10 acres - Need guidance

[zogger]

I borrow a 36" walk behind DR brush hog from work every now and again, and it works ok. I've borrowed a 4wd kubota and 4' brush hog from a neighbor before, and it gets rid of the small stuff great... but, those privet/hedge bush things are everywhere, the single trunk itself isn't a problem for a brush hog, but when they're grouped in 3-6 clumps the brush hog can't do it, and then a lot of the clumps stem from one trunk that's 5-6" high or so, that makes one big stump, definitely can't do that. I know, chain saw it down, then go over it, but when a 500sq ft area has 250 of them. And to top it off, you cut it at the base, and the vines are intertangled between what you cut, and the adjacent 5 other ones next to it, so it remains standing, and you can't pull it out and toss it aside, because there's no room.

The pics don't do it justice on how thick it really is. Those before/after photos someone posted, I would KILL for my property to be what those "before's" are. That I can knock out no problem.

I know how to do it, mechanically, by hand/tractor/chainsaw/shears/loppers/surveyors axe/etc. Been doing that lol. I cut, pile, burn, bush hog what I can when I have access to one, even have goats now (wish I would have gotten them a year ago) It's been a year, and I've only made dents, granted it's not a full time job, and I don't do squat during the summer months. Was just wondering if anyone had a ballpark figure for forestry mulching services, I've searched the internet for a year and found nothing, I think because the average person can't afford the services, or chooses to do it themselves. The former is what I fear. I have read $3000-6000/acre, but those were who knows what guesses, from where ever in the country, anywhere up to years ago. Things change, prices change, it's a more common piece of equipment, more manufacturers. I guess I'll play phone tag with this one company, get a quote and post back for a future searcher.

Privet you will just have to spray. Get it in the spring boost growing phase. You may have to spray twice. Once it is real dead and dry and crispy standing up it will mow down lots easier.

edit: obviously have to lose the goats for a couple years, but once killed off good, let it sit another year, then reintroduce the goats and they will keep it like a park.

 

[Steve NW WI]

@redprospector does this kind of stuff. I'll let him know about this thread, and hopefully he can give you a very basic idea of cost. It might be off by quite a bit, but it's the start you're looking for.

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

Privet you will just have to spray. Get it in the spring boost growing phase. You may have to spray twice. Once it is real dead and dry and crispy standing up it will mow down lots easier.

edit: obviously have to lose the goats for a couple years, but once killed off good, let it sit another year, then reintroduce the goats and they will keep it like a park.

I'm standoff'ish on the sprays... for now. Sure they'll die, but my main concern is is the mass. If I could get it cleared, then afterwards brushhogging and spray what comes back, at least that's the plan.

@redprospector does this kind of stuff. I'll let him know about this thread, and hopefully he can give you a very basic idea of cost. It might be off by quite a bit, but it's the start you're looking for.

That would be great! I know it can vary, moved from WA to AR, still getting accustomed to prices and cost of living... and pay. lol. I'm not green persay, but around here everyone just says doze it and burn it. I don't want it to look barren and have no topsoil, that's what my neighbors front yard looks like, clay and rock. Weeds haven't even grown back. Took me a year and a light coating of topsoil and a lot of work just to get some grass growing in my front yard since they dozed all around the house.

 

[fuzz1500]

I borrow a 36" walk behind DR brush hog from work every now and again, and it works ok. I've borrowed a 4wd kubota and 4' brush hog from a neighbor before, and it gets rid of the small stuff great... but, those privet/hedge bush things are everywhere, the single trunk itself isn't a problem for a brush hog, but when they're grouped in 3-6 clumps the brush hog can't do it, and then a lot of the clumps stem from one trunk that's 5-6" high or so, that makes one big stump, definitely can't do that. I know, chain saw it down, then go over it, but when a 500sq ft area has 250 of them. And to top it off, you cut it at the base, and the vines are intertangled between what you cut, and the adjacent 5 other ones next to it, so it remains standing, and you can't pull it out and toss it aside, because there's no room.

