Advantages of topper over disc mower?

[Macsky]

What are the advantages of burning a lot of diesel, quite slowly, running a topper, over just using a disc mower?

Mower wouldnt mulch the cuttings but time would do that.

Mower is faster, quite possibly more robust, leaves a tidier cut on grass which doesn’t stunt growth as much as the blunt force trauma of a topper.

Any thoughts?

 

[deleted user 837354]

Topper more tolerant of abuse/foreign objects and things that are obviously not grass. I'd argue that unless mower blades are sharp then in reality it's operating by blunt force trauma like a topper anyway.

I think the only place I would preferentially maybe run a topper is behind/ahead of cows in a grazing routine there you know there isn't anything to hit with it.

Muthing topper flail topper or similar I would also argue gets close to the height you want it at on rougher ground and tackles rushes, thistles etc and obliterates them into pieces to encourage them to rot down whereas a mower is going to touch them once and spit them out?

 

[spin cycle]

level flat pastures a disc/drum mower probably better....but on rough stuff you'll soon damage it I reckon

 

[Macsky]

I’ve seen mowers around here come away pretty unscathed after hitting rocks and hidden junk that might have knackered a flail, with the spring loaded floating nature of a mower, break-back design and the fact that the blades are essentially retractable I see them as pretty robust.

 

[Wellytrack]

Everything for its job. 5 feet high rushes? 8 feet high whins? I’ve put them through a McConnell Rhino - you might do it once or twice with a mower, but not all day.

 

[Boohoo]

We use flails for topping the rough grazing land and the mower for topping the land that can be cut. Just need to update the flails or improve the rough grazing because despite doing a perfect job, a modified 43" Taarup single chop is painfully slow. A rotary topper would be faster, even a 6' version, but any rotary I've used hasn't impressed.

 

[Macsky]

Everything for its job. 5 feet high rushes? 8 feet high whins? I’ve put them through a McConnell Rhino - you might do it once or twice with a mower, but not all day.

Tidying up rushes that have been weed wiped so weakened considerably, knee high at most.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Tidying up rushes that have been weed wiped so weakened considerably, knee high at most.

disc or drum mower is ideal ime as they shave them off tight. weve never owned a topper. dont have rocks in our fields tho tbh
trouble is a bash onn the mower thropughs it out of balance and that can be hard to sort

but a bit of earth scalping wont do bendy damage. just wear it a bit qiuker and stuff can get in nthe bearings.
main reason we use them is because then its only one tool to have instead of 2 and the finsh that we get if we do occasionally top off a fields of fine gone seed heads grass. or better still thistles ,as it takes them off down tight to the ground instead of smudging them like a topper does.

 

[David.]

Main real advantage is mulching instead of rowing the toppings.

 

[Jasper]

I’ve found that if it’s mown once it’s wilted cows go Mad for it even though they wouldn’t eat it before . Toppers seem to make a tidy job but next day a lot has sprung back up ( that might just be our old topper votex )

 

[devonbeef]

biggest advantage of topper is can cut higher if dry and it comes back quicker rather than burn i find