DAPNET Forums Archive › Forums › Equipment Category › Equipment Fabrication › brush cutter
- This topic has 18 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 12 years ago by
carl ny.
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- November 16, 2012 at 12:29 am #44240
Anonymous
InactiveI am trying to come up with a simple solution for clipping “pastures” behind my pigs. If I was running a tractor I would just brush hog it but there has to be a simple solution. The pastures aren’t smooth and they usually have a lot of golden rod and brambles. I like to rotate the pigs through quickly but I still want to change the species composition toward grasses and clover. I also wouldnt mind using it to set up my portable fence lines, right now I use a weed whip and a scythe. Has anyone ever used a cover crop roller or a bracken basher? If so do you think it would work on goldenrod and brambles? I dont want to use a motor, and a sicklebar mower wont work in these woody pastures.
Thanks for any ideas
Jared
November 16, 2012 at 1:08 am #75797Does’ Leap
ParticipantJared:
I have had good luck clipping all sorts of vegetation with a sickle bar (MD #9) including goldenrod, raspberry, aster, – even small poplar saplings. My experience is that if you have decent ground speed, you can cut through a lot, even on bumpy ground.
George
November 16, 2012 at 3:41 am #75809carl ny
ParticipantJared;
Maybe you need a couple of goats…Don’t laugh, we sold a goat to a lady years ago and she still raves about how weed free her cow pastures were. just don’t drink the milk while they eat the weeds,it will taste just like the weeds.I had a goat that liked pine needles, my wife still reminds me about the bath she got while I was eating my cereal…..LOL
carl ny
November 16, 2012 at 10:42 am #75792Carl Russell
ModeratorWe have had good luck over-wintering our cattle in areas where we put our pigs during the summer. They will work on the woody shrubs, and the hay mulch and manure left behind are great for your desirable species.
Unfortunately I don’t think rolling or trampling will actually kill the weedy shrubs very well during the season, but it may knock them back some.
In these areas we typically don’t move the pigs “quickly”, letting them work out the roots, and really set the weeds back. It means that we then need to spread seed, but this is non-motorized, and it lets us increase desirable species quicker.
Admittedly I did get a DR mower a few years ago that I draw behind a forecart……and while I have clipped brush with my sickle mower, this machine has more than paid for itself in terms of reclaiming land…….. and it can accommodate some pretty rough terrain.
Carl
November 16, 2012 at 10:43 am #75793Moderatorquicker???? geesh
November 16, 2012 at 11:56 am #75795Mark Cowdrey
ParticipantNice to see elf-concern about grammar!
MarkNovember 16, 2012 at 11:57 am #75796ParticipantHa!
How about spelling!November 17, 2012 at 1:43 pm #75799Jonathan Shively
ParticipantCarl, thanks for the information about your DR mower. Really been looking at them on Craigslist (also the swisher brand) thinking one or two behind the forecart and I could leave the tractor and bush hog in the shed. I prefer to rotary cut my pastures so this has been running through my brain for the past couple of years.
November 17, 2012 at 10:31 pm #75798Ed Thayer
ParticipantI don’t know if this applies to your situation but we have one pasture that is full of rocks and weeds and in serious need of renovation. We have rotated our pigs in this pasture letting them completely turn the soil upside down then re seeded with new pasture mix seed. We dragged the sections with the chain harrow and worked in the pig poop. The new grass took really well.
Ed
November 17, 2012 at 11:54 pm #75808fogish
ParticipantI know there is a sickle bar mower brand called Jari, like a walk behind mower, it wouldn’t work for you in this case but some of their models used in heavy brush use serrated blades instead of the standard smooth. Do they make serrated blades for standard sickle bar mowers?
November 18, 2012 at 2:26 pm #75806Anonymous
InactiveI have been using the pigs to tear the ground up but I have had better results for them nutritionally if they aren’t in the paddocks for more than a couple days and the areas are to thick to use my close quarters pig tracker to till it over. I’m gonna try to build a bracken brasher type of roller out of some old rims and angle iron. I wanted to make a cover crop roller for winter rye anyway. I will let everyone know how it work out.
Thanks for the input
Jared
November 19, 2012 at 11:42 am #75803Billy Foster
ParticipantI mow 15 to 20 acres a year with a 48″ DR type brush mower hooked to the forecart. Saw a bunch of Amish doing this over the summer when we went to HPD.
BillyNovember 20, 2012 at 4:51 am #75800ParticipantBilly, since Carl doesn’t seem to be responding, do you think it feasible to pull two of those mowers and double up the cutting? How hard do the pull? I’m not talking 3′ tall grass mowing to 4″, I’m talking setting at high setting and mowing/clipping pastures.
November 20, 2012 at 12:38 pm #75804ParticipantJonathan
The mowers pull very easy. All you are pulling is the weight of the mower on wheels since they have their own engine. I do not think you would have any trouble at all pulling 2 of them. I have seen some fairly large mowers and would think it would be more efficient, and cost effective, to pull one large mower than 2 smaller ones.
BillyNovember 21, 2012 at 4:04 pm #75801ParticipantI have an old 5′ pull type bush hog type mower in the one fence row, have thought about putting an engine on it and running a throttle cable and shut off wire up to the forecart. Just always wondered if those Swishers and DRs had figured out a better way of keeping things from being flung forward.
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