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Im on a country lot that continually gets covered with johnson grass 5 ft. high. I bought an old cub cadet riding mower once. It was abt 11hp. It was useless for high weeds, would bog down in them. It was only good for a lawn. So my question is whats the least expensive (like 2000.00 max) riding mower that can plough through the tallest johnson grass?

Good luck, as anything in your price range will not handle anything close to that height. You’re looking for a commercial unit at a minimum of triple what you want to spend.

The first thing that you need to do is get rid of the Johnson Grass. It will take some time and money. You are going to have to stay on top of it. Here is an article that will help.
Of course, you could buy a small tractor with a PTO driven Bush Hog mower.

at that price range, i would pay somebody to do it.

If the grass is 5' tall, no rotary will cut it because the grass stems will get bent over & bridge from one side of the deck to the other unless you drive at a crawl or jerk the mower back & forth .
I think the term for it is letting .
And then the volume of grass will overwhelm the deck
So you need some thing that will cut the grass at the base or chop it up from the top down
This leaves you with 2 options
1 a sickle mower like what is used for cutting hay
2 a drum type mower, either as a headder or flail
And neither of these will be cheap

The other alternative is an old 20-40Hp tractor from the 60's and plough the grass over a couple of times .
After a few seasons the offending grass will be gone provided you plough it in before it goes to seed as you would a green manure crop.
Over seed the ploughed ground with mustard or pasture clover which will supress the regrowth of the offending grass and can also be ploughed in or easily removed with selective broadleaf herbicides or simple iron sulphate, although the latter will acidify the soil .

@bertsmobile1
That’s what I meant when I said a small tractor with a PTO powered Bush Hog. 30 to 60 horsepower would be better.

And so you fully understand , a bush hog or slasher as we call them uses swing back blades on a single hub so a 6' wide mower is also 6' long.
So once 5' has passed under the deck the top will start to stand up and get chopped off then the new shorter top gets chopped off etc till the stalks are down to almost the mower height .
but a ride on will have 3 blades that are 2' long so the deck will only be a touch over 2' deep front to back which limits the height of grass to a touch over 2'

@bertsmobile1
I’ve operated 90 PTO Horsepower tractors with 7’ Bush Hog mowers and 15’ Flex Wing mowers. I’ve also operated a 110 PTO Horsepower Boom Mower.
A PTO powered rotary or flail mower will absolutely take care of the tall grass and brush. You have to stay on top of it with a regular mowing schedule.
Outrider herbicide will take out the Johnsongrass. But, it needs to be applied after mowing.
Same thing with a mix of MSMA+ and Oust. The MSMA+ and Oust mix will also take out the Bahia grass.

MParr said:

@bertsmobile1
I’ve operated 90 PTO Horsepower tractors with 7’ Bush Hog mowers and 15’ Flex Wing mowers. I’ve also operated a 110 PTO Horsepower Boom Mower.
A PTO powered rotary or flail mower will absolutely take care of the tall grass and brush. You have to stay on top of it with a regular mowing schedule.
Outrider herbicide will take out the Johnsongrass. But, it needs to be applied after mowing.
Same thing with a mix of MSMA+ and Oust. The MSMA+ and Oust mix will also take out the Bahia grass.

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No arguements from me about that
But he ain't going to find a rig like that for the $2000 he wants to spend
He might find an old 20 Hp to 40 Hp full tractor from the 50 or 60's complete with a PTO powered slasher for that sort of money, Most likely with perished tyres , lots of rust and a dicky PTO clutch
He also ain't going to find a normal rider that will cut grass that high .
When the pasture gets above 4 ' here that is about the limit for mowers although the Great Dane will eventually chew through grass that high but only traveling at a crawl.
No Idea what Johnstone grass actually is but it don't sound like fun.

@bertsmobile1
A used 30-40hp tractor and mower will run anywhere from $5,000-$7,000.
Johnsongrass is some really tough stuff.

Rivets said:

Good luck, as anything in your price range will not handle anything close to that height. You’re looking for a commercial unit at a minimum of triple what you want to spend.

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Then ill have to raise my budget to whatever it takes. 4000.00? 5000.00

Scrubcadet10 said:

at that price range, i would pay somebody to do it.

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That probably 400.00. For 2 acres every 2 weeks during warm months. Maybe even more than that. Its not economically possible.

Scrubcadet10 said:

at that price range, i would pay somebody to do it.

