Mowing 4 acres

[Husky1996]

hi if thats out of a boat did you have to change top from marine to land or is it air cooled.

 

 

Hi It's a air cooled engine 35hp marine spec Briggs and Stratton

[AcaciaRental]

You could always hire in the machinery to save the initial outlay/contractor costs?

 

This could be good for the mowing side of what you're doing:

 

Ryetec PTO Flail Shredder | Acacia Equipment Hire | Sussex

 

Probably cheaper to do it yourself than with a contractor, but its always good to compare prices and the value of the amount of your time it will take up.

 

Also if you're looking for second hand machinery, the Pitchcare website is always worth a look - For Sale | Pitchcare Used Machinery

[fagus]

Use a contractor- expensive to buy your own kit and if you can only buy smaller gear the management will become a chore. To reduce seed and nutrient levels you could cost out the idea of stripping and selling a couple of inches of top soil to finance operations

 

Essential that the nutrient level is altered to encourage a new plant community to evolve.My experience is that broadcast wildflower seed will not compete with the vegetation already there, it has evolved as the successful sward for the local conditions.

 

Planting plugs of the wild flowers you want is needed, but you have big area for that.

 

I noticed that cutting at exactly the same time each year is needed so that you do not affect seed ripening of the plants you are encouraging.A plant community will evolve to suit a regular mowing regime,i.e don't cut twice one year and three times the next.

[Treehugger1]

Woodyguy, you should get in touch with Kings conservation crops for advice on this, Richard Barnes knows his stuff when it comes to meadows and wild flower areas.

[woodyguy]

Thanks again. I'm getting a little clearer.

To let the wildflowers get established it needs to be uncut from Nov - end of July.

Then I get it cut by a contractor, either for small hay bales and sell, or big bales and rot in one corner. After that it will need cutting a couple of times to leave it short over the winter. I've rejected the idea of skimming the top soil as it would take many years to get back to where I am now.

For cutting those two times in autumn I will need to remove the cuttings, so a mower is less attractive than a powered scythe and rake up. I'm looking at the Apache m210 which seems a sensible price. Does anybody have any thoughts on these?