The pics don't do it justice on how thick it really is. Those before/after photos someone posted, I would KILL for my property to be what those "before's" are. That I can knock out no problem.

I know how to do it, mechanically, by hand/tractor/chainsaw/shears/loppers/surveyors axe/etc. Been doing that lol. I cut, pile, burn, bush hog what I can when I have access to one, even have goats now (wish I would have gotten them a year ago) It's been a year, and I've only made dents, granted it's not a full time job, and I don't do squat during the summer months. Was just wondering if anyone had a ballpark figure for forestry mulching services, I've searched the internet for a year and found nothing, I think because the average person can't afford the services, or chooses to do it themselves. The former is what I fear. I have read $3000-6000/acre, but those were who knows what guesses, from where ever in the country, anywhere up to years ago. Things change, prices change, it's a more common piece of equipment, more manufacturers. I guess I'll play phone tag with this one company, get a quote and post back for a future searcher.

Pictures never do it justice !! I literally crawled on my hands and knees on my pics above till I could get a 10ft. by 10ft. circle opened up so I could stack some brush and move on...and make little burn piles and such . Big clumps of brush....an old trick I learned.......lift the brush hog up as far as you dare without putting the pto shaft at a severe angle. Back up over the clump.......put the tractor in neutral . Let it cut and grind...then repeat this process as you lover the brush hog down as far as you can . Then at least you can cut the truck at the base later...or start a burn pile over it and it will burn away . Sometimes I have had to do things that were out of necessity ..and would never be printed in a book !! I tell ya...the most daunting task is maintaining the property after its opened up a little . That S**T wants to grow back quick !!

 

[Steve NW WI]

Pictures never do it justice !! I literally crawled on my hands and knees on my pics above till I could get a 10ft. by 10ft. circle opened up so I could stack some brush and move on

Someone, maybe you? mentioned a pole saw. Clearing brush got a lot nicer when I got a pole saw attachment for my trimmer. You can reach in and buzz the brush off without having to get too close. The clearing saw attachment works if the offending stuff is tall and skinny, but if it's bushy, the pole saw works much better. Zip some off, drag brush, and repeat. While it doesn't have the power of even a mid size chain saw, it's useable for 4" and smaller stuff, but best at 1-2" stuff.

Become one with the sprayer. Even if it's not till after it's cleared, it's gonna be necessary. Resprouts on a lot of stuff come back thicker than what you took out if not treated, dug out, or burned.

 

[fuzz1500]

Someone, maybe you? mentioned a pole saw. Clearing brush got a lot nicer when I got a pole saw attachment for my trimmer. You can reach in and buzz the brush off without having to get too close. The clearing saw attachment works if the offending stuff is tall and skinny, but if it's bushy, the pole saw works much better. Zip some off, drag brush, and repeat. While it doesn't have the power of even a mid size chain saw, it's useable for 4" and smaller stuff, but best at 1-2" stuff.

Become one with the sprayer. Even if it's not till after it's cleared, it's gonna be necessary. Resprouts on a lot of stuff come back thicker than what you took out if not treated, dug out, or burned.

Good points indeed !! I did use a pole saw..and my brush cutter attachement . Between the chainsaw-toothed blade..and my "ninja" balde...I made alot of progress . I wish I would have thought of the pole saw earlier in the process ....but thats the fun of it . Experimenting..see what works . Unfortunatley.........property cant be cleared to look like a park without the use of hard grunt work IMO . It definetly takes years . Now that my trees are growing up..and the canopies are growing wider..its time I got a good extendable power pole saw . Get a little reach action going !! IHoping to get an Echo or Stihl..because of the way they extend . Having property is kinda like getting older and dealing with ear and nose hair !! One has to be ever vigilant to keep up !!!

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

Pictures never do it justice !! ..... I tell ya...the most daunting task is maintaining the property after its opened up a little . That S**T wants to grow back quick !!

