Clearing the pasture of locust trees. I have a loader mounted tree shear which makes cutting them down easy. I have a 42 hp Brush Bandit chipper which grinds them up. But getting those devils into the chipper is hard work, and slow. Maybe chipping isn't worth it, but I was doing that to avoid large piles laying around. What do other folks do with trash trees cleared out of pastures? I can't burn safely, I'm afraid of starting the county on fire. After I get through the locust, I've got about 50 acres of 3-10 ft cedars to clear; those are much easier to feed into the chipper.
Locust Trees are Nasty
- Thread starter Believer
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jejeosborne
Veteran Member
If there are any sizable pieces, that is some of the best firewood there is. BTU per cord is one of the best and very little ash. I love the stuff!
Capricious
Platinum Member
When i started re-clearing my land (it had been bull dozed about 10 years before, but then ignored afterwards) I was very wary of burning. But I developed my own little system of burning which, while quite slow and labor intensive, disposed of hundreds and hundreds of cedars/saplings/whatever leaving little trace of their existance.
I would cut and and haul all of the cedars and pile them in one pile, and everything else in another pile, and I would burn (always in the same spot) between the two piles. the cedars, with just 2 or 3 weeks of drying, would go up like torches, and I would use them to "layer" the other other stuff which generally did not burn as well.
I would feed the fire manually, pulling from both piles as necessary, and so I could control how big the fire got. Sometimes I would allow the fire to burn down, and then re-arange unburned trunks and stumps, and then pile on more fuel.
I always had a few buckets of water around, but by keeping the fire small, by always burning on the same spot (so there was no ground cover to burn), and by burning on a Saturday when I would be spending the night, and not departing and leaving the ashes unattended, I never had any problems.
I should add that the biggest trees I was dealing with were about 4 or 5 inches diameter; by far the most numerous were the Ozarks cedars (which i am told are not really cedars, but that's what everyone calls them- I burned hundreds and hundreds of them over 3 years)
EDITED TO ADD: The main thing is to watch the wind- you don't want to be burning on a windy day. At least where I was, morning was always less windy than afternoon.
RandyT
Elite Member
What you are talking about is Eastern Red Cedar which is actually a Juniper. true cedars have flattened needles, like you smashed them with a hammer.
Capricious
Platinum Member
One other option is to hire someone with a mulching head on a skid steer or a forestry tractor.
I am looking at maybe "pushing" a road 1000 feet into the woods and had been considering hiring a dozer to do it, but after seeing what some of these big mulchers can do I am now leaning that way. Dozers leave big piles, and i don't want big piles to deal with.
I am looking at maybe "pushing" a road 1000 feet into the woods and had been considering hiring a dozer to do it, but after seeing what some of these big mulchers can do I am now leaning that way. Dozers leave big piles, and i don't want big piles to deal with.
rd_macgregor
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Yeah, those machines are awesome. I do wonder how much it ends up costing to clear tree-infested old fields or to grind back vegetation trying to take over the edges of my fields.
Capricious
Platinum Member
2manyrocks
Super Member
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Locust trees make rot resistant fence posts. If you really have locust trees, it would be a waste to knock them down instead of using them.
k0ua
Epic Contributor
I call those Eastern Red Cedars we have here in the Ozarks. "gasoline trees".. Because that is how they burn, like they are soaked in gasoline. Even a green one burns rapidly, and a dry one is phenomenal, how it goes up in flame.
Capricious
Platinum Member
Oh, yea. They burn. Only for a minute or so, but what a show.
By layering-in some cedars, I could even get green saplings & such to burn, when they would not have burned on their own.
Trying to figure out an easy way to "de-bark" some small cedars in order to make walking sticks. A few decades ago i knew someone in Branson who made cedar "Ozark Walking Sticks" for sale at stores around town. Would like to make me a couple.
rekees4300
Elite Member
forgeblast
Elite Member
Red cedar is easy to split with a froe, I split off chunks and grill salmon on them. I have also carved bowls from the red, and white cedar. Just finishing up three now for a lady.
rd_macgregor
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Thanks, that puts it in better perspective. It looks like it could cost as little as $250/ac or as much as $1500/ac (plus the transportation fee of $750). Its too bad the mulchers require so much HP (or hydraulic flow rate), otherwise anybody with more than 8 or 10 acres to clear could justify adding a mulcher to their CUT. But with most current available machines, you'd need a very big tractor, a track hoe or a fairly hefty skid steer to use one. I've seen a couple (eg, Torrent EX24[for excavator]) that use as little as 10gpm, but they are the exception; it looks like the smallest Fecon has a min flow of 27 gpm.
tractorshopper
Veteran Member
The mulchers are awesome machines. I had 7.5 acres cleared about 6 years ago. The only problem is you really have to stay on top of the regrowth. Any stumps will try to resprout repeatedly and grow quickly. A few sections of this land I could not stay on top of trying to keep it all from growing back because I didn't have a tractor at the time. I mowed with my JD L118 lawnmower for a couple years what I could keep up with until I got my tractor with bush hog and now mow about 4-4.5 acres of it with the bush hog, but the rest has really grown back up into nasty thicket pretty quickly. Some softwood and privet is already over 16' tall.
