Advise on clearing land

[pentelaravi]

Hi, recently got hunting land clear cut 6 years ago, filled with blackberry bushes, thorns. The land is hilly terrain. Can you Pease advise me on clearing land without chemicals?

 

[arathol]

What is your definition of hilly? How much land?
Sounds like a tracked forestry mower might work.

 

[pdqdl]

Those timber mowing beasts are expensive to feed. Effective, but hard to find, and harder to hire.

Consider a bush hog mower on the back of a tractor. A good heavy duty mower has no problems with blackberries and small locust trees. You might need to get schooled up on tractor tire repairs if you are out with the locust trees.

In some cases, a really heavy duty brush mower mounted on a high-flow tracked skid steer will do wonders. Again, not cheap to hire, but you might buy the mower, and rent the machine. Skid steers are actually reasonable on a daily rental. My A300 bobcat can tear up some underbrush with our 6' mower, and it isn't even high flow, nor rated as a heavy duty brush cutter.

An alternative might be to rent a small dozer and just scrub out the areas you would clear, leaving the desirable stuff behind. You'd still have a big brush pile or two. ...or twenty.

Too hilly might mean just pass on it and let it grow for 40 years. The trees will eventually choke out the underbrush.

 

[CacaoBoy]

filled with blackberry bushes, thorns. The land is hilly terrain

Not enough info to give any meaningful advice. Pictures would help. How many acres?

 

[ATpro]

Consider a bush hog mower on the back of a tractor. A good heavy duty mower has no problems with blackberryies and small locust trees.

Yea, but the terrain, stumps and overgrowth would be to much for a tractor. In Mississippi 6 years growth can be as high as 10 feet or more and thick as hair on a dog's back.

If large plot like 20 acres or more, Bulldozer a fire lane around it and do a prescribe burn in the spring of the year. Doing it in the spring will kill more bushes and trees because it boils the sap at the base of the bush or tree and this kills them. You want a real hot fire for a clearing fire and fire it all around for a good head fire . Once you have a good burn you can then decide how you want to finish up.

The way we prepared clearcut for planting is we waited at least one year or two after the clearcut then sprayed and killed everything in late summer and burned in the fall, planted in the winter.

If you want to manage your land for hunting and replant trees you could think about Long Leaf Pine, you can even signup for a Government program that will assist in the cost of bulldoze time for fire lanes, burning, and planting. The good thing about Long Leaf Pine is you can burn your timber stand every few years and keep the under story more habitual for all wildlife like Quail, Turkey and deer.

If less land just a hire Mulcher to do the job

 

[pentelaravi]

Thanks for replies.

It is around 690acers, Some area steep hill with creek. Attached some pictures.

Got this property as investment property, planning to cleanup some flat spots, grow some chest nuts, apple trees and lease for hunting team to cover the taxes..

The trials are in good shape. Started clearing with brush cutter on Stihl trimmer, but taking long time. Looking for some compact machine so i can keep useful saplings.

Initially it was 540 acers, neighbor offered another 150 acers, went over budget. For this year planning to clear 10+ acers for week end recreational.

Thank you.

 

[ATpro]

It is around 690acers, Some area steep hill with creek

I would find out how many acres a year I could get into the Long Leaf program a year and go that route. Looking at your topo, are the road on the map private or public?
Going Long Leaf you can leave 2 or 3 acres every 40 acres for food plots where you can plant Saw Tooth Oaks groves in a line far enough apart that you can make 2 passes with a disk between them. This way you can keep the ground clean safe from fire and you can disk before the acorns fall and plant a greenfield later on between the trees. I plant Russian olive trees around the edge for the game.

Building for the future you can get top dollar for your leased land.

 

[pentelaravi]

I would find out how many acres a year I could get into the Long Leaf program a year and go that route. Looking at your topo, are the road on the map private or public?
Going Long Leaf you can leave 2 or 3 acres every 40 acres for food plots where you can plant Saw Tooth Oaks groves in a line far enough apart that you can make 2 passes with a disk between them. This way you can keep the ground clean safe from fire and you can disk before the acorns fall and plant a greenfield later on between the trees. I plant Russian olive trees around the edge for the game.

Building for the future you can get top dollar for your leased land.

Thank you for the advice. We didn't know Long Leaf program, we will check. Those are internal private roads. The internal roads are good so far, but some areas bushes taken over.

 

[Karrl]

If you can get yourself a D4 or D6 sized dozer and root rake for your blade. It really fills in the gap between brush mowing and having to remove bushes and trees piece by piece. If you can afford the property a few pieces of heavy equipment can go a long way. And when you look at the cost of paying someone else, why not just buy your own stuff instead. At least that’s the way I see it, if you don’t have the time that’s another thing.

