Pasture mowing isn’t all about looking good. There are some very real benefits attached to the mowing of your pasture, as any forage specialist will tell you.

Dan Undersander, a forage specialist at the University of Wisconsin, explains that there are two main reasons why a farmer should mow his/her pasture.

According to Undersander, regular pasture mowing reduces weeds in the pasture. By cutting weeds a little ahead of flowering of the weeds, the weeds are not allowed to spread seeds. Regular mowing also prevents the roots from gaining reserves, which in turn causes the weeds to thin out and eventually disappear.

The other reason for pasture mowing is to help the livestock. Grass needs to be cut as it is producing seed heads. Grass stems, when they dry out, become hard and have a tendency to poke the livestock as they are eating. This, in turn, reduces the amount of grass the livestock will eat.

Locations in cooler climates only grow out once per year, a stalk and head once and not multiple times. In warmer climates, this process is repeated throughout the summer. A good pasture mowing company will understand the effects the climate has on your pasture, and a good pasture mowing company will understand how important it is to mow at the proper height. Many grass species store their energy reserves in the last few inches of the plant, so mowing too short will kill off those reserves and limit their growth.

All of this adds up to one conclusion: whether the farmer mows the pasture himself, or hires a pasture mowing company to do it for him, a knowledge of the area, the types of grasses, and the proper length of mowing are all crucial in insuring that the pasture will continue to have healthy yields of beneficial pasture grass for your livestock.

How to find good commercial mowers in your area? Ask around with local farmers. They will know. They are in business to know. You can also ask around at the local Grange, or at farming supply stores. Again, go to the source for valuable information. People who make their living in farming will have recommendations galore for any farmer asking about reliable commercial grass cutting companies. Mowing services are numerous; good mowing services are in short supply.

And, while interviewing the owners of mowing services, ask about their equipment and their prices. There are only a few reliable commercial tractor mowers on the market. A good mowing company will use one of those tractor mowers. And a good company does not necessarily have the lowest prices. Competitive, yes, but lowest? . . . do not equate reliable with lowest price . . . that is a mistake which could come back to haunt any farmer looking to cut expenses.

In the Fort Worth area, Keith’s Tractor Mowing Services is the company to call for all of your acreage mowing services. One acre or 500 acres, no job is too big for Keith’s Tractor Mowing Services.

A “bush hog” is a type of rotary mower used for “heavy” jobs such as cutting down brush, bushes, and capable of running over and through rocks and stones on the acreage without damage to the machinery. It is also referred to as a brush hog mower. The bush hog is one of the Keith’s tractor mowing equipment.

The bush hog usually attaches to the back of a farm tractor (becoming a tractor mower) using a hitch. Its blades are not rigidly attached to the mower drive like one would find on a lawnmower, but rather are on hinges so that if the blade hits a rock, it bounces backwards and inwards. Once this “reaction” occurs, centrifugal force makes the blades go outwards again.

One other difference with the brush hog is that its blades are not sharpened like a conventional mower blade. It was found early on in testing brush hogs that in trying to mow down brush, instead of cut grass, conventional blades would get stuck or were slowed down trying to cut the heavy undergrowth. Thus came the brush hog design of using a dull, heavy blade to whack down the brush rather than cutting it. Each blade is up to one inch in thickness, and the weight of it, combined with centrifugal force, allows it to knock down vegetation rather than cut and thus not get stuck in that vegetation. The blades are also made of heat-treated high carbon steel so they can withstand multiple hits against hard objects such as stones.

There are various models of brush hogs to choose from when purchasing one. The Bush Hog, the RhinoAg, the Bush-Whacker, the King Kutter, the Land Pride, and DR Power Equipment are all reliable brush hogs currently on the market, and of course John Deere also weighs in with their brush hog attachment.

The height of the cut with a brush mower is adjusted either by adjusting the height of the front of the mower using a hitch control lever, or for radical height adjustment the rear wheel of the brush hog can be adjusted. If a draw bar is used rather than a three-point hitch, then the height of the cut is determined using hydraulic rams on the mower itself, which requires hydraulics on the tractor.

Bush hogs can be adjusted to mow a width ranging from 3.3 feet to 22 feet.

The blades of a brush hog can reach speeds of 150 miles per hour, enabling them to knock down even small saplings, and there is a real danger of thrown objects such as rocks and roadside debris, so extreme caution is recommended when operating one.

How do you find a good bush hog operator for bush mowing services? Ask around! Your local grange can point you in the right direction. Local farmers are always a good resource to use. Your local feed store probably has a recommendation or two you can use.

In the Fort Worth area, there is only one name to consider among commercial mowers, Keith’s Tractor Mowing Services, serving a 75 mile radius around Fort Worth. If quality is a factor you care about, and friendly service is something you value, then Keith’s Tractor Mowing Services is the number you should have taped to your refrigerator.