Capricious
Platinum Member
Man, that sounds like me. 7.5 acres bull dozed-off about a decade ago, then let it go until 2010. Been fighting to reclaim it since 2010.
But instead of trying to fight it with a John Deere mower, I was fighting it with a Sears garden tractor with 42" deck, until this year when i finally spent some money of a (very) used small tractor & rotary cutter.
About 1 acre (+ -) still in "thicket." Not sure if I will try to reclaim that or just let it go. The rest of it is now grass. And rocks.
tractorshopper
Veteran Member
I love a happy ending Capricious. Unfortunately, this property is about 4 miles from my house, and my daughters play ball all year long, so I have not had time to really reclaim the rest of it again back to clean. I went through 3 mower decks on my lawn mower during that time before I had a tractor. 42" also like yours. $600 each.
I'd call the other 3-3.5 acres thicket and if I lived there would be able to get it under control with some work. I could do a lot with my loader and a chain saw, but just don't get a chance to work it over.
Maybe in the next few years...
I'd call the other 3-3.5 acres thicket and if I lived there would be able to get it under control with some work. I could do a lot with my loader and a chain saw, but just don't get a chance to work it over.
Maybe in the next few years...
Capricious
Platinum Member
Mine is 205 miles from "the house." But i don't have any daughters to worry about.
it has been a lot of work- in 2012 I spent 27 days on site; lesser amounts in 2011 & 2013, and this year just (4) days.
Story starting with the "big" tractor purchase, with photos here:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/mitsubishi-satoh/316342-mt160d.html
I had the whole, multi-year story, with literally hundreds of photos, posted on a "homesteader" type forum, but the jerk who ran the forum decided he wasn't making any money from it and decided go shut the forum down on (5) days notice.
tractorshopper
Veteran Member
Wow, I read your thread. Great reading. You are very industrious and talented.
As far as the hill, I know pictures can be deceptive, but like you, I have some pretty steep slopes on my property. I bush hog them going up hill in reverse with 4X4 on. In fact, I almost always have 4X4 on the entire time I bush hog.
You may try backing up the hill sometime when you go back out there in the spring. It may put you in a better situation than having to use your walk behind. I think you'll be surprised by what your tractor will handle.
You also have a beautiful place. Looks like it's coming along very nicely. Unfortunately, I only spend a day or 2 a year trying to upkeep my other property. It's sad when you think how close I live to it. Good luck.
As far as the hill, I know pictures can be deceptive, but like you, I have some pretty steep slopes on my property. I bush hog them going up hill in reverse with 4X4 on. In fact, I almost always have 4X4 on the entire time I bush hog.
You may try backing up the hill sometime when you go back out there in the spring. It may put you in a better situation than having to use your walk behind. I think you'll be surprised by what your tractor will handle.
You also have a beautiful place. Looks like it's coming along very nicely. Unfortunately, I only spend a day or 2 a year trying to upkeep my other property. It's sad when you think how close I live to it. Good luck.
Capricious
Platinum Member
'...You are very industrious and talented..."
Well, if I had any brains, I would have realized when I bought the place that it was not going to forever look like a meadow, and that i would have to maintain it or it would go "thicket." Took me a few years to figure that one out...
"...You may try backing up the hill..."
Wish I had that option, but the property line is on the hill, near the bottom, so i have to access the hill from the top. The ground on the other side of the property line is all wooded, and anyway it is government ground (Army Corp of Engineers) so i can't come at it from that direction.
That hill is a pain in the rear, but it is the hill that gives me this view:
Well, if I had any brains, I would have realized when I bought the place that it was not going to forever look like a meadow, and that i would have to maintain it or it would go "thicket." Took me a few years to figure that one out...
"...You may try backing up the hill..."
Wish I had that option, but the property line is on the hill, near the bottom, so i have to access the hill from the top. The ground on the other side of the property line is all wooded, and anyway it is government ground (Army Corp of Engineers) so i can't come at it from that direction.
That hill is a pain in the rear, but it is the hill that gives me this view:
IslandTractor
Super Star Member
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I cannot burn either and don't have a chipper big enough to handle Locust and other trash trees I remove. My strategy for disposal is to pile them in a remote location and allow mother nature to do her thing over the next decade. In practice, there will be vines and other weeds growing up over and through the piles of trees after the first summer so it is not quite as unsightly as it sounds. I rip the roots and push the trees over so what I am piling is the intact full tree. I stack them near a road and they soon look like a hedgerow from the Irish countryside.