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Of course if i paid somebody to brush hog property thoroughly once, then if we could just use a regular riding mower once a week during growing season, then that would work. Because of gate widths we cant have over a 48 in cut mower. This means just 2 acres takes a lot of time to cut. I and my wife work long hours and doing the whole lot once a week is just too much. The two kids in young teens are too lazy, they take forever to get very little done and even though we pay them, they often have to be threatened. Thats why the johnson grass is full height in many areas, going to seed, before it ever gets cut. So its never going to go away. Im looking into getting a 2WD Orec brush rover. It would cut the tall weeds a whole lot faster and easier that our current DR field and brush mower does.

Do you have an ATV or UTV? You can buy pull behind brush cutters for them.

Arhh yes the idle teens
So organise to eat before you and your partner get home
make sure there are no easy meals , frozen pizzas , chips ice cream etc in the freezer then come home every evening and spend a hour cutting the grass.
Then come in proclaim you are too tired to cook & go to bed.
So the kids get the hint that parents are not their servants .
Stop paying them for things they should be willing to do for free.
No matter which way this ends up it will be a win
Either the kids will start acting like a member of the family & do the mowing
Or they will learn to cook good meals from fresh food .
You can take it a bit further like stop washing their cloths which they will think is great till they need to go to a special event and all their cloths stink.
Have a couple of friends who ended up with tailor made kids when they remarried and to a one all of the kids had been spoiled rotten by mum when dad had gone.
Took a long while but some stern dicipline, like charging the kids taxi fares when they wanted to be taken some where , refusing to cook meals till all the days work was done .
The funniest one was a male child who brought a girlfriend home & the parents banned them from the common ares of the house because the son had refused to help with the house cleaning.
He thought the idea of entertaining his girlfriend in his bedroom was a hit.
She stormed out calling him a pig ( amongst some other less polite terms ) .
After that the bed room got cleaned regularly his washing was in the laundry & he found what a vacuum cleaner was used for .

jimigunne said:

Im on a country lot that continually gets covered with johnson grass 5 ft. high. I bought an old cub cadet riding mower once. It was abt 11hp. It was useless for high weeds, would bog down in them. It was only good for a lawn. So my question is whats the least expensive (like 2000.00 max) riding mower that can plough through the tallest johnson grass?

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jimigunne said:

Im on a country lot that continually gets covered with johnson grass 5 ft. high. I bought an old cub cadet riding mower once. It was abt 11hp. It was useless for high weeds, would bog down in them. It was only good for a lawn. So my question is whats the least expensive (like 2000.00 max) riding mower that can plough through the tallest johnson grass?

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I got a 60” bad boy ZTR for $2K at an auction, works just fine on Johnson grass, black berry briars, buck bush and grape vines. Have cleared around 15 acres with it. Doubt you will find anything new in your price range that will handle this, but quite a few used machines. Try Facebook marketplace in your area.

MParr said:

@bertsmobile1
A used 30-40hp tractor and mower will run anywhere from $5,000-$7,000.
Johnsongrass is some really tough stuff.

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Suppose it is just the different markets.
Landlord can usually find a 400 or 500 series International for under $ 2000 ( Aust) from a small acreage farm that has fallen prey to urban sprawl .
He will buy a new one every couple of years because he can pick up an old tractor for less than the price of a new tyre and in many cases there will be an old impliment on the back as well .
Thus he now has a dozen tractors and each working one has a dedicated impliment on the back ( front or belly ) which makes things a lot easier.
Only problem is each one needs to be run for 10 minutes or so per month to keep the diesel pump from gumming up & drive the water out of the fuel & oil .

jimigunne said:

That probably 400.00. For 2 acres every 2 weeks during warm months. Maybe even more than that. Its not economically possible.

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If you're going to mow it every two weeks, it'll only be 5' tall once.

Hire somebody to bale it. If it's good enough to feed to animals, you can sell the bales. If not, pay somebody to haul it off. You've got to get rid of the cuttings.

Then a regular mower can handle it.

i wacked that stuff down with an old roof walk behind weed mower hobart still makes them . if using regular mower mow only half of mower with at a time till uou get it knocked down.then mow regularly

You will need to go over that a couple of times with a bushhog.

So I got a few odd ways to deal with this and get a profit at the end of it.
Get a farmer around you that wants to bale it. Charge a price for it.

Buy 10 wether sheep or any young sheep, Hair sheep are the best, fence the whole land and put them in it, theyll eat it down sell the sheep when they have eaten it down for a profit. Or butcher the sheep for meat at home. It will cost you less than $2000 for 5-10 sheep with page wire fencing and posts for 5 arces.

I say this coz I have done it. Became an accidental sheep and goat farmer trying to get ride of grasses and willow bushes, with brushhogs and mowers didn't work until I bought 23 sheep and 2 goats to clear 5 acres, ended up keeping them coz they took care of the 35 acre property and their lambs are paying for my land mortgage and a few holiday vacations a year.