Logan52
Well-known member
Many years ago (1970s) I mowed my steeper hillsides with a pair of gray mules and an International No. 9 horsedrawn mower. I had good grass on them then, mostly fescue and Jap clover. I struggled for time to get the job done and began to hire them mowed with a Ford 4000 and Ford sickle mower (1980s).
This transitioned to bat wing bush-hogs behind dual wheel 4WD tractors. I could only get them to come in late fall after their more profitable mowing jobs were done. The hills began to sprout sumac and briars, with goldenrod crowding out the grass.
For the last few years the rising cost of fuel and machinery repair has made it almost impossible to get them mowed at any price.
Much of my part of the county is growing up in rose bushes and honeysuckle bushes.
In the 1930s and 1940s these hillsides were all in corn and washed severely. Sowed to fescue, they made pretty good pasture from the 1950s until the early years of the 21st century.
It may be time to just let them go and forget about producing grass on them. Even rough land sells for several thousand an acre as secluded home sites. People build homes on the level ridges and let the hillsides grow up.
Anyone else live somewhere that it is just no longer feasible to produce forage crops for cattle anymore?
This transitioned to bat wing bush-hogs behind dual wheel 4WD tractors. I could only get them to come in late fall after their more profitable mowing jobs were done. The hills began to sprout sumac and briars, with goldenrod crowding out the grass.
For the last few years the rising cost of fuel and machinery repair has made it almost impossible to get them mowed at any price.
Much of my part of the county is growing up in rose bushes and honeysuckle bushes.
In the 1930s and 1940s these hillsides were all in corn and washed severely. Sowed to fescue, they made pretty good pasture from the 1950s until the early years of the 21st century.
It may be time to just let them go and forget about producing grass on them. Even rough land sells for several thousand an acre as secluded home sites. People build homes on the level ridges and let the hillsides grow up.
Anyone else live somewhere that it is just no longer feasible to produce forage crops for cattle anymore?