DR Field and brush mower

[Someday isle]

I bought a DR Field and brush mower this week. It's the 14.5 horsepower electric start. What an awesome machine. Last year I rented a Billy Goat a few times when I was clearing my trails to create food plots. That machine was a beast and it did a great job but it really beat me up too. After two solid days of mowing I'm really impressed with my new DR. While I'd love to have a compact tractor it just wasn't in the budget and I don't really have the storage space for both the tractor and the four wheeler. I needed to mow my trails, clean up my campground and also mow the property boundaries and access trails. The DR was a compromise. It was money well spent. Pictures and details to follow.

 

[Someday isle]

Here's the mower on the trailer before I got started. The second pic is one of my food plot trails with the cereal rye I mowed this weekend. It was headed out and I didn't want it to dry down and harden the seed and I'm hoping it releases the clover underneath a little bit too. The picture doesn't really show the height of the rye - it varied from three to five feet tall.

 

[Someday isle]

Here are a couple pictures of one of the trails from both directions. This is the one we call widow maker. It's probably the most shaded trail we have and definitely the most rocky soil on the place. I harvested our first deer on this property with my bow last fall out of a stand that is adjacent to this trail. If you look close you can see the clover.

 

[Someday isle]

Here's a closeup of the clover in the place we call hidey hole corner. That's my hat for reference. I used the basic LC mix on all of my trails last year minus the peas. The clover is a blend of 6 lbs medium red and 4 lbs ladino per acre. Then I broadcast some Kopu 2 early this spring. I'd guess you could call it frost seeding but we really didn't have any frost anymore in a very mild winter.

 

[Someday isle]

And finally, a couple pics of my campground after mowing with the DR. It's about a half acre. I really struggled with what to plant here after we cleared it all out last summer. It was really overgrown. I sprayed and killed everything then mowed it late summer with the rented Billy goat. I blew off all the leaves this winter and my son and I "frost seeded" dutch white clover. We did absolutely no soil amendments and the clover really took but there's quite a few weeds too and they were getting tall and going to seed so I mowed it all today. While some people thought a low growing clover was a good choice I know others aren't fans of putting food in a place where the humans hang out. Ultimately I just trusted my gut and went with the clover. At most I'm out there twice a week in the summer and of course we'll park here when we hunt so it'll provide a little clover for the deer when we're not there. I know there's the risk of bumping deer in the camping area but we're going to try it and see how things go. If it becomes an issue we'll adapt our plan. The pics are from each end of the area.

 

[rlb165]

The DR seems like a great investment.
Last year I also rented a Billy Goat. It mostly did well, but I had issues with the drive belt coming off and getting chewed up.
A friend of mine was given one of the very earliest models of the DR, he says it is bulletproof.
Good luck with your new equipment.

 

[CuivreDog]

I rent a DR mower every Fall to get to the tight areas that I can't reach with my 6 foot brushhog and the steep slopes on my lake dam and I can tell you those things are truly a beast. I've found that if it has enough weight to push it over it will cut it down. Truly amazing machines!

 

[Someday isle]

The Billy Goat is a fine machine. It was hydrostatic drive and the DR is gear Drive. You wouldn't think it would matter much but the fatigue on your hands and forearms with the Billy goat really added up because you're constantly gripping the handles. The DR was just so much smoother to operate, but admittedly, the rye, clover and weeds didn't compare to the brush we cleared out with the Billy goat either. One of my boundary fence lines was a place we didn't get mowed last year and the DR plowed right through it today. I made six passes on the overgrown road and ended up with about a ten foot wide path a quarter mile long. I figure I'll mow that every six weeks or so unless of course I just want to mow because I want to mow. At $2400 it's certainly not cheap but after spending a total of $400 last year renting a mower when I needed to mow or clear it just seemed like a prudent investment and now I can take my mower down every week if I want to. At that rate It'll pay for itself in no time.

 

[Bill]

Nice camping area and good luck with the machine.

Just don't use it when it's 90 degrees out :)

 

[Someday isle]

Nice camping area and good luck with the machine.

Just don't use it when it's 90 degrees out :)

Yeah, well, it was just about that. 88 degrees yesterday and it felt every bit that today. I'm a Missourian - heat and humidity is what we do:emoji_sweat:

 

[nchunter1989]

Someday- what is the DR rated for, cutting wise? I had rented a billy goat a few years ago & it wouldn't cut anything over 3/8.


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[Someday isle]

Someday- what is the DR rated for, cutting wise? I had rented a billy goat a few years ago & it wouldn't cut anything over 3/8.
The model I have says 2.5 inch saplings. I went over a couple 1 1/2 to 2 inch trees yesterday with not much effort from the mower. It went through the rye rain in the picture easier than my TORO does my yard at home too. The Billy goat I rented last summer did great on anything up to 2 inches but I honestly wouldn't want to take on more than that with any walk behind. I'd just use a chainsaw any bigger than that.

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[nchunter1989]

Yeah most of what we have is 1-2 saplings. But what I saw was that they are so tall the machine wouldn't push it down & then didn't have the ummphh to chew it up


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[Big Snow Man]

I just bought a Billy Goat that came off rental from Home Depot and I love it. I thought the Billy Goat was smoother to run and "beefier " than the DR. Most rental programs use Billy Goat becouse of he abuse it can take. Good luck with your machine I could mow the whole woods down with a smile on my face.

 

[Someday isle]

I just bought a Billy Goat that came off rental from Home Depot and I love it. I thought the Billy Goat was smoother to run and "beefier " than the DR. Most rental programs use Billy Goat becouse of he abuse it can take. Good luck with your machine I could mow the whole woods down with a smile on my face.

They are certainly similar machines - only different. The Billy goat we used last year was a beast for sure. Being a rental it had been abused pretty well too. Having used both now I can't say that you'd go wrong with either one. As a bonus, if I'd bought a tractor first I might not see the need for the DR. Now that I already have the DR and still plan on a small tractor at some point it'll be nice to have both. I'm already planning on mowing 26 inch wide paths to a couple of our stands for quiet and easy access without having to touch any vegetation.

 

[Keystonepaul]

Only have experience with the DR field and bursh mower- would buy another if this one were to crap the bed- it hasn't been bullit proof, but it's been dependable and reliable. We did have to weld the deck after years of service. My carpal tunnelled, arthritic hands get the hell shook out of them when I use it, but that's expected with what it does- can't say I look forward to using it, but I do like the results of it's use for sure. Good lucK!!

 

[TreeDaddy]

They are beasts

I feel like I have wrestled a bear after mowing a trail

bill