For ground that is too rough for a topper or mower: tall tussocky grass, nettles, docks gone to seed, bramble creeping in from the edges, verges and banks. A flail mower cuts and chops it all in one pass, leaving a fine mulch that breaks down in place.
A flail mower has a fast-spinning rotor carrying dozens of small hinged hammers or Y-blades inside a hood. They strike the vegetation many times on the way through, so it comes out shredded rather than in long swathes. Because the flails swing back when they hit something solid, a flail is more forgiving of stones and stumps than a rotary topper.
Offset and reach-arm flails can also cut banks, ditch sides and field margins that a straight-behind mower cannot reach.
The cut material is left on the ground. On a very heavy crop it can lie thick enough to smother the grass underneath, so on neglected ground the contractor may cut twice – once high, then again lower – or you may prefer a flail collector that takes the cuttings away.
Rough grassland and margins are commonly flailed from mid-summer into autumn, once ground-nesting birds have finished and before the ground softens. Cutting nettles, docks and thistles before they set seed stops next year’s crop multiplying.
Brambles and scrub regrowth are best tackled in autumn and winter, outside the nesting season. Keep off wet ground: a tractor on soft clay leaves ruts that last all year.
Booked through us: £346. Real jobs and what they came to — every field is different, so treat these as what past work cost, not a price for yours.