Clearing Brush- What do you use?

[Jesse11]

The state I call home is on fire. A lot of it is due to uncleared brush. It leads me to ask how do you take care of you brush and with what regularity?

 

[TripleR]

Mostly this.

 

[RobertN]

I use the tractor. Some brush I pull, some I cut, and some I "mow" over with the brush-hog/rotary mower. When I pull or cut brush, my wife like it chipped for use in the garden; most gets chipped, but some gets burned(on permissive burn days).

I have most of my property around the house and granny flat cut back; mostly a spring cut with the roatary mower has it under control.

http://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/DefensibleSpaceFlyer.pdf

CAL FIRE - Why 100 Feet?

http://www.fire.ca.gov/cdfbofdb/pdfs/4291finalguidelines2_23_06.pdf

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPRJeUQByRk]CAL FIRE Inspects for Defensible Space - YouTube[/ame]

 

[BrianDT]

2 years ago I purchased a Stihl FS-550 to clean the weeds up between trees. I have quickly found that it works excellent on that nasty brush that covers trees and tries to climb them.

 

[rekees4300]

The state I call hoe is on fire. A lot of it is due to uncleared brush. It leads me to ask how do you take care of you brush and with what regularity?

Much depends on the type and size of the brush. I do brushogging, chainsawing, weedwacking mostly annually. If you have a tractor with FEL then check out a ratchet rake. There are many posts at TBN recommending them.

Ratchet Rake, LLC - Tractor attachment, Bucket attachment, Loader, Skid loader, Kubota, Skid steer, Landscape rake, Brush remover, York Rake, Harley Rake, Rock Rake, Tractor rake attachment, Construction attachment, New Holland, Bobcat, Fire safety,

 

[creekbend]

I use the Bush Hog. The fallen limbs and debris that I pick up goes to my neighbor's outside burn stove or my burn pile. On my way from town this morning, crews were doing prescribed burning on the Game Lands areas.

 

[Hollow]

 

[TripleR]

Pretty darn neat, yeah I said neat.

 

[RDrancher]

Pretty darn neat, yeah I said neat.

Yep, I like it!

 

[ultrarunner]

I've had rugged terrain up the canyon sides loaded with poison oak... for me, the ideal solution turned out to be a backpack sprayer with Brush Killer...

I could be 15' away and hit my targets...

A couple of sprayings and the plants died and 5 years later... the brush is gone!

 

[plowindeeper]

I use a ditch bank blade(jo blade), axe. and a sling blade.

then I go get 2 guys standing outside home depo and a case of beer.

 

[Brokermike]

That is an awesome brush hog. My welder is gonna get some exercise this weekend!

 

[jdtractor]

I use heavy duty Bush Hog or Dozer, Chainsaw and brush saw. The least amt of labor I can use, the dozer and bush hog are my first choices

 

[rsewill]

A 16 bottom plow can make quick work of a grass fire.

 

[Pete Judd]

All of the above. Have to spray the blackberrys with crossbow where I can't mow them with the brushhog.

 

[Jstpssng]

This is what I had clearing my property last summer.

 

[Jstpssng]

Before...


During...


And now.
All taken from the same spot.

 

[boongard]

hey Jstpssng when you done with your property, would you give me a price to clear 20 acres. i am in Ellsworth area.

Before...


During...


And now.
All taken from the same spot.

 

[Countryboy1217]

How did you build this? How big of trees and brush will it cut before sheering a pin?

 

[ericm979]

Looks like it's got a slip clutch (with no safety shield). I wonder how well it works and how much power it needs. It looks like it could throw objects quite a ways. Commercial models like the Baumalight CP560 have side shields that extend farther forwards. (they also have four blades and claim to cut up to 4").

I'd really like a forestry mulcher on the front of a track loader but that's kind of expensive. Even a mulcher for the back of my tractor would be expensive and my tractor can drive only the smallest ones that would choke on our large brush.

We can't burn here and brush left in piles just sits there for years. I'm using chain saws and 8" pto chipper for the larger brush. Stihl FS240 brush cutter and a rotary cutter on the tractor for smaller brush. it's slow but I've cleared a good fire safety buffer around the house.

 

[ultrarunner]

Do you use and herbicides as part of your clearing?

This year was unusually wet and where I typically cut once for fire season I have cut 4 times and still could almost cut a 5th.

Thinking of going back to Herbicides for some as I am tired of tumbling down the steep hillsides as the ground drys out...

Thought about goats but would need to fence everything and know that would be a lot of work and expense.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Years ago I cleared about 5 acres by running pigs and goats. The goats ate anything they could reach and the pigs rooted up anything on the ground. It only took about 3 months for 20 hogs and 30 goats to clear the land. Then I sold them at the livestock auction for a nice profit. Wait until about 2 weeks before Passover if you want a good price for goats. Market hogs can go any time. Don't let them get too big. Goats take a good fence with standoff electrical wire to keep them from climbing the wire. Pigs will respect a single strand electric nose wire.

 

[oosik]

The biggest brush I have around here is Buck Brush. Gets maybe 2.5 feet high and 1/2 inch in diameter. Clean any area out with my riding lawn mower.

