Help! How to clear a black berry thicket covered in thorny vines?

[bcp]

 

[Midniteoyl]

pallet forks and start ripping, lift high enough to get a chain saw in and start hacking away. ive done this alot because not knowing what im driving into/over with cutter. but rotary cutter and older tractor(not worried bout scratching it up) and cut away. there used to be a loader attachment called a brushbrute or something like that, it was like a stone fork but made for clearing fields/pastures. i looked into them a long time ago and boy were they expensive, but they apparently were very good for such jobs. like i said, brushbrute???? or something like that.

Brush Brute - Tractor Implement For Quick Brush Removal

Looks cool.. though could prolly just use a rock bucket http://www.iowafarmequipment.com/BradcoPhotos/bradco_rock_bucket1.jpg, or better yet, rock bucket with grapple and have something that can do more than one job

 

[Midniteoyl]

I was using a friends 45HP Kioti (Korean) with R4 tires and no ballast. That tractor is pretty helpless on grass. If we still had our big John Deere (150HP) I would have been done with this task in one weekend.

I see... I used a Ford 3400, gravel bucket on R4's as well.. Did get tire slippage when trying to break a fallen tree I found, but the diff lock and a little push from the bucket worked

 

[Daver1963]

Ever thought of a daisycutter? Clears about three acres!

 

[Tractor Seabee]

It's amazing what a small tractor like my Kubota BX25 with brush hog will do if you are persistent. I use the FEL about 6" above the ground to beat it down first and find those big things buried in the jungle like stumps. All the previous posts are right on with this. Do not try a rototiller, it will only wind up those vines in a ball on the tines and give you lots of work getting them out. I have cleared 2 AC over the last two summers. Blackberries will die out if you keep mowing down the shoots. Helps to plant a strong pasture grass in the area as it is easy to mow with the hog. I have never sheared the shear pin or stalled the engine even hitting large pieces of debris; AMAZING! as I have hit a lot of it left from a previous owner that let it all grow up. I even shredded an old inner spring mattress springs and all. It is now part of the soil.

Ron

 

[TomSeller]

I have done a lot of his. I put my RAKE grapple on the FEL of one of my backhoes. I set the lower tines about 3" into the soil, more or less raising the front wheels. I then lock my rear axle and rev up and go until something stops me. I don't have a lot of control, the berry mass in front of me is sometimes 50' across. Often I hit a stump, old car, whatever, that stops me. I then use the end of that push as a location for subsequent pushes into the berries until i have all of the berries ripped off or hopefully uprooted and in a pile or piles.

I then either burn the canes a few months later where they are or use my L grapple to move the canes onto a burn pile, old stump or whatever. I then prep the soil with a rotavator or box blade with ripper teeth down to get more of the crown root balls out. I then seed the area and treat any canes that come up with Crossbow.

My pushes into the berries can be anywhere from 30' to one time 300'. With the backhoe on the back I have a lot of weight on the wheels and if I set the tines right, I rake through the roots and get many of them on the first shot.

 

[jeff9366]

A Ratchet Rake for your FEL is $400 and not too much different from the much more expensive Brush Brute. Nothing wrong with using a B'hog if you have one, but if you have to buy, consider the Ratchet Rake. Mine does a great job tearing out thick wild grape vines. RR will be safer to use than a B'hog.

I would then spray whatever new growth emerges with Dupont Cimarron Plus. I hate to spray herbicides too, so use one recommended for eradicating blackberries.

DuPont? Cimarronｮ Plus herbicide on broadleaf weeds and brush

 

[stuckmotor]

I think the job will be easier after winter gets rid of some of the stinging insects nesting in the thicket. I can't remember whether blackberry leaves fall off in he winter, if they do, that should make it easier to spot stumps and the shreader will have less to grind up and throw out.

 

[TomSeller]

A Ratchet Rake for your FEL is $400 and not too much different from the much more expensive Brush Brute. Nothing wrong with using a B'hog if you have one, but if you have to buy, consider the Ratchet Rake. Mine does a great job tearing out thick wild grape vines. RR will be safer to use than a B'hog.

I would then spray whatever new growth emerges with Dupont Cimarron Plus. I hate to spray herbicides too, so use one recommended for eradicating blackberries.

DuPont? Cimarronｮ Plus herbicide on broadleaf weeds and brush

I would agree that if you are making a purchase specifically for this, a RR would be more cost effective. A rake grapple is a little more physically effective in my opinion, but not worth a specific purchase. The rake grapple's lid in a wide open position is very effective in keeping the berry canes off the tractor, something you would not have with a RR. If you have a cab or old tractor, this is less important. You can also grab and move the canes with the rake grapple.

 

[Sid Post]

And that tractor NEEDS a cab!



Bruce

Yep, our JD 4630 had a good cab and the only thing that stopped it was a snow drift that caught the dual 20.8x38's once on a dirt road and threw the tractor crosswise into the ditch with snow over the hood.

:roadblock: :snowflake: :roadblock: :snowflake: