Burning fields

[vtsnowedin]

It also gets rid of the pallets!

but not the nails!!!!

 

[davesl708]

It also gets rid of the pallets!

Yes but AaronS on the "Pictures Only" thread is unloading pallets by the trailer load.

 

[yanmars]

All of the above make sense. I burn my CRP grass on occasion to get rid of rose bushes and volunteer trees and often find deer sheds later. Have to be careful of the conditions, I burn 20 acres at a time and like to keep it on my side of the fence.

 

[Creamer]

There's always one or two that wait until there's a good stiff breeze first just to make things more exciting for the neighbours.

I wish it were only one or two - it seems around here on a spring Sunday afternoon you hear the sirens about every two hours. I guess I grew up in an area where lighting a fire in field was a no-no almost any time of year. I can't think of a more dangerous, wasteful, and environmentally negative method of clearing a field.

 

[DT86]

I guess I grew up in an area where lighting a fire in field was a no-no almost any time of year. I can't think of a more dangerous, wasteful, and environmentally negative method of clearing a field.

Really?

 

[Creamer]

Of course - the plant matter is great for the soil providing humus and tilth plus keeping the natural soil organisms active. Burning like this is never very clean, i.e. not a hot fire putting a lot of particulate and other chemicals in the air.
The danger level really depends on the area - in dryer areas fires can be very hard to control that is why this was a real no-no where I grew up. Also the bare, dry land was very susceptible to wind erosion.

Of course we could take the BLM view and not allow grazing in the large forests which allows a lot of undergrowth which makes it very difficult to stop fires in the millions of acres out west; which gets each fire to burn a lot more acreage and take a lot more dollars to control/extinguish and leaves a lot more land bare for a lot more erosion....all in the name of improved land management. I think it is much better to burn all those trees and create a lot of smoke and mess and cost more money just so we can make sure cows and sheep do not eat naturally but corralled up in pens. Somehow I am sure this makes sense to someone.

 

[AGRIMAN]

Nothing like burning at sunset

 

[Skyfish25]

Burning, the only natural way to control over growth. Not tillage, not spraying. Use as another management tool. Yes, it takes some planning. Need wind and weather to cooperate. Look at all the native plants that need or thrive from fire. Burn broam grass as late as possible and later that summer shoots of blue stem, switch grass, side oats grammar and maybe a few others. Several evergreens seeds have almost zero chance of germinating without fire. Yeas, you loose some organic matter. But it may help. And yes some nutrition is lost, but some is made more readily available.

So, think of it as another tool. Don't use all the time. But it sure works well at times.

It seems like what us thought now is all one way or another way. Go no til, all tillage bad and spray. Go organic and no spray and lots of tillage. Don't understand, take care of you land and it will take care of you.