Hog Damage, Ground Leveling

[ETpilot]

Hogs have been active this year. They have not bothered me for a few years. Now they are back worse than ever. About 4-6 weeks ago they really hit me hard. Lots of damage in the pasture. What really made me mad is they hit my radio control model airplane runway. This meant WAR.

I got and set my hog trap. I caught 6 in the runway damage area. Later I got 1 female in the pasture area. Total 9 this year. I missed some a week back. I decide to move the trap to another location. The hogs came out to the area where the trap had been. My dog alerted me and I saw them with my binoculars. It was a moonlit night. About 8-10 rooting then they moved close to the runway. So I had to shoot at them to keep them away from the runway. They ran towards the trap but never stopped to check it out. They haven't been back. But they will be back so trap is set.

Next problem is repairing the damage. I did a search for repair ideas. I did not want to buy any new implement. So a poor man's land plane was in order. I found a post by Eddie Walker, a member here, who uses a log drag with chain link fence. I did not have any chain link but did have a log. Added to this I made a pallet drag. Between both I did a good job on the repair. I did have to wait for a good rain for better leveling of the runway.

While I was at it, I cleaned up my log splitting area. I had lots of logs but they wasted away as I did not have time to process the wood.

Anyway here are some pictures of some of the clean up. During the rainy season I will work on the pasture damage. I tried working on them but the hogs came back. So pastures are on a To Do list.

Thanks Eddie for the post and useful suggestion.

First set of pictures runway damage, trapped felons and tools used.

 

[ETpilot]

Here is my log splitting area. The logs rotted so I had to burn the waste. Four burn piles were made. I burned the last pile yesterday. The last picture shows the log leveling of the area. With a good rain I will use the log again then use the pallet. You can just make out the runway. The line that appears behind the trailer. Also the trap is there. Will need to zoom in.

 

[Creamer]

that pallet is very creative and I will bet fairly effective.

 

[ETpilot]

Finally, the runway. Initial repair and how it looks today. Next rain I will smooth it out a bit more.

 

[ETpilot]

The pallet works great. Thinking about welding one. But I have a few to work with for now.

 

[EddieWalker]

The log and chain link worked good for awhile, but eventually it rotted out on me so I built this. It's angle iron with cement blocks for weight to cut away the high spots ,and also to carry dirt to the low spots. It works a lot better, but in soft soil, traction with my 35hp 4x4 tractor isn't there. Since this picture, I removed a few of the blocks and that's made a huge difference. I probably should have used cinder blocks instead of solid blocks, or maybe mixed it up with some of both to get the ideal weight.

 

[Stimw]

Where are the pics of the bacon???

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

View attachment 524476

The log and chain link worked good for awhile, but eventually it rotted out on me so I built this. It's angle iron with cement blocks for weight to cut away the high spots ,and also to carry dirt to the low spots. It works a lot better, but in soft soil, traction with my 35hp 4x4 tractor isn't there. Since this picture, I removed a few of the blocks and that's made a huge difference. I probably should have used cinder blocks instead of solid blocks, or maybe mixed it up with some of both to get the ideal weight.

Hey, that's interesting Eddie. Is the top cross bar strong enough to pick that thing up and move it with a sling chain? What do you think that weighs?

 

[ETpilot]

I, too have given thought to pushing the dirt, log rotting and weight. I found that the log did not cut the high spots all that good. Plus it did not push the dirt forward to fill in. Also weight is a big factor. I found that going over the damage with the log was a good first step but going over it with the pallet was best for smoothing. I'm thinking of welding a pallet style drag with a flat face as in your picture but convertible to a cutting edge as in the pallet. Your picture of the welded drag helps. I will test my idea with a wood pallet to see how it works. Waiting for rain also helps make the repair a bit easier.

Stimw, no pictures of the bacon. I get my share from my neighbor who prepares the hog for dining.


Hogs lurk just about anywhere. Check out this video.

Hogs in the Corn Field

 

[EddieWalker]

That's exactly what I learned with the log, and also with other items that I tried to drag behind my tractor. My neighbor built up a massive metal frame to drag his land, but it was too big and tended to float over everything. I used angle iron for the frame because I wanted the edge of the metal to act as a blade and cut the high spots. The weight of the block accomplishes this nicely.