I mow the back of my levee straight up or straight down, with a 3 pt hitch bush hog mower, in 1st gear. And like others I do it rarely, and in my case only on a portion of the levee. The 'steep' part gets burned annually and that's it.

It's certainly not worth it to risk life and limb to have a pretty patch of grass IMHO.

Dale

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"When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water." - anonymous