.
I have used 3 different brands of ZT.
1st, 52" Husquavarna commercial deck, gas. At its top height, it adjusts to 6". It did ok in grass that was leafy, but if it was at all stalky, it didn’t cut well. It would lay it down rather than cut. The belt on the deck was not very robust. It would break, usually before one full season of cutting was done.
2nd, 72" Dixie Chopper, gas. At its top height it adjusted to 4". It wasn’t ideal to cut the pasture at this height, but it was before I had the horses at home, so the pasture was being kept more like a lawn. It did a better job with stalky stuff, but was easy to bog down with thick, wet grass.
3rd, 72" John Deere, diesel. At its top height it adjusts to 5". It does a fabulous job of cutting. Very rarely do I have to cut more than one pass. The deck is more offset than the other mowers, so the deck on the left hand side sits father out from the tires. This allows me to get very close to the edge of the pond, fence line etc. I can attach the drag to the mower and get 2 things done at once. I can mow and pull the drag at the same time…Another time saver.
By far, I love the JD over the others. We still have the 52" deck mower. There are a couple of places the JD won’t fit.
We traded our Kubota ZT for a commercial Skag and love it. But we have a Kubota tractor as well. We also have a finish mower we can use with the tractor in rougher areas. Most of the big brands are comparable so the choice may come down to the nearest/best dealer.
We have a zt and my dh loves it. He used it on all 3.5 acres this summer but we have a orchard to mow around so it still takes about 2.5hrs to do all of it. If I turn the fence off he will mow my fence line but I am wondering if I will be able to use it in the fields come summer with the hoof ruts and all that? We also have an old jd riding mower, that is “my” mower he says lol. Those of you who have a zt, do you drag or pick your fields before you mow, or just chop up the patties as you go?
I actually pick my pastures and put the manure in my Newer Spreader to spread it out. So, yes, I do try not to run over big piles of manure with the ZT. I just feel like that can’t be good for it.
IIRC the ZTM was developed for the landscape industry, especially golf courses. A golf course and a pasture are both “grasslands.” But that’s about where the similarities end.
I looked at them as a possibility and decided against it as our 30 acres or so of pasture land rolls a lot and we have lots of creek banks. I just bough a new Deere 2025 with a belly mower. Since we don’t have any grass growth yet I’m not sure how I’ll like it, but my current and former tenant both had them on their tractors and liked them. We’ll see how it goes in a couple of months.
Just keep in mind that one size does not fit all. Buy what you need for your ground.
G.
We bought a SCAG Cheetah with a 60" deck. The pull behind mower for the tractor and the brush hog have not been used since.
My father was a greens superintendent. For greens, tees and fairways no way would you want to use a zero turn. Trust me I have used a ZT for the last 15 years and as a kid mowed many tees, greens and fairways. If you are not very careful with a ZT when it is wet you can rip up a spot of grass on the wheel you are pivoting on. You really need to do a very mini 3 point turn when it is we to prevent that. For greens, fairways and tees we always used a form of a reel mower. For tournaments and weekends we used smaller walk behinds that you took the wheels off for the green and then would put the wheels back on for traveling between greens. For regular days we used a riding that had a few reels. The fairway mower was a big gang reel mower. The reels with the drums provide a much nicer more consistent cut than would be provided by a blade that spins horizontally.
There was one machine that was similar to a ZT that we used around trees. It had the deck in the front of the seat and had one back wheel with 2 front wheels. It had a regular steering wheel rather than the two handles like most zero turns. It wasn’t totally zero turn but you could put the edge of the deck against the tree and spin around it pretty well.
