Reclaiming Field Perimeters 101

[newbury]

These forestry clearing saws will cut a lot of stuff and much easier than bending over with a chainsaw.

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I have the FS 350 model with a brush/weed blade, chainsaw type blade, and a normal saw kerf blade. They come with a shoulder harness that supports the saw's weight. 2"-3" trees are no problem for mine. I use it to keep walking trails too narrow for the tractor clean. It's my lawn grass whipper too with a string head.

Judging by what the 350 model can do, the 560 would be a serious cutting machine. They are used by forestry crews to thin tree stands and remove unwanted species.

I've got the FS250 w/ brush blade and find that using my 60cc chain saw with a 30" blade and swinging it like a hedge trimmer is easier than cutting much above waist level with the FS250. Maybe I just don't have the right "swing" with the FS250. Now for every thing waist level and below it works well.

It also may depend on the density of the branches, I was doing stuff dense as a privet hedge w/ diameters up to several inches.

If the OP is only cutting at ground level then the brush cutter would be best.

 

[dave1949]

I've got the FS250 w/ brush blade and find that using my 60cc chain saw with a 30" blade and swinging it like a hedge trimmer is easier than cutting much above waist level with the FS250. Maybe I just don't have the right "swing" with the FS250. Now for every thing waist level and below it works well.

It also may depend on the density of the branches, I was doing stuff dense as a privet hedge w/ diameters up to several inches.

If the OP is only cutting at ground level then the brush cutter would be best.

I swing mine up to chest level once in a while to whack something light, but they are designed for cutting at the ground obviously. An FS xxx would beat a tree shear hands down for a bunch of smaller stuff. It would have ten sapling trees down while the tractor is jockeying for the right position on one.

A forestry saw might be handy for the OP for long term maintenance. The clearing could be done in two passes-- using a forestry saw first, then a pass with a chainsaw to take down the larger trees.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Do one pass walking through with a chainsaw cutting everything you can reach. Do another pass riding your tractor with the bucket a foot off the ground, when you come to something you couldn't reach the first time, hop off, step into the bucket and cut it from a foot higher up. If you're still not happy, get a pole saw and do a pass, and then do a pass from the bucket. It's only a couple thousand feet, how many branches are we talking about? A few hundred? Do ten a day after dinner for a month.

On a job like this, the cutting is never the big part of the job. It's gathering the brush and disposing of it that's the work.

 

[blin]

It sounds like there will be a lot of hand tool work of some type to initially clear the OP. Unfortunate, as there is quite a bit of footage and not a lot of available time. I am still looking for ideas to expidate the process, as well as feedback on how most folks handle their field perimeters. Lots of good ideas and products that I had not seen before. Please keep posting your experience and poduct knowledge.

 

[STx]

maybe just put one of these on the tractor...

 

[blin]

maybe just put one of these on the tractor...

Sweet Ride! Now give me a jousting pole and I'm ready to go!

 

[quicksandfarmer]

It sounds like there will be a lot of hand tool work of some type to initially clear the OP. Unfortunate, as there is quite a bit of footage and not a lot of available time. I am still looking for ideas to expidate the process, as well as feedback on how most folks handle their field perimeters. Lots of good ideas and products that I had not seen before. Please keep posting your experience and poduct knowledge.

I've done a lot of this sort of clearing. I own an old dairy farm, it's a bunch of pastures with stone walls separating them, when I bought it the brush was 30-40 feet in along the walls. The good news is that once you beat it back the brush is fairly easy to keep back. The key is mowing (or grazing). It's not just that mowing cuts down the weeds. Mowing makes the grass grow thicker and grow sideways, which crowds out other plants. If I mow close to a stone wall it encourages grass even in spots where I don't mow, and causes the grass to grow right up to the base of the wall. If I weed-whack once a year the walls stay clear.

The bad news is that usually you get overgrowth in spots that are difficult to mow. In spots like that the most effective technique is hand clearing. Having done a lot of this, I'll say again that cutting the growth is a small part of the work. Moving it and disposing it is the big job. Do you remember when George W. Bush was president and they'd show him going out to Crawford to "clear brush?" Ever notice that there'd be him with the chainsaw, and six or seven guys carting away what he cut? That's about the right ratio.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

One more thing -- this is the right time of year. It's much easier with the leaves off the trees and the annuals dead.

 

[dave1949]

I've done a lot of this sort of clearing. I own an old dairy farm, it's a bunch of pastures with stone walls separating them, when I bought it the brush was 30-40 feet in along the walls. The good news is that once you beat it back the brush is fairly easy to keep back. The key is mowing (or grazing). It's not just that mowing cuts down the weeds. Mowing makes the grass grow thicker and grow sideways, which crowds out other plants. If I mow close to a stone wall it encourages grass even in spots where I don't mow, and causes the grass to grow right up to the base of the wall. If I weed-whack once a year the walls stay clear.

The bad news is that usually you get overgrowth in spots that are difficult to mow. In spots like that the most effective technique is hand clearing. Having done a lot of this, I'll say again that cutting the growth is a small part of the work. Moving it and disposing it is the big job. Do you remember when George W. Bush was president and they'd show him going out to Crawford to "clear brush?" Ever notice that there'd be him with the chainsaw, and six or seven guys carting away what he cut? That's about the right ratio.

That is my experience too. A 3pt chipper is a good way to handle the cuttings. It's sort of repetitive and boring; cut, chip, cut, chip. But once it's done mowing keeps it clear. I also make a pass with the brush blade about once a year to nip anything getting started along the edges.

Gray birch and beech are the worst here. Birch on the edge will grow out at a 30-45 degree angle heading for the light. Beech will send branches out 90 degrees from the stem a long way into the light. A nice red oak or maple will stay pretty straight and clean if the low branches are pruned as they grow. Probably different tree species for the OP, but some nice, useful trees can be grown on the "other side" of the edge if you leave a few good ones and prune them while they are young.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Gray birch and beech are the worst here. Birch on the edge will grow out at a 30-45 degree angle heading for the light. Beech will send branches out 90 degrees from the stem a long way into the light. A nice red oak or maple will stay pretty straight and clean if the low branches are pruned as they grow. Probably different tree species for the OP, but some nice, useful trees can be grown on the "other side" of the edge if you leave a few good ones and prune them while they are young.

Where I live, poplar is a real problem as a field invader, since suckers pop up from the roots yards away from the main stem...and they can easily grow 2 or 3 feet tall in a season. Old fields tend to get lots of spruces, birches and (sometimes)alders (along with the poplars) around the edges.