Front and rear flail mowers or drawbar batwing

[spikeislander]

Hi there just wondering what would do the best job ? A front flail with a rear flick up one? Will be about 5 m cover or a new style 4.6 batwing on the back? Will possibly be used for cover crop destruction and followed by the drill so quality of job is important ? Opinions welcome , I’ve got the rear flail but could put a front pto on and buy a front flail for the same money as new trailed batwing roughly

 

[Bobthebuilder]

Stick with the batwing, there’s not much they won’t cut and they pick up most of the wheelings if you go slow enough

 

[dusty]

We had a batwing we’re now running triple flails but we’re mostly just topping grass. The flails are certainly much better for our job and leave a better finish

 

[Hillside]

We got a major cyclone 5.4m and does a great job of lifting the tracks.

 

[Mark C]

Batwing — bought a spearhead last year with. 6 blades per rotor. Does a cracking job.

 

[Goweresque]

You've got to consider how the drill will follow each type of topper, the rotary ones tend to leave longer strands of material, whereas the flails smash it up into smaller pieces.

Given the real aim of the process is to prepare for the drill, I'd want to be testing that behind both types before deciding which to go for.

 

[Wigeon]

Every batwing i've seen leaves stripes, plus wheelings. Had a spearhead for 20 years and while its brilliant, I'm not sure about drilling behind.

Bought a muthing front flail last yr, and the finish is incomparable. Was topping grass and clover on flat ground at 17-18k, and leaving it like a lawn. .

 

[warksfarmer]

Hi there just wondering what would do the best job ? A front flail with a rear flick up one? Will be about 5 m cover or a new style 4.6 batwing on the back? Will possibly be used for cover crop destruction and followed by the drill so quality of job is important ? Opinions welcome , I’ve got the rear flail but could put a front pto on and buy a front flail for the same money as new trailed batwing roughly

Tried a batwing last harvest and wasn’t overly impressed with the job it did to be honest so ended up updating our flail to similar again and very happy with it. The flail obliterates what it cuts if you use it at a sensible forward speed where as a batwing leaves stuff longer even when used at a slower forward speed.

Direct drill (tine) straight into flailed stuff no issue where as the batwing stuff started to wrap and it left more wheelings. The idea eventually is run the flail on the front and direct drill on the back as one operation where conditions allow.

 

[jamesfalky]

Instead of the batwing, look at the Major Cyclone, set this one off this spring chopping covers up pre-ploughing, won't shred as fine as a flail, but will chop up more than a regular batwing and won't leave it in stripes as its lots of smaller rotors and they create updraft to lift the material that's run on, again, not as much as a flail but better than a regular batwing.

 

[Lowland1]

Instead of the batwing, look at the Major Cyclone, set this one off this spring chopping covers up pre-ploughing, won't shred as fine as a flail, but will chop up more than a regular batwing and won't leave it in stripes as its lots of smaller rotors and they create updraft to lift the material that's run on, again, not as much as a flail but better than a regular batwing.


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We have been thinking of one of these to chop our broccoli down. It’s the ideal size to chop three beds and should require less horse power but i’m not sure it will chop it fine enough so at present we are on a 4.2 metre flail which is a lot better than a batwing type for what we want. We flail everything then striptill after bushhog types don’t cut it fine enough.

 

[warksfarmer]

Instead of the batwing, look at the Major Cyclone, set this one off this spring chopping covers up pre-ploughing, won't shred as fine as a flail, but will chop up more than a regular batwing and won't leave it in stripes as its lots of smaller rotors and they create updraft to lift the material that's run on, again, not as much as a flail but better than a regular batwing.


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If ground conditions are wet like generally they are in January when we would need to get rid of covers on high magnesium soils to dry them out, does that machine lift the cover out of the wheel marks then? Doesn’t look very wet in the pictures?

 

[jamesfalky]

If ground conditions are wet like generally they are in January when we would need to get rid of covers on high magnesium soils to dry them out, does that machine lift the cover out of the wheel marks then? Doesn’t look very wet in the pictures?

No, it wasnt very wet in the photos, some of the cover was already laid on the deck before getting to that field, it is also set to its highest setting in the photos, obviously a lower setting would grab a bit more of what was there.
It will create some lift, but not as much as a flail, so on high mag, wet soils in January it may struggle, but they can be front mounted, I think they have to come from factory set up to be front mounted but it is possible to do.

 

[ED.D]

There are batwings and there are batwings but from what you describe a flail will mulch and destroy vegetation far better and spread more evenly than the former. A flail will have the option of 1 or 2 sets of stationary knives to enhance the maceration of vegetation.
I speak from experience as I am fortunate to run both.

 

[Hillside]

Used ours on cauliflowers, 5.4m works a treat

 

[HarryB97]

We have a 5 metre Spearhead stubble master with 3 lifting and 3 mulching blades per rotor. Does a good job for a batwing and you can cover some ground but a flail will consistently leave a better job and mulch more finely.

 

[Razorback]

Hi there just wondering what would do the best job ? A front flail with a rear flick up one? Will be about 5 m cover or a new style 4.6 batwing on the back? Will possibly be used for cover crop destruction and followed by the drill so quality of job is important ? Opinions welcome , I’ve got the rear flail but could put a front pto on and buy a front flail for the same money as new trailed batwing roughly

Good Afternoon, Spikeislander

We have clients using both styles of our machines! Rotary's and Butterfly Flail Mowers. what size would you be looking for?