When do you brush hog?

[Hoover]

I'm not far from you Clint, blue mound area. I know a lot of people clip this time of year in the area, I've noticed the natives really come on strong once it gets to hot for the fescue. I've been spraying 24-d the last couple years and letting what survives that grow.

 

[Djm961]

I used to mow once seed heads emerged in May and then again early August. This year is the first year that I haven't mowed anything and I have more grass than ever even with the drought conditions throughout July. I am not planning to mow this fall either since the weeds haven't come in bad. I may follow the cows this winter just to make the place look groomed again. Only thing I know for sure is that if I mow in May it allows the weeds to grow easier and then I have to mow again in August. I should note that I don't usually have any eye problems. Eye troubles disappeared when I started making sure to always have a lot of loose salt and mineral out

 

[Ouachita]

I bush hog when my wife tells me to. I'm thinking it's partly to improve the looks of the place, and mostly to get me out of the house.

 

[farmerjan]

We have to mow by Aug 1st at 2 places; it is in the lease. Owner wants it to "look nice". We actually made hay this year, on part of one place where we hadn't even rotated the cows into yet since we have been blessed to have had more rain this year that in several... and grass has grown like gang busters. Makes me feel even worse for other areas... but our time will come with dry weather... we have had a few summers of drought like conditions for this area.
One place the owner does the bush hogging and we have to try to get him to not mow it too short in case of drought conditions because it has burnt up the grass in the past.
Most others do not get bush hogged except to clean it up at the end of the season if it needs it. I prefer it so that the early spring calving cows can't hide their calves in the weedy patches. Keeps the woody stuff down, and keeps the cedars from taking over if you cut them off too.

 

[BFE]

Extension agent says that Chapparal does inhibit seed head formation but repeated yearly use will negatively impact grass.

I've tried to tip graze this year which means speeding up rotations in spring. It works but its more work and not so uniform as bush hogging. So to answer the question I'll bush hog either in May or early June for seed heads or as needed in July and August for weeds like marestail and thistle

Ebenezer I've only been doing this for 5 years but buying or developing fescue tolerant cattle has been quite difficult.

Easy to find them, but you might have to travel a ways to get them.