Best Tool For The Job-Brush?

[Ben H]

There is a field that I could get a pretty good lease rate on, the soil classification is rated as "Farmland of Statewide Importance," problem is it hasn't been used in a few years and has some nasty brush. However, I think it's still savable. I'm looking for recommendations on the best tool for the job.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

A BIG herd of Buffalo? :wink:


Are you thinking of clearing or grazing?

Could you intensive graze it?

 

[Northern Rancher]

Thousands of cows run in alot thicker brush up in our country.

 

[gcreekrch]

A couple of matches will clean most of that up. :wink:

Feeding in the thicker areas will kill a lot of that brush. If you are really concerned about thinning it out hire a brushcutter.

 

[Aaron]

Rotary cutter and heavy offset.

 

[burnt]

Call leanin' H and ask if you could borrow his goat herd. . . . :wink:

My neighbor built a brush pulling fork with quick attach for his loader tractor.

The teeth are about 1' long and are tapered from a point at the tip to about 3" wide at the back. They are cut from about 3/4" thick plate steel.

I think they are bolted on tight together to a heavy plate at the back. So it looks like a coarse-toothed comb. Or maybe more like a brutally heavy duty manure fork.

When he drives through the brush with the fork at ground level, the brush wedges in between the teeth and gets ripped out . To dislodge the brush from the fork, he just puts it on the ground and backs up.

The nice part about it is that it does not disturb most of the grass that is already growing in the land you want to clear.

I hope my description is comprehensible.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

I cleared out about 40 acres on our place that had stuff that size and a little bigger with a 15 ft batwing. Leaves stobs tho, and sure makes the blades dull, and it's rather noisy too.

 

[per]

Cows in the cold part of the winter. Spray a salt brine on areas of the bush instead of salting them. With herd effect and bark eating from the brine you can brush large areas in a short time without fuel. If you are feeding them feed through out the brush increasing herd effect.

 

[Ben H]

I'm trying to talk my boss into grazing our goat herd. My off-farm job is a biotech company that uses goats to make antibodies. Only about 115 out of 275 goats in the herd are "bled" every week, the rest are only boosted every other week. They are all raised in confinement, hay and grain, bagged shavings. So there are huge opportunities to do it cheaper. However, there is a lot of money put into getting these goats into production and they are very valuable. This field is about 60 acres, which is large for county. The downside is I'm not sure how many years I will get out of it. It's near the Industrial Park, it's prime real estate, on a major road, has sewer/water. The current land owner is a retired Vet in MO and doesn't want to sell, but who knows what his kids would do. The other side of the coin is that I believe the commercial real estate bubble is yet to burst, and that we are getting closer and closer to that time. Therefore, if we do in fact have more commercial buildings go vacant, and we do go into a depression, then it could be 10 or more years before anybody could develop that land. The brush is only about an inch in diameter for most of it, the biggest is no more then 2"-2 1/2" and about 8' tall. I was thinking offest when I walked through it yesterday. I did see some business clearing a pipline locally that had a tractor with very tall tractors, a lift kit if you will, and a bush hog.

 

[PATB]

Ben put a good premiter fence around it and divide into small paddocks and move the cows thru it. If you can get city water you could bale graze in the thicker brush during the winter. To speed process bush hog and graze at hi stock density. The cows will eat most everything except birch and evergreens and thorn bushes

 

[burnt]

For those who bush hog brush or suggest it, is there not a bit of a problem with stubs causing injury to hooves? The brush fork takes roots and all.

 

[PureCountry]

If you remember Grassfarmer posting pictures of his cows grazing stockpiled pasture through December and January, it was pretty much that same type of pasture. I don't understand the desire to brush it out, why not just use it as it is without trying to change things? It's obvious that the grass is growing real well in there. Cows or goats will get through that brush just fine, so I wouldn't see any advantage to brushing it out. I don't think any possible gain in productivity would justify the costs of clearing, and in time, willows and brush almost always come back.

 

[cowhunter]

There's nothin worst than puttin a lot of time and some money only to get a place lookin good and get somebody else interested in it. Then the owner, presurein for more money. Down here, I'd try to burn it off and kind of spot grub the brush. Inprovein a little, here and there till u could run as many head as it would hold. A good lease is a must here on paper. A friend got hold of a peace a while back, cleaned it up,patch a lot of fence and grazed it for 2 mos then had to go. A bad deal on his part.

 

[Kato]

If this field was ours, we wouldn't bother brushing it, we'd just let the cows kill off the trees. It would take a couple of years, but they'd eventually pound them out, as long as you put enough numbers out on it.

But if you want to clean it up quicker, I wouldn't underestimate the goats.

A friend of ours uses goats to clear brush. He figures that his thirty goats will clear about 5 acres a year, and the bush he puts them in is closer to being called forest than anything else. The trees that are too big for the goats to get at end up with bark chewed off, so even they get damaged. The goats have no interest in the grass either, so don't affect how many cows you can run on it.

If this is so close to an industrial park, I would assume coyotes are not an issue?

 

[PATB]

The brush will not stay that size long. In 5 to 10 years it will a forest with some trees reach 6 plus inches. If you decide to cut the brush just becareful of wilted wild cherry leaves. Wilted cherry leaves are a quick way to have a bunch of dead animals. Fresh leaves cherry leaves do not seem to have the lethal aspect. A good herd of cows will take care of most of the small stuff. Ben I know you have seen my clearcuts out back and what cows can do for you.

 

[burnt]

PC, do you think it will still come back if it is rooted out and the cows keep it chewed down as it regrows?

I have seen the cows chew small stuff off and it doesn't come back unless the cattle have been removed from that area for a few years.

Unlike bush hogging it off, when it tends to try to regrow, but only as a deformed, runty, spreading type of bush. That, of course, depends on the species of scrub, shrub or tree.

 

[burnt]

The brush will not stay that size long. In 5 to 10 years it will a forest with some trees reach 6 plus inches. If you decide to cut the brush just becareful of wilted wild cherry leaves. Wilted cherry leaves are a quick way to have a bunch of dead animals. Fresh leaves cherry leaves do not seem to have the lethal aspect. A good herd of cows will take care of most of the small stuff. Ben I know you have seen my clearcuts out back and what cows can do for you.

Well what you don't learn here . . .

I did not know that about cherry leaves. :shock: :shock:

 

[Anonymous]

The brush will not stay that size long. In 5 to 10 years it will a forest with some trees reach 6 plus inches. If you decide to cut the brush just becareful of wilted wild cherry leaves. Wilted cherry leaves are a quick way to have a bunch of dead animals. Fresh leaves cherry leaves do not seem to have the lethal aspect. A good herd of cows will take care of most of the small stuff. Ben I know you have seen my clearcuts out back and what cows can do for you.

Well what you don't learn here . . .

I did not know that about cherry leaves. :shock: :shock:

burnt--chokecherry leaves- are also quite poisonous to livestock at certain times..

 

[redrobin]

Hire someone to shred it. It'll be back but if you do nothing it won't produce much this year, much less in a couple years. When the leaves come out , it'll shade more grass than what won't be shaded it appears.

 

[PATB]

Hire someone to shred it. It'll be back but if you do nothing it won't produce much this year, much less in a couple years. When the leaves come out , it'll shade more grass than what won't be shaded it appears.

Most of the shorter brush will be well pruned by the cows unless it is one of the birches. The maples, ash, oak and most other tree species the cows find tasty. Dogwood and other shrubs are another problem. The larger trees need to be taken care of one way or another and the evergreens.