Spend my Money for me!

I currently mow 10 acres + with a Toro z master 52". It takes me 8-10 hrs of hauling azz to finish, I usually break it up over two days, that said I need to mow once a week.... I am fencing off two acres for cows and goats so that will help some but I still need a bigger mower.
I have almost made my mind up on the Scag Cheetah 72 with a Kohler 34hp efi. After talking to the dealer he recommended the Turf Tiger for quality and durability. I really like the suspension system of the Cheetah so that what im leaning towards.
Any suggestions?

if it were me i would buy some portable electric fence and get more cows or stocker calves while the grass is green and growing then sell them in the fall and roll up the reel of fence and have some fun with the money i made. repeat in the next spring. sometimes you can buy old pregnant cows that have been preg checked for date pretty cheap. calve them out and sell the pairs in the fall. just don't get more cows than the grass can carry and be prepared to either sell one or buy another depending on the weather.

Thats where im heading with the two acre lot, got to dabble before I jump in full swing...

Alaskanassasin said:

Thats where im heading with the two acre lot, got to dabble before I jump in full swing...

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aw come on in jump right in. the water is fine. of course you will have to get you a big hat and some boots. don't want the neighbors sayin"BIG HAT NO BOOTS". "there's cow men and men with cows"

I did an internet search for "commercial zero turn reviews". Here's the first site on the search.
http://www.the-lawn-advisor.com/Commercial-Riding-Mowers-Comparison.html
It looks like they're both rated highly with the Cheetah getting higher reviews.

I do find it somewhat odd that some manufacturers of good mowers aren't even listed (e.g. Kubota).

I have a Scag Cheetah and love it. The floating seat sure helps with rough terrain. I have the 27hp Kawasaki with the 61" deck. I can mow 4 acres in 1 hour 50 minutes.

Edit to add: I do not mow at the fastest speed, to many bumps in the property.

The only issue with the 72" deck is scalping if your land is uneven. I'll be interested in your mowing time with whatever you end up buying.

We have a lot of cows and calves . check out rotational grazing. if you let them have the whole acreage, they will spot graze and leave big patches unattended. With the temporary electric fencing, you make paddocks and move them around. Your grass will be grazed more evenly. then later after they are gone, you can drag down the poop piles with a couple of old pallets chained together or an old gate etc.. I do that with the RTV when the cow pies are in mass. In the small patches not the big ones though. bordercollie

bordercollie said:

We have a lot of cows and calves . check out rotational grazing. if you let them have the whole acreage, they will spot graze and leave big patches unattended. With the temporary electric fencing, you make paddocks and move them around. Your grass will be grazed more evenly. then later after they are gone, you can drag down the poop piles with a couple of old pallets chained together or an old gate etc.. I do that with the RTV when the cow pies are in mass. In the small patches not the big ones though. bordercollie

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i took some old tires and cut them in half and bolted them together. drag them cut face down and works like a charm.

bczoom said:

I did an internet search for "commercial zero turn reviews". Here's the first site on the search.
http://www.the-lawn-advisor.com/Commercial-Riding-Mowers-Comparison.html
It looks like they're both rated highly with the Cheetah getting higher reviews.

I do find it somewhat odd that some manufacturers of good mowers aren't even listed (e.g. Kubota).

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Thanks for looking that up! I wish that guy was my school teacher it looks like all he gives is As and Bs!

bordercollie said:

We have a lot of cows and calves . check out rotational grazing. if you let them have the whole acreage, they will spot graze and leave big patches unattended. With the temporary electric fencing, you make paddocks and move them around. Your grass will be grazed more evenly. then later after they are gone, you can drag down the poop piles with a couple of old pallets chained together or an old gate etc.. I do that with the RTV when the cow pies are in mass. In the small patches not the big ones though. bordercollie

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Thanks for the advice! We currently have two goats and I am going to fence off two acres for them with 5 strand electric fence, with the intention of adding a few cows. That will be the goats home for sure but the cows i think we can graze like you said with a single strand of electric wire and move them around.

Doc said:

I have a Scag Cheetah and love it. The floating seat sure helps with rough terrain. I have the 27hp Kawasaki with the 61" deck. I can mow 4 acres in 1 hour 50 minutes.

Edit to add: I do not mow at the fastest speed, to many bumps in the property.

The only issue with the 72" deck is scalping if your land is uneven. I'll be interested in your mowing time with whatever you end up buying.

Click to expand...

After using https://www.freemaptools.com/area-calculator.htm it looks like i actually mow around 7 acres weekly with another 3 that I have tried to keep mowed but its to much.. the reason it takes me 8 hours to mow 7 acres is because in most places it to rough to go fast, kills my back.

