We have an upland prairie which is a vanishing ecosystem which we are conserving. It’s fairly steep. We don’t have sheep but maybe someday we’ll get some. Until then, mowing is a way to keep it healthy and free of invasive plants.

Nice! This is similar to the problem I face with my property, on a much smaller scale. Currently I'm hand weeding the invasive plants, but even for a 100' x 10' patch it's labor intensive.

For areas I manage / garden by hand, I can not say enough good things about this trail tool:

https://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/products.ph...

I use it for everything, from digging up plants, to leveraging boulders, to actually maintaining trails.

Is mowing really any less work than pulling weeds by hand? Keep in mind that insects need habitat, too, and tall grasses are key for them. Mowing obliterates insects.

Over time we’re establishing native fescues which don’t get super tall. As well as native wildflowers. All beneficial for the insects. Once established, mowing becomes less frequent. But we’re talking about 20 acre areas, so yea it’s a lot more realistic than weeding by hand.

when i was in HS i worked on one of those crews you see mowing highways and state parks (super good money for a teen but man it was hard work). Mowing on a slope with a large tractor can be very dangerous because you can tip over. Automating away the danger to a human may be worth the effort in its own right.

They make remote control (wired) mowers specifically for this use case. I've also seen some steep-slope brush mowers from Swiss companies, but those are hand-operated. Not surprisingly, the Swiss have a lot of farm equipment designed for use on very steep slopes.

The real problem is tractors aren't designed correctly for slopes, you don't need quite automation as much as a vehicle with lower center of gravity.