jyoutz
Super Member
A severe gopher infestation isn’t something to be accepted. It basically makes the land useless for any purpose except for battlefield training.
150 years worth of Gopher mounds
- Thread starter dbeeler
- Start date
My first ambition is to be able to drive more than 2mph lol. The next one is to be able to get the hay cut and make a couple bucks off of it but more importantly get the grass off it every year without having to put cows on it. This place has its share of hogs too. But those are easier to deal with. The previous owner's family owned the land since the 1860's and ignored the gophers because it didn't matter to them since they put cattle on it. I've ridden a lot of pastures and this is the roughest. Even with soft sandy soil.
jyoutz
Super Member
I did a reforestation tree planting one time on about 200 acres of soft sandy soil with a heavy gopher infestation. It was previously planted and failed due to gophers. I bought bait by the 50 pound bags and we used both a burrow builder behind an old JD 4020 and used the hand injection tool for steeper ground. The treatments were done in May. In August, we used a large Towner disc behind a D4 to disc the site and hand planted trees. The following year, the survival survey showed about 80% of the tree seedlings were becoming established. There were still some gopher mounds and some small patches of dead trees, but overall the project was a success and the gopher population had been reduced from a large metropolitan area to a small rural village.
dirttoys
Platinum Member
I don't think you have gotten the best answer yet.
1. Harley rake will give you a perfect surface in one pass of 6 or 7 feet at about 1 mph.
2. The only other method I know that will give a similar surface and seed bed is to plow, disc (2 passes) and harrow (2 passes).
If you want to turn the soil for improvement purposes you should do number 2, if not you should do number 1.
The others were correct, it would be best to kill the pests prior to 1 or 2.
Best,
ed
1. Harley rake will give you a perfect surface in one pass of 6 or 7 feet at about 1 mph.
2. The only other method I know that will give a similar surface and seed bed is to plow, disc (2 passes) and harrow (2 passes).
If you want to turn the soil for improvement purposes you should do number 2, if not you should do number 1.
The others were correct, it would be best to kill the pests prior to 1 or 2.
Best,
ed
interesting discussion. still don't know OP's location, & why the infestation is so prevalent in the area. what makes certain locations prone to gopher infestation? & once worked over for your hay production, will gophers return annually like a garden pest only to be dealt with again?
only interested, not challenging...
only interested, not challenging...
It's in east texas. I grew up 50 miles from here with a lot more clay and close to blackland in some places and never heard of gophers, but around here everyone has them. Only reason I can think of is the sandy soil.
Most people that try to maintain them do a decent job I think. Sounds like the people that fail are the ones that try to trap them on large pieces of land. There are too many to trap unless it's in your yard.
jyoutz
Super Member
Gophers are definitely more numerous in sandy loose soils.
wsc9tt
Bronze Member
Around here this is a case where you hire a local farmer to prep the field for planting. He has much bigger equipment and the proper stuff. As was mentioned this takes multiple passes with different implements. The scaled-down versions of those implements are expensive and most people are unlikely to use them again after this project.