Disc mowers are ever-more popular for mowing hay with 4-wheel tractors, and now we offer a model for a walk-behind tractor. These mowers feature spinning discs with small hinged blades on the outside edges which will “fold back” in the event of hitting a rock, stump, etc. Advantages over cutter bars are lower maintenance and no vibration, disadvantages are higher profile and more power-consumptive, hence not as much available cutting width per-tractor-horsepower. On this model for a walk-behind tractor, the two discs with 3 blades each turn opposite directions and toward the center, leaving the hay “wind-rowed” down the middle and the wind-row straddled by the tractor. We have found that the disc mowers are an advantage in regions with highly abrasive soil/high sand content soil: because rains tend to “splash” some traces of soil up onto the lower few inches of plants, the highly abrasive soils will cause premature wear of cutter/sickle bar mowers because of the way the blades “scrape” against one another like a big scissors.

40" Disc mower on Grillo G110 walk-behind tractor

With the disc mowers, all that suffers in these conditions are the 6 little blades, and they are inexpensive and very easy to change. Cutting height is fixed on this mower; unit runs on ball-bearing-isolated heavy steel “bowls” (for lack of a better term… that’s what they look like!) mounted beneath each disc. There is no way to adjust these, so you just have to live with about a 2” cutting height. As with everything else Zanon manufactures, this unit is heavy-duty: cast-iron gearbox housing and PTO mounting flange with hardened steel shafts & gears in oil bath. Has an oscillating swivel-joint in driveshaft housing to allow mower to “float” to follow ground contours. Because the cut material is straddled by the tractor, tractor must be equipped with 5x12x22” tall wheels or larger for adequate ground clearance.

Because of the power needed to maintain the high disc speed, the maximum size offered (and only size we stock) is 40” wide, and it takes a minimum of 13hp gas or 11hp diesel to run it. Stocked to fit BCS 749, 852, 853 and Grillo G110; can be fitted to BCS 750 or Grillo G131 with adapters. (Smaller size disc mowers can be brought in by special order to fit smaller tractors.)

Click here for a video of this machine in action

Zanon 40” Disc Mower

• Item ZRF1000 (BCS 749 - 853 & Grillo G131 w/ adapter) MSRP: $1995 $1850
• Item ZRF1000-G (Grillo G110) MSRP: $1995 $1850
• PTO adapters required to fit Grillo G131 or BCS 660 or 750
• Larger-than-standard wheels may be required