No doubt about that. My biggest problem in one of the areas I opened up, was not cutting the trunks low enough as to not put my chain in the dirt or hit a rock, those sprouted up good this past spring/summer. So I went back this fall and got them flush with the ground (or close enough) so now I can run a bush hog over. If the privet trunks are small enough, I prefer my 3" loppers, that I broke last month cutting something too big for them lol. Time for a new set, they were decent Corona ones. Dull blade mixed with cutting something too big, snapped the metal clean in half, smashed my ring finger and had a knot the size of a marble on it.

Good points indeed !! I did use a pole saw..and my brush cutter attachement . Between the chainsaw-toothed blade..and my "ninja" balde...I made alot of progress . I wish I would have thought of the pole saw earlier in the process ....but thats the fun of it . Experimenting..see what works . Unfortunatley.........property cant be cleared to look like a park without the use of hard grunt work IMO . It definetly takes years . Now that my trees are growing up..and the canopies are growing wider..its time I got a good extendable power pole saw . Get a little reach action going !! IHoping to get an Echo or Stihl..because of the way they extend . Having property is kinda like getting older and dealing with ear and nose hair !! One has to be ever vigilant to keep up !!!

I have two brush attachments for my string trimmer, the three swivel blades, and the one solid metal one, those are nice for areas I can't get with the brush hog. We have a Stihl polesaw at work, that thing is awesome, kinda tiresome using it for a while fully extended. Or even shortly fully extended

 

[zogger]

Privet is just relentless, plus makes one zillion berries so the birds spread it around.

When we moved here, my job was to try and resurrect the fencelines and pastures, plus other assoprted outside farm chores. Way more than ten acres here, BTW...

The previous dude did nothing but run cows in it, no maintenance. The pastures looked like crap, saplings to honest trees you could cut firewood from, everywhere, privet, multiflora rose (eeekkk!) he got fired eventually although there was a few month slop over period after I got here. Boss told me like 15 years zilch maintenance. Anyway, two years clearing fencelines, another couple repairing the now exposed fence, and this is still ongoing.

Japanese privet, I just slap gave up on any sort of mechanical control, I have yet to see anything that works if you want to maintain the ground. I guess with a crawler keep it scraped up and burned, but you don't want to do that. Purchase your own mulcher so you can do it monthly...

Spray, sometimes two or three times on clumps, is the only thing I have found that sorta works. I don't like spraying, but is the only thing I found that works.

Maybe if you cut it or mulched it once and ran hundreds of goats, that might work. I have never tried that, but I know they will eat it.

It is an invasive species, a nasty one, and if you don't go full bore medieval on it, it is gonna kik yore butt.

 

[HuskStihl]

I cleared 10 acres of amazingly dense yaopon. It sounds like what ur talking about. Grows in clumps, and some of the big ones had 8" stumps. I had a 50 horse Kubota and a 72" bush hog which sped the process up greatly, but there was still a lot of inching around on my knees with the 445 cutting yaopon and some weird citrus thing with ridiculous thorns off flush. I would also put a chain around the base of a clump of yaopon and pull them out with the old land cruiser when they were small enough. It really depends on ur patience level. Bulldozer will ensure many of ur trees die slowly over the next 5 years and the land will erode like crazy. Im talking like it was no big deal, but mine took the better part of 2 years to clear. It is pretty heavily wooded, and I need to get around all the trees with the trimmer frequently to keep the yaopon from growing back (as well as the poison ivy, grapes and every other southern vine thing). Im putting a picture i just took of the back half of the property on a new post below. As an example of how dense it was prior to clearing, we didn't know the big live oak in the foreground was even there when we bought the property.
Around here there is a guy with a big assed tractor with one of those "bush-hog on a boom" things that will clear your stuff in a weekend for 2K an acre

 

[HuskStihl]

Well, for some reason, pics I know to be small enough are saying too large. I'll try later. Unless I forget. Or find something better to do.

