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Barbed Wire Removal

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Ben H

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
1,738
Location
Gorham, ME
Any tips on clearing out old barbed wire fence lines that have rotted posts and grown up with alders/brush?

I was thinking of offering kids so much a pound for the old barbed wire.
 
Any of the fine Caterpillar dozers from a D6 on up will take care of it just dandy. 8)

Better forget getting any kids to do manual labor anymore. Those days are gone.
 
A wire roller works well..if you dont need the post picked up just go along with bolt cutters and snip the staple (as you snip give bolt cutters a twist to spread the staple)wire just rolls up and leave the posts standin...
 
Kids aren't afraid to work in our neck of the woods-find a minor sports team or 4H club that is fundraising and let them have at it. Lazy kids are the product of lazy adults.
 
Sure Ben! When do ya want me there? :D However, my advice would be to do what my aunt did. She took herself a log skidder and took out the whole dang fence; wire, posts, trees, boulders, and all. :shock:
 
The fence I'm looking at is part of a farm that probably has 200 acres, that's a lot for my area. 60 of it is 1/2 to 1/2 miles down the road divided in a couple fields. The homestead is about 135 acres. I estimate about 40 of the homestead is old pasture not in use. This is a decendent of one of the orginal settlers of our town, we're talking mid to late 1700's,, there is a big old colonial house . The ownder was my Mom's 4-H leader, he lost his barn to arson a couple years ago, they caught the guy,son of the fire chief of neighboring town and person who called it in. Fortunately he stopped milking cows and using it years ago. Anyway, his grandson has been helping with the hay in the summer and he's finishing college this year, it sounds like he may not have the time like he used to. He'd like to see me utilize the old pasture that is starting to grow up but is still salvageable with cow power. I think it would put me in the position for the additional acreage (I'm talking leasing here, btw). This is also right down the street from another 200 acre farm where I'm leasing one pasture and a hay field along the river, another guy with a beef herd is leasing everything else. I'm trying to pick up what he doesn't need anymore as he downsizes and may eventually retire from it. He says it could be as many as 15 years or as soon as next year if he has another bad year.

I started making a comment on the labor issue, I moved it to a new thread "Today's Labor Pool"
http://ranchers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=321585#321585
 
I would just start tearing it out.Once you start your 1/2 done.There is no easy way just do it..
 
Mabye you could forego the kids and just put an ad for someone to come out and do it for a set price,but enough to make it worth thier while and cheap enough not to break the bank.It's christmas and someone might need a couple extra bucks.Or barter, they take it out and you help them in some way.I know iv'e taken out fence on trade just to get the 200 T post that they were offering.Not sure how many kids are handy in your area,but there's alot of LAZY yuppie recreational adults moving around here,so not much help available like there use to be,before they decided Ag land was better suited to Mansions and Golf courses. :x Good luck.
 
It wouldn't hurt to give the FFA or 4H clubs a shot at it. Who knows ya might get lucky.

If that doesn't work....a dozer....in a big pile....then when all is burned but the wire..dig a hole and bury the rest.
 
We just take our time....take down each strand and roll it up and then sell it to a scrap dealer. Might take little bit of time.....but at least you get something out of it.
 
Friend had a neighbor come in that was going to put up a high tensile eclectic for buffalo. They sawed the fence post off at the ground and had a machine that rolled up the wires and posts
 
Agri-tourism

put an add in the paper, sell it as a great country experiance, a rustic trip back in time on a cattle ranch....get some dang concrete cowboys to pay you for the week of "vacation" out on the ranch!
 
jigs said:
Agri-tourism

put an add in the paper, sell it as a great country experiance, a rustic trip back in time on a cattle ranch....get some dang concrete cowboys to pay you for the week of "vacation" out on the ranch!
Click to expand...

Are you related to Tom Sawyer? Seems he used that approach to get a fence whitewashed. :wink:
 

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