In a bit of a bind. The township where our hunting property is located will no longer mow the ditch line and passed the responsibility to the land owner. I have a MF35 with a 5 foot rotary mower that I use on the property. The problem is the ditch line is too steep. I will eventually kill myself by tipping the tractor over. The front end gets light, starts slipping down the hill, and I put all my weight on the uphill side ready to jump.

I am searching for a pitmanless sickle mower or other ideas to do this more safely.

Thanks for ideas and help,

Josh

Property located near Thief River Falls MN

Check out any of the older implement dealers or even craiglist. I would think you would find a sickle mower on or at either sight.

If you were closer I have a JD sickle I would be willing to sell cheap.

Dont know your local politics out there, but I would likely just not mow it since it couldnt be done safely.

Been there done that. Rather than mowing across the side of the ditch, mower diagonally up and down the ditch. Best to mow driving perpendicular up the ditch. Add front weights to counterbalance the weight of the rotary mower.

Probably not a good idea to be mowing on that steep of an angle, outside of the tipping issue, you are probably exceeding the angle of operation for the tractor ... moving oil away away from the various sump pickups.

Roundup

Plus crossbow

How long of a strip?, might be easier and cheaper, not to mention safer, to get a DR walk behind type cutter....

Thanks for the ideas. Approximately a quarter mile stretch. Can't spray and kill it and can't reshape it either. I will have to try angle mowing it.

Pay someone nearby to do it until you find something for yourself.

There are several online tractor/impliment auctions where you might score a sickle bar mower. Most of them you can have it delivered. For a fee of course. But it gives you options.

I have a Jari sickle mower that I use to cut my ditches. It's not the easiest thing to use on a slanted ditch.
Roundup will kill anything growing in the ditch. Crossbow doesn't kill grass. I use it all the time to kill buckthorn in my woods.
You might try finding a farmer with one of those long sickle bars they use on the side of a tractor. Hire them to do it.

I have been trying to rehab a JD sickle bar mower for past year. For some reason, parts sold today.........specifically the guards on the sickle bar.......don't fit. Sickle sections will not register on the guards so it won't cut anything. Guards have same part number, but don't fit or work. Shame as it would be used for same purpose as OP has in mind. It has a 9' reach and will handle slopes up to nearly vertical or down about 45 degrees. It is a pull type and belt driven. As is, also a pile of useless unk.

Modern era replacement used by county road crews is a very expensive 100+hp special purpose tractor with an offset rotary cutter on hydraulic arm boom..........blades turned by hydraulic motor. Think of it like a side mounted excavator arm........tractor stays on road, the boom arm follows slope of adjacent ditches. Will also rotate to vertical to lop off limbs above fence lines. Works for government as they have unlimited budgets to buy such toys. Perhaps somebody who has one of those could be hired to do it?

How many times a summer would it need to be cut, how tall will they allow?
If only once a month say, it would probably be cheaper to hire it done...I know,...we all want to handle these things ourselves, but it might pencil out better....

That's what I was thinking. There are a few farmers in my area that have that same attachment on their tractors. I've heard some of them cut the highway ditches for a small fee and keep the cuttings for livestock hay.

There ya go, declare that ditch a hay field, to be cut when conditions are right...You have a right to farm law?, lol

Fence it in with Smelly old Goats

There are nice hydraulic sickle mowers for skid steers, but they require a higher flow rate than my compact tractor provides, so I rigged up my own.

I bought a new Miva sickle mower on craigslist for $400. It was intended for the 1 ton chinese mini excavators, it attaches instead of the mini ex's bucket. Flow rate of the mini ex seems comparable to the aux hydraulics on my New Holland Boomer 30 compact tractor.

I got a skid steer quick attach blank plate and made a hydraulic tilt bracket to hold the sickle mower on the ssqa bracket. The miva had a weak point where the drive bar attaches to the sickle bar. I had to weld & reinforce that. At this point it seems to work ok.

It ended up being more hassle than I expected, like most of my projects. Not sure if I would do it again. But at this point I'm glad i have it.


Here it is in operation. It tilts from about 20-30 degrees below grade to full 90 degree (straight vertical) for trimming hedges. This is my son mowing the slope on the side of a pond dam.


parts before assembly. I welded pipes to the ssqa plate and built the rack (far right in the photo) so it will sit on the rack. I now have large casters on the bottom of the rack so I can wheel it around.


Fully assmebled, sitting on the rack (before the rack got casters):


closeups of the hydraulic tilt thing I made:

Any ditch that can be mowed in ND for hay is mowed for hay. It is hard to find a ditch you can hay. Someone is already haying it. I never under stood why it was not the same in MN.