Best way to pull up cedar???

[Ruark]

Here in central Texas, cedar is spreading like a plague. Ask anybody who lives around here. I'm talking about that bush-type cedar that branches out into a dozen trunks a couple of inches off the ground, and gets up to the size of a house. It's horrible stuff, spreading like wildfire and sucking every molecule of moisture from the ground. I have two major enemies in life: fire ants and cedar.

Anyway, I have some that are smallish, and can probably be pulled out with my tractor. It's a Mahindra 4025. 41HP. The FEL lifts 2800-3000 lbs. Not sure about the 3-point, but at least that much. Question: what is the best way to use a tractor to pull up cedar:

1. Connect one end of the chain to the tow bar, the other end to the cedar, and pull it.
2. Wrap the chain around the FEL bucket, and the other around the cedar's base, and pull it out with the FEL.
3. Same as #2, but use the 3-point instead of the FEL.

-Thanks

 

[TexasBred]

I had a few...not real big but maybe 3 inch diameter....they came up pretty easy just sticking the hay spear in the ground and going down into the root syster and raising up..might have to do it a couple of times but they'll come up. Saw a guy a few weeks ago with a little bobcat type machine with one of those big scissors on the front....cut'em off close to the ground...they die.

 

[kenny thomas]

Sure would not want you to try it this year in Texas or many other places but burning off the pastures every few years gets rid of the small ones before they become a problem.
Most cedars are shallow rooted so they should be fairly easy to pull up.

 

[tsmaxx47]

i've got a 43hp diesel. i attach one end of a 3/8 chain to my brush guard on the front end and the other end to the cedar and pull it out in reverse; that way i can keep an eye on the procedure. up to about 4 inches i can pull out, bigger than that i have to start cutting branching roots. my land is all sand! i imagine you guys in texas have a harder time in that rock.

 

[circlew]

Good luck with the fire ants. They will take over a place, here after a rain you can't stand in one spot very long or they will eat you alive. :bang: :bang:
The best thing for cedars is a pile of goats. Make money while killing the trees. :nod: :nod:

 

[Kingfisher]

Not really heavy enough tractor for big cedar. Load the bucket with some weight and work em out. If they are " big mature" cedar you ought to post em out . My buddy is taking the stumps and using em to line a " ditch" he is going to fill.....many uses for a cedar.

 

[Isomade]

If you cut a cedar below it's lowest branch it won't come back. If you have a brush hog you can get low enough with it will take care of the small ones.

 

[novatech]

If you cut a cedar below it's lowest branch it won't come back. If you have a brush hog you can get low enough with it will take care of the small ones.

The problem with cutting them is that the stumps will be there for your great grand children to deal with. :lol2:
Do not pull from the back of the tractor. It can wheelie and roll backward.
If you can get a single shank ripper and go around the tree first (square pattern) cutting the roots will help on the larger trees.
Rent a backhoe for a day. Dig around the bottom then push over with the front bucket. We took out some with over 24" trunks last week this way.
You may also try and contact a local ceder mill. Sometimes they will take them out for free. But generally leave you with the trash. Do not let them cut down and leave you with the stump. Only heavy equipment can get it out.
Anything up to 2" I shred with a bush hog. Check the rating on the one you use first.
You may want to check with your county agent. I heard that in some areas there is state money available for removal of cedar. (Austin area??? As an aid for water conservation.)
When it comes to pasture, or landscape for that matter the only thing a cedar is good for is lumber. They are devastating on anything around them. They suck the life out of anything else with in 60 feet.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Give Isom a gold star. Just cut them off flush with the ground, the stumps will get loose in a few years.

 

[novatech]

Give Isom a gold star. Just cut them off flush with the ground, the stumps will get loose in a few years.

I have one just outside my shop I cut down over 30 years ago that would beg to differ with you. Small ones yes big ones ???
May be a different variety than you have in your area.

 

[TexasBred]

Give Isom a gold star. Just cut them off flush with the ground, the stumps will get loose in a few years.

I have one just outside my shop I cut down over 30 years ago that would beg to differ with you. Small ones yes big ones ???
May be a different variety than you have in your area.

