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As has been suggested before, and can't be stressed enough, "walk down" the field first. The time spent doing this quite possibly will pay for itself ten-fold in the long run if you encounter hazardous obstacles and your rig is down for two days for repairs and $$$. Open up the field first by mowing two or three rounds around its perimeter. Then mow in straight lines in the direction that the field is longest (assuming a roughly rectangular field). If the field can be seen by vehicles from an adjacent road, make your mowing lines perpendicular to the road if practical. Bush hogs or single-spindle rotary mowers of that nature are not the cleanest cutters around, and the cut quality will, most of time, correspond to the height of the stuff you're mowing. Bush hogs will tend to leave a strip of partially cut stuff standing. Most of that can be attributed to the tractor's wheels flattening the grass down with the mower's knives skimming over the bent over stuff. When the mowing swathes are viewed from a sideways direction--looking across the swaths instead of viewing them down their length--you will tend to see the uncut stuff more. Looks like dirty mowing job. You can also "mask" a mowing job that is not perfectly clean by keeping the swaths straight. Say your mower is leaving a dirty strip 8" wide. If you keep your swaths straight, that 8" will not be too noticeable a couple hundred feet from a viewer's eye. If you're swaths meander 6' side to side, that dirty strip will not look like a strip--it'll look like you're operating a mower with no knives at all. Straight lines are easy to do. When starting out across a field to establish your first swath, pick out an item on the far side--a fenced post or tree. Aim dead for it by looking right at it. Maybe line up your radiator cap or hood ornament on the target. Do not look up, down, or back for any length of time. This is where your initial walk down pays off because you want to be able to cross the field with confidence. I suggest a dry run where you think you want to make the first straight line. Sometimes your lines may tend to get a bit snakey, but you can adjust the curves out on subsequent passes. Keeping you lines straight keeps things interesting and keeps the boredom down. I'm utterly amazed at how crooked some mowing jobs are. Look like crap on a white duck. There. I've been wanting to blather about this for a long time to anyone interested in listening. Scope out the field first and have fun!
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