What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

[pmsmechanic]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Thank you for all the ideas everyone! I have never dealt with goats but that's an interesting idea. I am assuming they are pretty tough on fencing so fencing them in would be pretty hard?

There is a woven electric fence wire that's used for goats and sheep. Just push poles into the ground and stretch out your wire. Also think about a few great Pyrenees dogs. They are awesome at keeping predators away.

Also goats will kill all small trees as they like to eat the bark.

 

[Redbug]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

I would round up a friend or two, run the disk around the place for a firebreak, get a burning permit, and burn it in the early spring. Read up on controlled burning. Your State Forestry Dept has people that will advise you.

 

[EddieWalker]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Thank you for all the ideas everyone! I have never dealt with goats but that's an interesting idea. I am assuming they are pretty tough on fencing so fencing them in would be pretty hard?

I have a white vinyl three rail fence around 5 acres where my pond and barn are. Then I added another 6 acres of hot wire that the goats just walk through when they want to. It's to hold my pig and horses in, not the goats. There really isn't anything keeping them in there if they wanted out. We give them treats every evening when we feed the horses, chickens and ducks. The goats love eating all of their food. They also love hanging out in the barn. I believe they feel at home in the barn and pasture area that I have for them, so they stick around.

Best part of goats is that they never stop clearing brush. They go up every tree as far as they can reach on their back legs. They love blackberry bushes and will eat them down to the ground!!! Poison Ivy is all gone in there too. All my goats are dwarf pygmy Nigerians. Not a pure breed, just a small type of goat with small ears. I don't like big floppy ears.

Second best part about goats is that they are entertaining.

My long term goal is to fence my entire 68 acres with a goat proof fence, that is also coyote and wild hog proof. I really want to keep both out more then anything else. At the bottom of my fence I will run a hot wire to keep coyotes from digging under the fence and hogs from pushing it up. Once that is done, I will get another breeder goat and start having babies again. I'm thinking 30 to 50 goats to keep my land clean.

 

[JamesHW]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

I have become interested in geo-grid plastic products as method of excluding weeds and grass along fence lines. Easily installed (some have weed block textile attached, others you line the ground prior to adding the grid). Filled with gravel supposedly these are extremely strong and can endure vehicles driving on them. My thinking is in addition to creating a no grow zone along fences I am wondering if they would discourage varmints from digging under fence lines. Here are a couple of examples;

Stabilized Gravel Porous Driveway Foundations
A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected from the client (&).

 

[California]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

I have become interested in geo-grid plastic products...
A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected from the client (&).

That link failed but it's somewhere within this site:
Landscape Fabric & Down to Earth Products | DeWitt Company

 

[JamesHW]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Yes, that’s the company I tried to link. Basically a honeycomb fabric you lay over tamped earth and a weed barrier fabric. The first link is a more expensive rigid plastic grid with the weed block glued on.

 

[tcreeley]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

I use an older version of this in my spruce/poplar/maple woods with raspberry undergrowth. This handles anything (spruce) 1/2" or less. I use it to mulch (run it over a few times) brush that I am too lazy to pick up. It is nimble and fast. Turns in tight radius's. It does not like mud- but I probably could get chains for it. It handles 2' high grass and goldenrod -couple of passes to get it clean. In the fall I mow the weeds in the garden before I go through with a rototiller as well.

I run it over roots, rocks, bumpy ground and it does great. On bad ground I use a high setting.
I really think this would do the job - then you could just go mow your lawn afterwards! I do. - I've had mine for over 6 years now and more. Minimal maintenance. Still has original battery which says something to survive our Maine winters without a charge. - Mine has a Briggs motor, but Kohler is good too.
It is not a high priced ztr so you don't have to baby it. But it is rugged and well built and holds up. The blades are easy to replace - I get them on Amazon.


Welcome to Sears.com - Sears

 

[donaldj]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

I think I see where you're going with this...

I have 13 acres. About 3 is cleared, and 3 more are an old apple orchard that has grown up a lot. It took me a long time on the tractor to brush hog into the orchard area, knock down vines, then landscape rake up all the dead branches, etc. Once done, we have a 'woods' with the larger apple trees that we can walk under with little undergrowth to impede walk around.

Is this kind of what you're going for, or have and just want to maintain?

My plans for maintenance right now are to continue to brush hog for a year to chew up a lot of the larger branches still remaining. In the meantime, do a slight dig with my box scraper to smooth things out, then landscape rake again for more smoothing and to get up errant branches. I'll then eventually use my little Deere X500 yard mower to keep it tame as time goes by.

My rationale is that the apple trees are tall enough that the smaller mower and I can get under them, and it is a more nimble setup than my LS 3000 series with a brush hog (which I cant get under the trees as well).

 

[DrRod]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

Just a comment on the DR mower and towing a brush mower with an ATV.

I've had a DR for 20 years and it ha exceeded all the claims made by the manufacturer. If you can push it over it will cut it. It goes through the thickest, highest grass without bogging down. And its tough as nails. But you are walking at 2 mph cutting 2 feet at a time so its not much good beyond a couple of acres.


As for tow behind brush mowers, I've had a flail mower and a neighbor has had a cycle country tow behind. The flail mower would catch the front lip on sticks, rocks, and even a tuff of grass and flip over. Gas would spill and a small fire would ensue. I raised it on bigger tires and reinforced the hitch but it never worked for me. The cycle country mower just wasn't tough enough. Belts, pulleys, deck parts, etc. would break routinely.


But my biggest disappointment was with using an ATV as a tractor. Its very hard to hold a steady speed or keep it consistently in one gear. They aren't made to work like a tractor and I found I was either bogging down or shooting ahead more than I wanted -- very erratic. They are made to accelerate quickly, not run steadily up hill, down hill, or around a turn. And sitting on one for hours is not as comfortable as sitting on a seat with a back. So after trying all the options I went with a real tractor.

The one chore that an ATV has done well for me is mounting a spray tank. I put one of those yellow 15 gallon spray tanks [I forget the brand but they are available everywhere]. I hook it to the battery with alligator clips and it self-regulates when it needs power to keep up pressure. I keep it in place with two heavy rubber bungee cords. I can hold the spray wand in my left hand, run the throttle with my right hand, shift with my left foot, and brake with my right foot. Takes a bit to get the coordination down [I feel like a drummer in a jazz band] but once in sync you can just fly around buildings, fence lines, driveways, etc. Might be a good way to attack the brush in your woods.

 

[MacLawn]

Re: What to use to keep wooded acreage "plantation cut"? Undergrowth mowing?

I like the goat idea. Limbs are the problem for me. Before I mow underbrush, I always have to load a heap of limbs on my trailer. Would still have to remove limbs with goats, but it'd be easy walking to get them. Goats eat poison ivy, eh? They eat ticks? I hate ticks