Must be Nova or jus old and solid...even a 12-14 inch stump out here can be pushed over really easy in a year or two. If you have any large enough for posts don't hire a cedar cutter to do it...haven't found one yet taht is honest, will screw you out of your share of the sales and the limbs and tops are a hel of a mess to deal with.

 

[dun]

The problem with brush hogging cedars is you can;t sin them to the ground and cedar makes the worst (best) tire staubbers in existence. Alos if you don;t get them cut below the lowest branch they just build a bigger root system and sprout new tops. The bigger root system can be a real pain to get rid of.

 

[upfrombottom]

The best way to pull up any kind of tree is to tie on to it as high up on the tree as you can get. The force that you apply at the stump or ground is multiplied by the distance in feet that you are up on the tree, if that makes sense. Also if you wrap the chain around it twice or three times, it will bind on itself and will be less likely to slip on the trunk.

 

[TexasBred]

The best way to pull up any kind of tree is to tie on to it as high up on the tree as you can get. The force that you apply at the stump or ground is multiplied by the distance in feet that you are up on the tree, if that makes sense. Also if you wrap the chain around it twice or three times, it will bind on itself and will be less likely to slip on the trunk.

The cedars he's talking about don't really have a truck...it's like they just shoot up about a dozen or so small trunks the minute the break the ground....wrapping a chain around them and pulling is dang near impossible because these "willowy" limbs just compress and slide right out of your chain.

 

[Brute 23]

There is a deal you can buy or have some one make for you that hooks to your 3pt. It has an upright with two arms going out to the side. The bottom is a V that is flat and points toward the rear of the tractor. You weld plat bars that kind of look like blades but you leave them dull and notch them. It will hook the cedar and you lift as you back into it. Works well but is slow.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

Ruark, although not directly addressing your question about pulling the cedars, you might want to take a look at this:

http://texnat.tamu.edu/about/brush-busters/


Been a long time since I read up on killing Ash Juniper (which most Texans refer to as Cedar) but I seem to recall that Spike pellets around the base will work well; and possibly Velpar, although with Velpar you have to be careful not to kill nearby desirable trees.

Have seen literally thousands of pretty big cedars that were cut off at ground level with the big scissor-like tool mounted on a tractor on my old deer lease near Llano. I also recall that 5 or 6 years ago there was some state or federal government $$ to be had for cedar eradication, in order to improve the water table in parts of the hill country -- but that opens up another can of worms.

 

[LRTX1]

I know nothing about cedars in your area. What gets done around here, folks drill holes in the stumps and pack it with fertilizer, makes the stump rot a lot faster.

 

[cowsrus]

NCRS has money for this, but they dont pay near enough to hire someone to do it

 

[Ruark]

Thanks for all the replies. Yeah, we're really talking about ash juniper, which is called "cedar" around here. I call it "land cancer." I don't think people really appreciate how invasive and destructive this stuff is. You can drive for miles and miles and see it stretching to the horizon. It sucks up water like a sponge, leaving the ground around it rocky and dead. One year a pasture can be pristine. The next year it can have scattered 1-foot cedars. 3 or 4 years later, they're so thick you can't walk through them, and the ground is like walking on peanut brittle.

It hasn't reached a crisis point on my place, but there are places where there are clusters of small ones coming up knee high. Hundreds of them. I'm spraying those with diesel, lopping off the waist high ones with pruners, chainsawing the chest-high ones, and hopefully using the tractor to pull out bigger ones. Some of them are so big they're just going to be permanent.

Again, thanks.

 

[Ruark]

One more thing. PERSONALLY, I'd just as soon spray them with gasoline. Of course that will bring shrieks of protest, but in all frankness, there's no danger of water table contamination (it's 500 ft. down) or runoff, and we're talking about a TINY amount sprayed directly onto it, not on the ground. PLEASE don't bombard me with protests and warnings, we've heard it a million times. In any case, the problem there is that any sprayer I can find these days is made of plastic, and most likely can't hold gasoline. Any reference to an economical sprayer that can handle gas would be greatly appreciated.