Just an update, here's what I wound up with. 

Ford 231, industrial version of the common 2000 ag tractor.  So parts are plentiful. Ford gave these the designation LCG (for low center of gravity). Not sure the date of manufacture, but around mid to late 70's. 36 hp three cyl diesel, power steering. hi/lo 8 speed tranny, and ROPS. Just got it to my new place yesterday. Paid a whole $2K for it. 

That Ford is beautiful!  My borrowed Kubota is a L3410 I think. Fun.

I was wrong. Friend just told me it's a L3010

The guy wants $6K or so for it, only about 800 hours on the clock. Parts are getting hard to come by on these now is the main concern I have, plus its a little small for my requirements. 

I hate it when glass gets in there...tempered glass is not so bad, but plate glass...wow what a mess.

Or are you Japanese?

That is sweet. With the brush hog on our Kubota, I have to keep an eye on the temp, and go find a hose to clear the radiator once in a while. That, and ours only does 4' width.

I like how the fan reverses automatically when it overheats to blow the glass out of the radiator screen. 

Ok you guys, I couldn't contain myself.  We have a couple of these big boys at the 4 golf courses I used to maintain before retiring.  Width of cut is 16 feet and will mow up to 100 acres in an 8 hour day.  Pricey, yes, but you will be the envy of the neighborhood!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgKxFpo7isY

Apparently the issue with mowing with horses is that with only 2 HP available its critical to keep that sickle bar mower super sharp. Like sharpening every couple of hours or so. That, being a mechanical task, would come back to me to do. And if the horses discover a snake in the field, panic and start backing, be sure to jump off the mower to the left not the right where those super sharp blades are.....

That's great! Not exactly zero-turn, but hay! Get's the job done!

You guys are giving me tractor envy. For grass I use my little Deere x300.

For brush hogging I break out the BIG GUN!! 

I ended up passing on the 1980"s Yanmar. Very good engines but in general parts are getting hard to come by. The search continues, but that's the fun part. Once I buy something I'll have no excuse not to actually sit on it for a few days and cut the 12 acres....

My wife wants horses again, and she deals with all the living things and I deal with all the electrical and mechanical things. So,  this would be a fun way for her to mow (for about 30 minutes maybe): 

Interesting discussion and I am getting in late.  20 acres here in northern Michigan and about 1 mile south of the exact 45th parallel.  Being in the golf industry for many years I have seen my share of gas and diesel tractors which include Jacobsen, Toro, Ford, MF, International, Case, and most recently Kubota.  Horsepower range on all these was anywhere from 35 (Jacobsen) to 65 Kubota.  In all cases I coundn't really complain about any of them, they were all real workhorses and did a spectacular especially considering their age and number of hours logged.  Maintenance is key to all of them.

At home I mow 3.5 acres, maybe a smidge more with a 1989 Toro Groundsmaster 220, it has a 52" deck, 23 HP Continental gas engine with just under 4000 hours.  It doesn't look real purdy, but it gets the job done.  Very dependable and gives a professional cut to boot.  Height of deck can be adjusted from 1" to 4" (with 1/2" increments in between) by removing 4 pins on the deck, takes about 1 minute to change height of cut if needed. 

I only need the glow plugs on the first start in the morning. After that, it starts up like a car. I can walk away from it for 4-5 hours, and turn the key and boom, it's running. I don't know what Kubota does, but it's always been an easy starter.

Out here, the main impediment to fixed wireless is the terrain. If your property is large enough with enough variation in elevation, it might be possible to put up a private relay. We have done this in a number of situations. We put up a solar-powered relay at a suitable high spot, and relay the service down to the home (or whatever). Because the relay is point-to-point, this doesn't affect the throughput, but will add a few milliseconds of latency.

A ROPS is really a roll over protection system, meaning it is a combination of a rollbar and a setbelt. Neither is much good without the other, if not worse. Together the rollbar creates a safety zone for your body and the seatbelt keeps you in that zone when the tractor goes over. 

It was a tractor with an articulated arm mounted midship and a “bush hog” on the end of the arm. It was cutting the branches and foliage on vertical edge of the right of way. I have seen these before many times here in NC, but never heard them called brushers.  In fact, I don’t know what they are called

Vann

I have fixed wireless too and its a great service but so far none of the providers have service at our new location. I was pretty surprised the DSL worked, this place is 2 miles up a gravel road and there ie nothing anywhere close by on the highway either. Going to have to find out where the CO is. Maybe that's why the only promise 1.5 mbps? 

As for internet; the only choice we have here is fixed wireless. Cable will never get here in my lifetime, and DSL will probably be longer, as we're at least 73,000' from the nearest CO. Our cellular service works, but only at the west end of the house and if you're standing on one foot. Starlink might be great once it gets to your latitude, but it will be at least another year (and probably longer). We get our internet via fixed wireless.

In fact I had my 'link' to the 'stars' the other night when I rode the bike out into the dark countryside a bit after twilight and pointed my binoculars to a point just below the big dipper and POOF...there it was...Comet Neowise!

It wont be back for hundreds of years, so I thought I'd make the effort. 

Again, didn't cost me a dime.

Lat is about 37 here, I don't like those short winter days farther north....I'm not a big Musk fan anyway, so that's fine with me. 

In my experience a bush hog is a rotary mower, that works fine on grass but it's generally meant for rougher stuff, and meant for leaving what's cut on the field.  Bush Hog is a brand though too, that makes things other than rotary mowers, so there is that confusion.

In my experience still, a mower is what is used to cut grass for hay.  There are at least a couple of basic types, but they have small sharp cutters, more like knives, on a 6 to 8 foot bar that slice the grass off inches above the ground and lay it down neatly for raking into windrows for baling.  A haybine is a variation that may crimp the grass for faster drying and may even windrow it at the same time.  Mowers and bush hog, or brush hogs, are two very different animals, used for different purposes.

A finish mower is usually a multi-bladed deck mower with wheels on the outer edges to keep the deck level across the cut.  It's used on those giant front lawns of estate houses, for example.   

There is some overlap in how you can uses these attachments but depending on what you do on your farm, you would choose the one most appropriate for your needs.  If you have more than one need, you might need more than one attachment.  A bush hog is a good general tool, and probably what you want, but I used to cut hay so I had to have a mower too.  (And a rake and a baler.)

TT