Barbed wure removal problem

[63DH8]

Almost 30 years ago, I put a barbed wire fence up around my parent's property. Since then, the posts have fallen and the field has overgrown. I had almost forgotten about the fence until my tractor's brushhog found some. What I'm trying to figure out is how to find and remove the barbed wire from the field. Would a rock rake work? What else could I use to find and remove the barbed wire?

 

[GerardC]

Maybe something like this will work for you. Gerard

 

[daedong]

You could spray the general area with Roundup, and then when all is dead and dry, burn it. By doing it this way no vegetation gets entangled in the barbwire and it will be easy to handle.

 

[Egon]

The rake should help locate the wire. Removing it may be another factor. Chances are there will be a lot of hand work after you locate the wire.

Egon

 

[riptides]

What Egon said.

And the rolls seem to be a lot bigger then when they were installed. I think the wire when it gets exposed to air, triples in length. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Wear good gloves, eye protection and raggy clothes when your picking it up. Good luck.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Varmintmist]

Neighbor kids, cash, food, cutting pliers.

I have never used or seen a easy way to remove barded wire.

Start at one end and roll it onto a 5 gallon bucket until you run out of room, then get another bucket. Go to the phone company and see if you can get some small wire spools.

 

[JJT]

Get a tetnus shot before you start messing with the wire. If you have lots to remove, you are sure to get a few punctures...

 

[_RaT_]

I put the tooth bar on my loader to scratch around for stuff.

 

[turnkey4099]

Find an end and begin pulling up. This is WORK. Some way to apply power to the pull will help a bunch. The idea of burning off before beginning will also facilitate progress. You will probably have to pull staples from each post.

Harry K

 

[Cactus]

The best thing I ever seen was a guy with a bulldozer cleared a fence line,posts, wire and all . He dropped the blade followed the fence line and pushed it all in a pile shoved the dirt/wire over in a ravine and I had a nice clean piece of ground to work on.No brush,no posts,no wire.

 

[63DH8]

Unfortunately, I can't burn the area because there's too many tall (100+feet) trees with low hanging branches. There's also lots of brush that can catch fire. Looks like I'm stuck doing this the hard way.
You know, you can't bribe kids to do work these days. I tried offering my daughters $300 to clear black berry bushes from my back yard. They turned me down. I offered $300 to the boys down the street. They turned me down. I ended up buying goats for $35 each. They cleared the blackberries in two months. Maybe I can get the goats to clear the brush and grasses from the barbed wire so I can find it to roll up. Eight freakin' strands through orchards, fields, swamp, and Pacific Northwest forest! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif It's the type of woods that, when you try to push through, the brush pushes you back! You wouldn't know if there was a bear five feet from you even if it stood up on it's hind legs, the brush is so thick!

 

[Taylortractornut]

I just use my front bucket on my backhoe mostly when cleaning up fencing during a demo job. My toothed bucket is also a big help sometimes. most of the tim I use the thumb and get at the end of the roaw and start pinching it up in balls and draging it towards the machine untill the ball is too big to fit into the bucket and thumb then i work and another ball. then bury about 10 feet under the ground where it sets. Or if its setremely grown up in vines Ill sit beside it with the hoe and rake it loose It usually is so tangle it pulls up a nice clean stripp where the trees and fence as about every 2 00 feet I pull up Il back up and tantake the laoder and work it in to burn piles or let it set in wadded up piles to make a rabbit shelter. I have used just the loader on the backhoe to pushh the rows up into piles for and that leaves a nice trail to bak up from its alot of work looking on the graound for holes and tire eaters and such. I had a lady call me last night wanting 1500 feet of 4 strand to be grubbed and raked off into bigg piles and removed. Ill probably bring a 40 yard container from work to take them oto the lanffill we run. We then can use it for and erosion controll fecne in the drainage hollow.