I haven't had any success in getting rid of it by just mowing but maybe I'm not mowing it short enough or often enough as I'm using a bush hog to mow my pastures. Sprouts always come back on me unless I hit them with Remedy or a mix of Remedy and diesel. Most of what I am battling now though is in wooded and/or steep areas where I can't mow at all
Not,sure what part of TN you are in but if you are close to Western NC mountains you can come over and see first hand the results of my war on TOH
I also hired mulchers to come in a mulch certain areas without treating and you can see the after effects of those areas too
An operator on a larger tracked skid steer cost me $150/hr 3 years ago. They did an awesome job and were very efficient operators.
Goats won't touch TOH either in case you are wondering
Sorry if I didn't answer this before. I'm in SC TN, about 10 miles north of the border and 10 miles east of I-65 (i.e about 45 miles NW of Huntsville AL).
So followup since I last posted here on this thread: I had a land clearing guy come out a couple weeks ago that had one of those mulching head skid steers. He was supposed to work for one whole day but only did 4 hours worth of work (debatable by one other land clearer) but was sidetracked by equipment issues, losing a track, having to change out the head and a recalcitrant FF connector that wouldn't let go.
In any event, some before and after pics:



Overall, I'm not too happy about the job but for reasons that not under the control of the bulching head operator/owner:
- The land cleared was left with some 4-6" high stubs (pungi stakes) from the smaller trees; I learned today from another operator that that is normal unless the operator is running carbide teeth due to all the rocks in the soil. Fair enough, don't want people ruining their equipment.
- The "road" (trail) I wanted built is way too steep in terms of sideways lean. Very uncomfortable driving over it, which by the by, misses the entire point of one of my most important objectives for this cleared land: a new better access road/trail to this part of my property. Again, not the fault of the mulcher.
So I had another land clearing mulching head operator out today to give me another estimate. After reviewing the property and my goals for it, what he recommended was getting a bulldozer service or renting a bulldozer rather than a mulching operation. He said, for my road, I'm going to need a bulldozer anyway since a mulcher won't move dirt (duh!). Plus, the dozer would take out all the pungi stake stubs and even stumps.
So now I'm investigating renting a bulldozer for a week and doing it myself. From on line searches it appears that I can locally rent a Case 400 series (70 hp class) for about $1600/week vs. $1200/day for the mulcher service. This would not include diesel, of course, so I don't know how much a dozer uses in a day.
So new question: Has anyone here rented a dozer before, what was your experience like and what are some good tips and tricks I should know about beforehand?
Any other comments and suggestions are welcome as well.
Thanks!