A Brushcat rotary cutter has proven to be a good investment for Brian Ashley. Five years ago, he purchased the 60-in. (152.4 cm) model to clear 12 acres (4.9 ha) of pine seedlings on his farm near Donalds, SC.

“After I started using the Brushcat unit, I saw how beneficial it might be for other people,” said Ashley.

Ashley decided to take it into town where undergrowth was taking over large lots that sat behind nine homes.

“I ended up clearing all nine lots,” he said. “That helped my business to get going without any advertising and without knowing much about running such a business.”

Since then, Ashley replaced his Bobcat 873 loader with an S250 high-flow machine from Jones-Calhoun Bobcat. He currently uses it with several Bobcat attachments — auger, utility and combination buckets, pallet forks and soil conditioners — to do light grading and clearing, lawn and irrigation installation and fence construction.

The Brushcat rotary cutter remains a key attachment for Ashley’s business. Built to make easy work of tough brush-clearing jobs, it has a .25-in. (.64 cm) thick steel deck, a hydraulic drive that eliminates the need for shear pins or drive clutches and quick access for drive components and maintenance areas. The unit is designed to float over ground contours, keeping it in contact with the surface.

“For safety, the blades stop rotating as soon as you lift the cutter off the ground, and by switching hydraulic lines, I can reverse direction of the double-edged blades to increase the life of the blades,” Ashley said.

In addition to clearing thick grass and brush, Ashley uses the Brushcat attachment to cut down small trees up to approximately 2 to 3 in. (5 to 7.6 cm) in diameter.

“I used it on a 45-acre site that had been neglected for 13 years and was overgrown with briars, honeysuckle, and small plum, pine and oak trees,” he said. “The customer was happy because I cleared it all without tearing up the ground like a dozer would. In fact, when I’m done clearing a site, it’s smooth enough that you can cut the grass with a lawn mower or drive over the area in a pickup truck without puncturing the tires.”

Ashley uses the front-mounted attachment to clear areas where a pull-type cutter can’t go.

“One job involved clearing brush from sloping ground around a large pond. I was able to drive straight up to the edge of the pond and cut the brush,” he said. “It would have been impossible to do that with a pull-behind unit.”

(This article appears courtesy of “WorkSaver.”)

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