Newbie needing help

[warcat]

How's it going fellas... like the title says, I'm new to owning a tractor and everything that goes with it. I've got a growing problem that I need some advice on. Here's the deal:
Ranch is in south Texas, native growth is mesquite, huisache, etc. I've got approximately 30 acres of fields that were usually planted each year with hay grazer, cut, and baled until around 3 years ago. In the last 3 years, nothing has been planted, and the fields have not been worked. Now I've got small to medium trees (mesquite, huisache, etc) coming up. Most trunk diameters are in the 2 1/2" range, with some around 3". There has been no substantial rain in over a year. The ground is hard. Compounding the problem are hog rootings (mounds, craters, very uneven surface) throughout the fields. I'd like to get the fields back in working order, or maybe even plant a permanent type grass that can be baled yearly. I'm pretty sure that this year is my last chance to do something before the fields are completely overtaken. What do I need to do? I own a 55hp Mahindra w/loader, but no implements as of yet.

Your help/advice for this newbie would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JoeinTX]

Hello, warcat....


Sounds like you're beyond the stage of simply mowing those mesquites down with the shredder if they're up to 3.5 inches already. Removal can be done: manually (digging below the surface and chain sawing them off) if you can get that kind of help where you are.....chemically using pesticides to kill off all of the offending growth.....or mechanically via dozer w/grubber. None will be cheap. There are some grubber attachments made that will adapt to your tractor's loader connection or 3pt hookup if you wanted to go that route and thought the tractor could handle it:

PowerGrubber Home

Once cleared sufficienctly are you considering a controlled burn to rid the cactus, etc.?

As for tilling it, you'll probably need to start with a chisel and work it over real well before doing any discing or planting. What kind of grasses are you considering?

 

[flusher]

How's it going fellas... like the title says, I'm new to owning a tractor and everything that goes with it. I've got a growing problem that I need some advice on. Here's the deal:
Ranch is in south Texas, native growth is mesquite, huisache, etc. I've got approximately 30 acres of fields that were usually planted each year with hay grazer, cut, and baled until around 3 years ago. In the last 3 years, nothing has been planted, and the fields have not been worked. Now I've got small to medium trees (mesquite, huisache, etc) coming up. Most trunk diameters are in the 2 1/2" range, with some around 3". There has been no substantial rain in over a year. The ground is hard. Compounding the problem are hog rootings (mounds, craters, very uneven surface) throughout the fields. I'd like to get the fields back in working order, or maybe even plant a permanent type grass that can be baled yearly. I'm pretty sure that this year is my last chance to do something before the fields are completely overtaken. What do I need to do? I own a 55hp Mahindra w/loader, but no implements as of yet.

Your help/advice for this newbie would be greatly appreciated.

I have a 2008 Mahindra 5525 with the ML-250 FEL. My 10 acre place has room for about 6 acres of non-irrigated hayfield.

Here are the haying implements I have (so far):

For general mowing, a 6-ft Hawkline brush hog.

The topsoil on my place is thin and somewhat gravely, so no deep plowing using a moldboard plow. Instead, I have a 13-ft Minneapolis Moline KA-1300 wheel disc.

It's actually made by Krause. It has 48 pans, but I'll probably remove 16 of them to get the disc down to about 10-ft wide so the 5525 can handle it. Field prep is done around here in Sep in hard baked soil. So with the tillage depth set at 3-4 inches and the disc angle set for fairly unaggressive digging, the 5525 should be able to pull it.

For clod busting and firming up the tilled soil, I have a 9-ft cultipacker.

For seeding I can either broadcast or use an old Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill (10-ft wide, 20 drops) that I restored that has both fertilizer and seeding boxes.

For mowing hay I have either an Allis Chalmers 80T pull-type sicklebar mower

or a Massey Ferguson 41 3-pt sicklebar

Raking is handled by a JD 350 side delivery rake

And baling is done with a Massey Ferguson 124 two-twine baler (14x18" bales)

My hayfield is flat and pretty smooth. If yours is rough, you may need some type of scraper or land plane to even it out before tilling.

Hope this helps.

 

[Aquaman]

Try a tree shear. They are FAST and will cut the trees off roughly flush with the ground. Most rental joints can fix you up with one. After that, a rotary mower (we call 'em brush hogs around here) will take care of the rest. As for the hogs (the kind that oink), it sounds like you have a good excuse to go to the gun store.

 

[warcat]

Hello, warcat....


Sounds like you're beyond the stage of simply mowing those mesquites down with the shredder if they're up to 3.5 inches already. Removal can be done: manually (digging below the surface and chain sawing them off) if you can get that kind of help where you are.....chemically using pesticides to kill off all of the offending growth.....or mechanically via dozer w/grubber. None will be cheap. There are some grubber attachments made that will adapt to your tractor's loader connection or 3pt hookup if you wanted to go that route and thought the tractor could handle it:

PowerGrubber Home

Once cleared sufficienctly are you considering a controlled burn to rid the cactus, etc.?

As for tilling it, you'll probably need to start with a chisel and work it over real well before doing any discing or planting. What kind of grasses are you considering?

Thanks for the power grubber link. I'll look in to it.
No controlled burns in the foreseeable future. It has been super dry, and our county has been under a burn ban for at least 6-8 months.
Not real sure on what grass to plant, maybe bermudagrass?

I had someone suggest that I buy a toothbar attachment for my loader, and use it the same way as the power grubber shown. Would that work?

 

[Soundguy]

I'd get a 6' rotary mower, and mow everything up to 2" .. anything bigger i think I might axe down. o push down with the loader. Once you get the initial cut.. which will take a while at the slow speed you will want to go, then you may want a box blade to come back in and scrape some of the ruts/mounds flat.

after than.. mow the heck ou of it as weed control.

soundguy

 

[greggh]

If they are not any larger than 3" you may be able to push them down and if they are too limber to push you might be able to pull them up. Just a suggestion, I haven't had any experience doing this myself, but I had a friend with a 60 HP Ford that pushed down about a half acre of small trees and bushes that way.

 

[GreenWannabe]

Mesquite control seems to be a subject that comes up quite often. Here are a couple of links that could be of help.

Mesquite

http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_b/b-806.pdf
http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_b/BC-1.pdf
http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_b/BC-2.pdf

Range

Good luck with your own control program.

 

[JoeinTX]

"I had someone suggest that I buy a toothbar attachment for my loader, and use it the same way as the power grubber shown. Would that work?......."


I suppose you could try that but my only concerns there would be how many trees and how hard they are to work out of your hard ground. If all you want to do is physically remove the above-ground portion of the tree to make working it over possible then that might suffice.

Ideal physical mesquite removal involves getting below the surface and removing as much of the root system to prevent resprouting. Chemical treating will kill the entire tree but then removing the dead remains is an issue.

If you're going to be going over this property on a regular basis with shredder or plowing/planting then you probably won't be worried too much about mesquite sprouts. If you might want to leave it in grass for grazing then it will be an issue and you'd need to determine which way to want to control them before they become another problem for you in just a few years.

 

[jimmysisson]

I'm with Soundguy, since most of what you have you can rotary mow. Chain saw the few you can't. Keep up a mowing regime for a year or even two and your grass should beat out the little tree devils. If it rains...
Jim