Black berry removal???

[Mobass]

I bougt a 80 acre farm that is over growen with black berries bushes. What is the best way to get ride of them and turn the land back to pastures for the cows?? I brush hog one section and plan on brush hogging it over and over again. Another section we are using round up and plan on buring this fall. Another section I am getting ready to cultavate it several times this year hoping to kill of the bushes. Any sugestions would be great.

 

[Branchchipper]

Flail mowers work very well on blackberries, and you can turn animals (goats, even cattle) out onto the new growth as it emerges through the (unsprayed) flailed debris. That usually ends the problem.

Sprays have mixed effect on blackberries. If you hit this year's leafed-out growth when they are very thirsty (around here that means late summer when it is hot and there has been no rain for some time), a spray like Crossbow will be absorbed deeply and will kill uniformly. Spraying much earlier, or when followed by rain within 48 hours is usually a waste of spray- the plants will be stunted, but bounce back. I see gallons and gallons of herbicide wasted around here every year in just that manner. Then you hear the sprayers complain that "environmentalists have made these companies weaken their product and now it is ineffective!"
Could have just been patient, and watched the weather forecast...

 

[RandyT]

I just picked 4 gallon today. the best tasting berries I have picked in years. Which is surprising due to the lack of rain this year.

 

[Mobass]

I just picked 4 gallon today. the best tasting berries I have picked in years. Which is surprising due to the lack of rain this year.[/QUOTE Shoot, I have enough berries that you could fill a 55 gallon drum in a hour and not make a dent.

 

[schweizer]

Here we call blackberries Oregon barbed wire. Makes great fences for cattle. OTOH, a herd of goats will eat it down to nothing if you have a good real fence around the perimeter. Someone already mentioned Crossbow. It's the strongest stuff I've found. We use it for poison oak troubles. DO NOT spray crossbow when there is any breeze and if you are around anything you want to save. It aerosolizes very quickly and will kill everything in the vicinity. That's how I killed a bunch of raspberries on accident.

 

[jkis]

if you have the cattle already there, you can drop a bail of hay on it, the cattle will push and shove trample the blackberries and leave manure, the leftover hay they dont eat will compost the ground and the seeds should promote growth within a year should look like normal ground, this will also work on what we have out here that is called blade grass.
cheers stuart

 

[MissouriSprayer]

Brushhogging will not help, in fact it will make it worse. You have three good approaches chemically...Crossbow, Remedy, or Pastureguard. Id use Remedy....apply either at full bloom (May) or at fruit drop(Now) 1-2% Remedy with a non ionic surfactant (get it at MFA)

 

[Mobass]

Thanks for all the replies! I really hate these things.

 

[bigballer]

i brushhogged and burned the stalks and it took a year or so to get most of the pasture back, parts of it where they were really thick took 2 years. also removing the rootball and burning really helps in keeping them from coming back.

 

[vabiker23518]

Mobass, I wish I could come out and pick them for you. Blackberry wine is the best, but it takes 5#/gal and I like to make 10 gallons each summer. Hate to see them go, but good luck!