Which bring us to the Cheetah... which brought me to the Ferris. Currently between the Cheetah and the Ferris 72" mowers, the Turf Tiger is out because it has no suspension beyond the seat.

I have a kubota zd331 with 72” deck. Previous mower had 60” deck. 72” deck saves quite a bit of time on 4 acres of grass but I have a few spots that get scalped if going fast.

Also saw the Mahindra RTV or whatever it is... at a quick glance I liked that the bed sides fold down to make a flat bed, but not sure how they would hold up with a bunch of fire wood rounds pushing on them. second thing i saw was plastic everywhere including the floor boards which had cross bracing but were plastic and strained under the weight of my boot.
Finally... it was huge! very wide, it seemed way bigger physically than the rtv

Alaskanassasin said:

Thanks for the advice! We currently have two goats and I am going to fence off two acres for them with 5 strand electric fence, with the intention of adding a few cows. That will be the goats home for sure but the cows i think we can graze like you said with a single strand of electric wire and move them around.

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http://www.kencove.com/

here is an online supplier of good grazing supplies. i really like the high tensile steel fence but i also have probably at least 20 of the geared reels that i use often. i fill them with the multi conductor braided twine and with a real good unigizer keep goats in with a single run. i also really like the sunguard 1/2 inch x 4 foot fiberglass posts. i can install a paddock in just a few min with my kubota of course.

what height do you run the single strand?
I bought these from a Amish fella... https://www.plastic-innovation.com/

I like that they are plastic, flexible and dont need additional insulators.

Alaskanassasin said:

what height do you run the single strand?
I bought these from a Amish fella... https://www.plastic-innovation.com/

I like that they are plastic, flexible and dont need additional insulators.

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Thanks i am always interested in different products! to answer your question i use the Pasture Pro composite post for permanent high tensile multi wire fences and just drill a hole and use the cotter key to attach the wire. i like the no insulator concept also. i have some 5 wire multi wire permanent and four wire also. i space the bottom wire about 10 inches from the ground and space evenly up to five feet. i then connect the mains energizer so that every other wire is also a ground. then for portable and semi portable fence i use the 1/2 inch sunguard fiberglass posts with the clip type wire holter to hold either wire or polywire. i hang the reel on the fence and connect a jumper wire with gator clips and i am good. on single wire fence on small animals i put the strand at just below nose high so they can graze under and keep the fence line clean. sometimes with the cow calf pairs i put the wire high enough that the calves can get under but the cows can't so the calves can "creep" feed on better pasture.

Cool thanks for the advice!
The posts i bought are 5.5 feet and with 16" drove into the ground that only leaves 48" of electric fence... hopefully that is enough height to keep the goats in, I imagine once it zaps them they wont want to jump it.

Alaskanassasin said:

Cool thanks for the advice!
The posts i bought are 5.5 feet and with 16" drove into the ground that only leaves 48" of electric fence... hopefully that is enough height to keep the goats in, I imagine once it zaps them they wont want to jump it.

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that is tall enough for cows. what kind of goats do you have? i have found with goats the joules in the fence are more important than anything

Just be careful having a hot wire near the ground- as in dirt/mud ground. Years ago we had a registered calf with a high pedigree slip under the fence at night. It was wet and she couldn't get up and was killed.. Also had a 1400 young bull get his dew claw caught in the high tensile .. fighting with the other bulls I suppose at night (herd of 45-50) He was pushed out through the 5 wire fence went upside down in a ditch with the wire still on his foot He died right there in the road ditch with his foot still in the wire.
For that reason I dislike hot wires near the ground. I guess it is about 700 acres here that I tend to electric fence on There are about 300 acres with barb wire and that is bad when an animal gets gets tangled into also.
I will say if you have some wild cattle that you need a high fence. We once bought some cattle that had embryos of registered cattle we desired put in them. We have a closed herd so we segregated them in a 50 acre patch... Well we found out they had originated in Colorado's country side and hadn't seem many folks.. They were so wild that they would just as soon run you over as not and fences meant little to them. We kept them in a panelled area at the barn until they calmed down a bit but they were still crazy as all get out especially out in their segregated paddock down the road. Their time here was very short..It didn't work out... nope
I use a single wire in between some pastures but on the road I have a 5 or 6 wire HT 12 g. Be sure to get some cut off switches because they are a handy thing such as if a tree falls on the fence and you need to bypass that section. bordercollie

i always make the bottom wire a ground wire so if they do get under it it just helps the hot wire do it's job. i live in a dry wilderness so sometimes the earth ground just isn't enough.