Brush Hog'n - Strategies and Tips

As Sepp would say, if you don't have a pig, then YOU must do the work of the pig.

Well, I don't have a hog, so I guess I gotta do the brush hog'n with a rotary cutter.  Some of my brush hogging questions are:

1. How is brush hog'n best implemented on a permaculture homestead (until animals can do the work)?  

2. Do you have any general strategies for where and when to mow, (or not mow)?  

3. How about the effect of hog'n height?  

4. Obviously hog'n knocks back ecological succession, does it gradually improve the soil just like herd animals would, or not so much?  Will it always create or favor "bacterially dominated" soil?

5. Any maintenance tips or "oh by the ways" regarding the machine itself?

I'll add some of my thoughts and lessons learned below, too!  Cheers!

In my opinion a brush hog is the most unsung permaculture tractor attachment.  I use mine to set back any senescent grasses and weeds that my cattle didn't eat when I rotated them into a paddock, strip grazing encourages them to eat more and leave less by the way.  I also mow my hay fields in September to clean up and green manure them.  Works great.

As for strategies for when to mow I have two usually mutually exclusive strategies depending upon your goals.  If I have a field full of a perennial noxious weed ( I am looking at you Russian Knapweed) that I can afford to take out of circulation I will mow it once a month to deplete the  roots.  Grasses will reproduce vegetatively and will like being mowed while the weeds not so much. If I want to encourage 'good' plants like timothy, red clover and hairy vetch I wait till their seed heads have matured and then mow, spreading seeds far and wide.

As for height to mow, the closer you mow the longer you can go between mows but you risk damaging your mower on rocks and stumps. Safer to mow 4" off the ground.  Pro tip: Mow with your front end loader riding on ground.  It will hit any rocks in time for you so you know to raise your brush hog.  

I believe that "Life begets life" and that its better for your soil if the plant matter would go through the belly of a ruminant that to be just cut and spat out of brush hog , but brush hogging is a close second.  And if your circumstances preclude livestock then go for it and mow.  I cant put livestock on the fields I lease for hay and they have definately benefitted from mowing.