What's the best mower for gorse removal and flax cutting?

Gorse removal with a standard topper means multiple passes, constant blade changes, and hours spent going over the same ground. Flax removal clogs decks, wraps around blades, and turns a straightforward job into an afternoon of stopping and clearing.

Most operators end up choosing between spending days on repeat passes, hiring a contractor at premium rates, or spraying and dealing with dead material later. All three options work eventually, but none of them are particularly efficient or cheap.

How do you get the job done without wasting fuel, wearing out equipment, and losing time that could be spent on more productive work?

Where costs add up

Multiple passes are the biggest time sink. A topper designed for grass might knock down gorse on the first run, but it won't cut cleanly through woody stems. You're left with ragged stalks that regrow quickly and need another pass within weeks. Each trip burns more diesel, adds tractor hours, and puts extra wear on a machine that wasn't built for this kind of work.

Contracting out handles the immediate problem but creates scheduling headaches and ongoing costs. For properties that need regular gorse mulching, those contractor fees add up fast over a season.

Spraying works for permanent clearance in some situations, but it's weather-dependent and still leaves dead material that needs mechanical removal. Regrowth often happens anyway, putting you back where you started.

Equipment damage is another ongoing issue. Standard mowers aren't designed for tough, fibrous vegetation. Blades dull quickly. Belts stretch. Bearings fail. You're constantly repairing equipment that's being pushed beyond its intended use.

Why gorse and flax are difficult

Gorse stems are woody and fibrous. They need serious blade speed and cutting force to slice through cleanly. Standard mowers lack the power to handle the density, so they end up tearing and shredding instead of making clean cuts. The result is a mess that's harder to process.

How to cut flax presents different challenges. The leaves are thick, waxy, and resistant to clean cutting. They bunch up under decks and wrap around blades if the mower can't process material quickly. Machines that bog down or struggle with high volumes just create more work.

Both plants need equipment that delivers consistent cutting power and handles tough material without constant maintenance stops. Most general-purpose mowers aren't built to do both.

If you're trying to match equipment to your specific conditions and vegetation types, our Mower Selector tool can help narrow down the options.

The Major Cyclone approach

The Major Cyclone uses a two-rotor design. The front rotor runs hammer blades that break down tough material like gorse and flax. The rear rotor follows with knife blades that process everything into fine mulch and leave a clean finish on grass. One pass handles both heavy-duty cutting and finishing work.

That setup removes the need for multiple machines or repeat runs. You're covering ground once instead of three times, which cuts fuel use, reduces tractor hours, and gets the job finished faster.

The machine is built for durability. Heavy-duty gearboxes, robust construction, and accessible blade maintenance mean less downtime and fewer repair bills. When blades do need changing, the process is straightforward rather than a half-day job.

What it saves

Using equipment designed for gorse mulching and flax removal reduces several ongoing costs:

• Fuel consumption drops when you're making one pass instead of three
• Labour time decreases because you're not spending full days on a single paddock
• Maintenance costs stay manageable since the machine is built for tough vegetation
• Contracting becomes optional rather than a regular expense
• Regrowth slows down thanks to cleaner cuts that don't encourage rapid recovery

The cleaner finish also means you're not back in the same area every few weeks fixing up what a rough cut left behind. That time saved compounds across a property, particularly during peak growing season.

Choosing equipment that works

Plenty of mowers will eventually get through gorse and flax. The difference is whether they do it efficiently or turn a manageable job into a drawn-out project with escalating costs.

The Major Cyclone is designed specifically for properties where tough vegetation is a regular challenge rather than an occasional problem. It handles the cutting work without needing constant repairs or supplementary equipment to finish properly.

For more information on specifications and models, the Major Mowers brochure covers the full range in detail. Download it below.