Most Versatile HD Mower For Any Deer Hunting Property - Made In The USA

In this video I review the most versatile mower for mowing deer food plots or clearing brush to create new plots. No tractor needed since it is pulled by an ATV or side by side. Even though it is considered a brush mower, you can use it as a finish mower to mow your clover food plots for deer faster than any brush hog. http://StrategicHabitat.com - Habitat Plans and Hunting Setups Randy VanderVeen - 616-560-7488 - [email protected] When I’m mowing clover/chicory plots in the summer, I usually set the deck height at 6”- 8” high, but on first year switchgrass with a lot of weeds like this field, I lowered it to 3” to really slow those horsenettle weeds down. The switchgrass will keep growing and so will the weeds. A couple years ago I had it competing with corn so I sprayed the field with gly and 2,4D. All the horsenettle turned brown and crispy, but a month later the deep tap root or rhizomes were sending up new shoots already. It’s a true perennial weed on steroids. So in mid September this year I’ll be spraying this field with an herbicide called Milestone. This is a broadleaf-only weed killer and won’t hurt the switchgrass. By spraying in September just before those weeds go into dormancy for the year when they normally transfer all their energy down into the roots for the winter, they’ll take the herbicide with it finally killing the roots. Then next Spring I’ll come back with a pre emergent called Sharpen which will give the switchgrass a head start and allow it to out-compete and smother the horsenettle and other weeds. If I had a choice between mowing with this Kunz mower behind an ATV or pulling a brush hog with a tractor, I’d much rather use this setup. It’s just a lot more versatile and quick to hookup and go, than dealing with a tractor’s 3-point hitch attachment. Plus you create a lot less soil compaction with an ATV than a heavy tractor. The 57” wide deck is only 3” narrower than a full size brush hog, but you can mow a field much faster with this because it’s a lot more maneuverable and it’s designed to cut at higher speeds. Since you have the option of offsetting the mower to the side, you can reach under low hanging branches and brush without getting scratched up or having to cut off potential licking branches on your field edges, … and you’re not matting down tall vegetation with the ATV tires preventing the mower from getting a good clean level cut. Before I head to a different field I usually stop by the barn to blow off the mower and ATV so I’m not transferring more weed seeds around the property than I could be. About a month ago I mowed a 1 ½ acre clover/chicory plot of Seclusion 360 for the first time this year. This is the 5th year this blend has been growing in this plot and still going strong. I should of mowed this a couple weeks earlier cuz the weeds were really coming on fast and the clover needed their flowers trimmed off. So I raised the deck all the way up to 8”. This will keep the blend from getting too stemmy, and it’ll produce more young tender shoots for the deer,… and help the clover smother weeds. I usually prefer to control weeds by mowing,…. and prefer spraying clethodim to control grasses in clover/chicory plots. Any bare or thin spots I’ll overseed in the Fall or Spring. These plots get a lot of midday use by deer and it’s very common to see beds scattered around in this blend. About a week ago I used the Kunz mower to create a narrow winding trail connecting a couple micro plots inside a 5 acre block of switchgrass to create more edge and points of interest. First I drove the ATV thru the switchgrass without the mower, while laying down a track with OnXmaps on my phone since I couldn’t see where I was going. Then hooked up the Kunz mower directly behind the ATV and drove down the same path. I thought the mower might bog down with tall grass like that, but since the blades were sharp and this mower is designed to cut thru thick brush anyway, I didn’t notice any change in the RPMs at all. Now I’ll just wait a couple weeks for the grass to actively start growing again before I come back to spray it with a heavy dose of clethodim. Then another few weeks later I’ll get it tilled up to breakup the root system and expose some soil so I can plant the Seclusion 360 clover/chicory blend from Northwoods along with some oats to help it along. That will put us at the end of summer. All the annual food plots will be planted by then, and it will be time to give the property over to the deer for hunting season. Any other habitat projects will be put on hold until winter. Hopefully you’ll get a lot of your habitat projects done this year as well.