 

[Silvic]

I use this for just about anything big.





Before view


After view post planting


Same place but pointed a bit further to the left.


I use a brush hog for the light weight stuff

 

[ericm979]

Do you use and herbicides as part of your clearing?

I use it on poison oak and on the cut stumps of trees and really large brush (4"+) to keep them from re sprouting. I try to avoid chemicals but the PO is insane and I'm very allergic to it.

It looks like I'll need to mow the grassy cleared areas one more "last" time. This will be the third "last" time, and about three times as often as normal. We had 100 inches of rain this winter. But the well's full and the dry farm tomatoes in the garden are very happy.

 

[ericm979]

oops double post

 

[Turbys_1700]

In areas where I can get a tractor a Brown 472 brush hog and either a 4610 SU Ford or New Holland Workmaster 50...
On areas I can't access with a tractor I use Round Up and come back later with a brush cutter or grapple if possible...

 

[jack707]

I use a 6 foot brush hog to take care care of brush if it can't cut it I use a chain saw and throw it in the fire pit.

 

[ultrarunner]

I use it on poison oak and on the cut stumps of trees and really large brush (4"+) to keep them from re sprouting. I try to avoid chemicals but the PO is insane and I'm very allergic to it.

It looks like I'll need to mow the grassy cleared areas one more "last" time. This will be the third "last" time, and about three times as often as normal. We had 100 inches of rain this winter. But the well's full and the dry farm tomatoes in the garden are very happy.

Yep... me too as far as poison oak... I can run the Dozer to blade an area and never get off the machine and the next day every patch of exposed skin will have Poison Oak... learned quickly to avoid anything that creates dust because that is how susceptible I am...

After decades battling Poison Oak I have it pretty much under control... some vines are coke bottle diameter and some bushes are like solid 8' hedge rows.

I confess that it is a great satisfaction to make my annual search and destroy mission looking for new Poison Oak growth...

 

[oosik]

I worked for the Forrest Service - summers - while in high school. Learn that I was EXTREMELY allergic to PO. Wildfire burned thru a patch of PO - I was in the smoke - two days later I was in the hospital. At that time - late 50's - the family DR had a two or three dose session of something that cured my allergic reaction for the summer. Do not remember what it was but it did work. Fortunately, PO & PI do not grow on my property here.

 

[ultrarunner]

Probable Immune-Oak that was widely distributed by the Bell System

 

[DrRod]

I start with my brush hog on on the back of the tractor. But I can never get it close to the edges as I want because of overhanging branches or the bank of a stream. If you don't keep pushing back, your field eventually gets smaller and smaller -- to coin a phrase, rush never sleeps. We call people with that issue a middle-of-the-field farmer. So once I get everything mowed, I run around the edges with Round Up. I have a 15 gallon sprayer on the back of an ATV and it works great. Only problem is that you end up with a lot of dead shrubs and stuff that now consists of dead sticks and twigs. I'd like to walk around the edges with my blade trimmer -- like a string trimmer but with a tough steel blade -- but its just too much work at this point. So good enough is good enough.

 

[DaveNJ]

I start with my brush hog on on the back of the tractor. But I can never get it close to the edges as I want because of overhanging branches or the bank of a stream. If you don't keep pushing back, your field eventually gets smaller and smaller -- to coin a phrase, rush never sleeps. We call people with that issue a middle-of-the-field farmer. So once I get everything mowed, I run around the edges with Round Up. I have a 15 gallon sprayer on the back of an ATV and it works great. Only problem is that you end up with a lot of dead shrubs and stuff that now consists of dead sticks and twigs. I'd like to walk around the edges with my blade trimmer -- like a string trimmer but with a tough steel blade -- but its just too much work at this point. So good enough is good enough.

That's what I've been doing. Have a grapple coming to clear up the edges.

 

[Countryboy1217]

Looks like it's got a slip clutch (with no safety shield). I wonder how well it works and how much power it needs. It looks like it could throw objects quite a ways. Commercial models like the Baumalight CP560 have side shields that extend farther forwards. (they also have four blades and claim to cut up to 4").

I'd really like a forestry mulcher on the front of a track loader but that's kind of expensive. Even a mulcher for the back of my tractor would be expensive and my tractor can drive only the smallest ones that would choke on our large brush.

We can't burn here and brush left in piles just sits there for years. I'm using chain saws and 8" pto chipper for the larger brush. Stihl FS240 brush cutter and a rotary cutter on the tractor for smaller brush. it's slow but I've cleared a good fire safety buffer around the house.

I'm wondering how he's got his blades set up tho, I've got a 5 foot bushhog that I wouldn't mind converting over to something like that or like a Brown tree cutter/bushhog.

 

[Bedlam]

Thought I would pass this trick on I had to sell my grapple so when I went to move brush I now have to use my forks. In this case I drag the tree to where I cut it up and then cut the brush off and place it in a pile in front of a hefty tree. When the pile is big enough I use the forks to grab it with each fork on each side of the tree. This crushes the brush together, And then life and curl and away it goes. I also considered maybe some way to run a cable or rope from the fork tips back to the backboard But havent tried that yet. This is pretty simple thing to do. but I hadnt thought of it before. LOL