 

[Karrl]

Something like this but preferably not from Amazon.

 

[Karrl]

Also if your county allows burn permits that’s a great way to handle the debris for free.

 

[arathol]

If you can get yourself a D4 or D6 sized dozer and root rake for your blade. It really fills in the gap between brush mowing and having to remove bushes and trees piece by piece. If you can afford the property a few pieces of heavy equipment can go a long way. And when you look at the cost of paying someone else, why not just buy your own stuff instead. At least that’s the way I see it, if you don’t have the time that’s another thing.

With a decent forestry mower/mulcher, its a one and done thing. A decent machine will remove any brush and small trees along with anything laying on the ground and mulch it into the ground. No going back to remove stumps, roots or small trees.

I plant Russian olive trees around the edge for the game.

I hate Russian olive. Its nasty stuff, it spreads fast, its hard to control once established, and it will choke out whatever plants are native to the area. Also, many places consider it an invasive species and local conservation departments recommend not planting it.

 

[Karrl]

You got a link to those forestry mulchers? I’d love something that could eat up 2-5 inch thick bushes. We get the Russian olive real bad around here. It gets 8 foot plus in some fields.

 

[arathol]

You got a link to those forestry mulchers? I’d love something that could eat up 2-5 inch thick bushes. We get the Russian olive real bad around here. It gets 8 foot plus in some fields.

See the videos above.....
5" thick Russian olive would not present any issues to even a skid steer mounted mulcher.

 

[Karrl]

I see now, they’re no joke. They would definitely come in handy in the unkept fields in my area. 20 years without mowing basically ruined a lot of ground. For a few acres a root rake would be a cheaper option if you have a dozer but I gotta say those mulchers are the cats behind.

 

[ATH]

are you going to continually mow? If you don't, the same things are going to keep growing back...or maybe something more invasive. How big are the areas you want to clear?

what is your reason for no chemicals?

 

[davidprivett]

my first step would to be contact the states forestry division and ask to see a agent . They will know of current replant programs. When we had the pine beetles gone wild here , they were killing trees so fast it to me was shocking. We had pine timber that was prime that we were selling as pulp just to get it gone. But the state forester made a plan for 25 acres and I bought a used case 1450b dozer , the state reimbursed me I think 600 dollars a acres to clear and paid somewhere around 80 percent for the cost of seedlings. I had to pay up front but got it back upon completion. Think about where you might want a pond when you have the dozer before you sell it . After planting I used a small tractor and a bush hog to keep the brush down by mowing in the winter. I am in se tn. that was in 2006 pines are over 30 ft. now. good luck

 

[ROME K/G]

Find a company that does land clearing, they will have all the tools to do it right or you could rent a tractor and heavy offset disk for the small brush. For the larger trees you find a dozer with a Rome K/G blade and a brush rake. It takes some experience and know how to use a K/G blade though.

 

[Woody912]

Yea, but the terrain, stumps and overgrowth would be to much for a tractor. In Mississippi 6 years growth can be as high as 10 feet or more and thick as hair on a dog's back.

If large plot like 20 acres or more, Bulldozer a fire lane around it and do a prescribe burn in the spring of the year. Doing it in the spring will kill more bushes and trees because it boils the sap at the base of the bush or tree and this kills them. You want a real hot fire for a clearing fire and fire it all around for a good head fire . Once you have a good burn you can then decide how you want to finish up.

The way we prepared clearcut for planting is we waited at least one year or two after the clearcut then sprayed and killed everything in late summer and burned in the fall, planted in the winter.

If you want to manage your land for hunting and replant trees you could think about Long Leaf Pine, you can even signup for a Government program that will assist in the cost of bulldoze time for fire lanes, burning, and planting. The good thing about Long Leaf Pine is you can burn your timber stand every few years and keep the under story more habitual for all wildlife like Quail, Turkey and deer.

If less land just a hire Mulcher to do the job

longleaf are somewhat particular about soil type aren't they?

 

[ATpro]

longleaf are somewhat particular about soil type aren't they?

Looking at his pic's and topo I would say he has sand ridges with a clay base. Off the ridges and in the bottoms I would say is his best land for growing trees. With sand water will migrate under ground and along the clay base, long leaf love this kind of habitat. I have dug Long leaf stumps that had a tap root 16 feet or more till they found the clay base. One way to tell if Long leaf was the prominent conifer long ago is if you find lighter stump around.
If it's red land it will grow anything. Lot of time red land will also contain a lot of sand and when washed by rain it will wash the red clay out and you will have white sand left. That's where all that white sand came from on the northern gulf coast, they call it the Emerald Coast, the sand looks white as snow.