 

[zogger]

Well, for some reason, pics I know to be small enough are saying too large. I'll try later. Unless I forget. Or find something better to do.

Just include them as a thumbnail and they can be most any size I have found.

 

[HuskStihl]

Kinda like anchorman2. Lots of buildup for something not that significant

 

[fuzz1500]

Looks like beautiful property !!

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

I'd love to have some live oaks, but our winters still get too cold, right at the border, hot summers, cold winters.

Well I'm supposed to get a call tomorrow. The lady said they'd call Mon, but probably didn't think of the holiday. I guess if it's in the multi thousand range per acre I'll just double my efforts.

Or win the lotto, you know, whaever

 

[dboyd351]

If you've got to clear a lot of vines and brambles, like greenbriar, wild grape, blackberry, etc. try using an articulating hedge trimmer. Just sort of swing it back and forth in front of you and it'll chop up any of that stuff up to about 3/4 inch. Good for cutting off privit resprouts, too. It's very tiring work, but the hedge trimmer cuts thru that stuff without getting hung up and it cuts a 18-22 inch wide path at one time.

Right now Bailey's has a Tanaka polesaw on sale for $350, almost 1/2 price of a Husky or Stihl unit. It isn't quite as heavily built as a Stihl, but that means less weight to hold up, too. Is a very well engineered piece of machinery, just not as heavily constructed as a Stihl.

The articulating hedge trimmer and polesaw both help, but as was said before, it's slow, hard work no matter how you cut it, especially if you do it by hand.

I think the tractor and bush hog is probably the fastest way to clear an area like that without tearing the ground up badly.

Good luck - you'll get there eventually and feel great about the results.

 

[Double_Diamond]

I had about 5 acres of brush cleared by a gentleman with an ASV and a masticator. It was extremely dense with mature trees, small trees, heavy brush and poison oak. There were also some rock outcrops. He had it down in about a day and a half and charged about $1500. This was two years ago and worth every penny. The shredded material is slowly breaking down and it is much easier to walk around the property now. I am now in the process of treating all the poison oak to keep it from coming back. This was part of 20 acres that I cleared using a combination of hand clearing, excavator with a thumb and a dozer. The masticator was by far the quickest and easies method of them all. The dozer did a nice job but it looked like a dozer went through so depending on what look and outcome you want it may or may not be the right method.

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

Those articulating hedge trimmers look nifty, think I've seen them before in researching clearing techniques a long time ago.

ASV and masticator is pretty much what I was looking to have come do the work. I say forestry mulcher, same thing to me. There's different types, but the general idea is the same. 5 acres for $1500 would do that for sure!

 

[Hellbent]

Did you ever think about calling a "pasture clearing" service? They should be able to tackle something like that. Maybe someone in your area has a skid steer with a hydro saw or tree shear that you could rent / borrow. That could be a way to bring the cost down as they are not "professional forestry contractors"

Not at all saying they are not professionals, those guys work hard! Just lack the fancy name

 

[isaaccarlson]

Put an electric fence around it and put some pigs in there. They will clean it up fast and will give you meat. Get some 80 pounders and they will do a number on it.
We have close to 20 pigs now and they can clear land in a hurry.

 

[farmboy53]

I started my 10 acre yard with a weed eater saw blade, machete, pruning shears and a back pack sprayer. I moved on to a Husqvarna 350 chainsaw and a 326 pole saw. Each year things looked better. You will find your state resource center helpful with information on chemical and mechanical means to clear ground.

I learned to burn and then operate bigger saws. I know have a husky 357 and 372. After getting the bigger things down and burned I maintain the new saplings with a backpack sprayer and riding mower. From your description I think you can have things looking very nice in 5 years working the weekends and other work days off as I did. Cutting is best in the cooler season and spraying in the summer late spring.

If you are in a hurry to clear ground or do not want the exercise, yes you will have hire it out. Remember what you cut will grow back so it must be treated and disposed of.

John 3:14