controlled burns...

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dieselbeef

dieselbeef

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be my first one..has anyone done it on here. done reg in fl. i have alot of dog fennel and broom cane, blackberries, myrtles and alot of grass and weeds from yrs of pasture neglect. so thick a mat of thatch that grass can hardly get thru it..cows cant get to the btm of the weeds to eat the grasses that are avail.
i finally after yrs of cleaning it up from the owners trash..refncing...and dividing it up im ready to get it into real grass shape

plowlines are in..waiting for the final forestry service inspection to poss burn it this weekend.

any helpful hints..things to think about after besides the ashes/soot and feeding hay for a cpl weeks since the pasture theyre gonna be in is smaller than current t at least it has good grass...

i think its kinda ate in the yr to be burning off but i gotta do things more of when i can than when i should...kinda like fishing.....and the forstry service is slow working round here
 
The 3 most important thingas you didin;t mention are humidty wind and assistance
 
hoping for a nothwest wind..humidity will be high(its fl) and they will ass for 22/hr if they dont help..if they do its 50/hr...
wife and whoever else i can get will be on 4 wheelers patroling

btw its only about 40 acres of brush and lines...scattered pines

thanks

everything okay where yer at dun??

gary
 
When we burn we disc a 12 lane around the field . I also put water in my 200 gal. Sprayer. Incase I need it . We lost a fire last year .had a small dead tree with dried leaves on it .10 foot or so . Tall. Leaves caught and wind was blowing about 8 mph . Blew burning leaves across the dirt path caught some brush on fire
 
dieselbeef":15xuddzw said:
hoping for a nothwest wind..humidity will be high(its fl) and they will ass for 22/hr if they dont help..if they do its 50/hr...
wife and whoever else i can get will be on 4 wheelers patroling

btw its only about 40 acres of brush and lines...scattered pines

thanks

everything okay where yer at dun??

gary
Click to expand...
By assistance ZI meant friends/neighbors/family/whoever you can drag in.
We're just dandy. Soaked and squishy but that's a minor inconvenience compared to the folks in AL, MS, etc.
 
Burning on a weekend is not a good idea since you have drunk drivers and the forestry people will be off work and will have to come in to respond if it gets out. This will add an extra 1/2 hour to their response time. Not good.

I'd suggest having a tractor and harrow on site and don't turn it off. A four wheeler with some water would be great too. Start the burn on the downwind side and slowly work your way upwind keeping in mind that the wind should shift in a clockwise manner if its going to shift. Be patient. Once you get it going well and backed off the breaks, run around it as fast as you can and ring the thing and get it over with. Once rung, the fire will pull toward the center and send any ash way up into the air and it will cool before it sees ground again.

Also, be really careful with irregularly shaped fields or corners. You need to square it as much as possible. This can take some time getting it squared up.
 
Burn in the late afternoon if your worried about it. Been burning for 20+ years and I still get nervous everytime. Good breaks and a backing fire like Jo said works great. Good Luck
 
lighting 2 corners and burning into the tight end of a triangle.

wife and i will do it..4 wheelers have elec sprayers on em ..25 gal each

they will call me and let me know the day they wanna do it. so i dont really get to pick

they wont let me ring it..i asked about that. they want to start upwind and let it go across in a straight line direction so it can be watched better due to the trees and the triangle shape i guess.

i pulled a 16 disc harrow around it bout 8 times...good plowlines . single pass width

may rain today also..keep it slow burning. well see

thanks for all the tips kids..keep em comin im listening

gary
 
Why on earth would they want to start on the upwind side? A 16' break isn't going to stop a head fire. I can see wanting to work out the irregular side first but not starting upwind.
 
The GFC is great here, and I am sure the forsest commission in FL is good also. They want to do everything buy the book, so sometimes they make a big deal out of a small thing. Goverment has a way of doing that. I burn fields and high engery fuels when there is little or no wind in the afternoon. When I burn the pines I like some breeze, when I burn the swamps and oaks I like a good 15 to 20 mph wind with out a hard wind the leaves won't burn and the fire will stall. Don't burn in Dry or drought conditions. The harder the wind the blows the truer the direction and less likely to shift. Hope this helps.
 
"Controlled" burning scares the shirt out of me. We've had numerous pretty serious fires around here that started out as controlled burns. Anybody that starts an outdoor fire of any kind here in Texas right now needs to have their head examined, at the very least. The 30+mph winds we've been having are crazy. My little weather vane windmill goes crazy trying to figure out which way it should be facing. There can be 30 mph winds from any and all directions within a 15 or 20 minute timespan.

There have been several fires that started with some idiot shredding his weeds and rocks, causing sparks. :hide:

Maybe it will rain someday................. :cry2:

Good luck with your burn.
 
Everytime I light a match I'm scared. I may know what it is supposed to do but you really don't know what its going to do till you get it going. There is a fine line between a controlled burn and a wildfire and crossing that line will take a few years off your life. Personally I think anyone who isn't a bit afraid when starting a controlled burn is either a fool or and ingnorant sob.
 
10-4 on dat...im okay with it but i know its gonna be dam scary oncve it gets going. i burned off ahuge pile of debris once that burned like a volcanoe all nite...man i was sweating that
 
I burn the underbrush from pine tree stands with the aid of the NC Forestry Department. The forestry department musters volunteers from the trusted convicts at a nearby detention facility. These inmates are suited in fire suits, given hand fire fighting tools and are stationed a short distance from each other around the prepared perimiter. A dozer is also on hand during the burn. I know of no out of control fires using these resources nor any convict escapes. The results of the burn are very impressive. I would have apprehension doing a private burn again using friends and family for fire control. Years back we had a near disaster. It is too easy for a fire to escalate.
 
Maybe a little easier if you only light off a strip. Get some black ground downwind. Some call it back burning.

Easier to control a burn that is 1/50 of an AC vs 40 AC.
 
lots of good ideas but i gotta do it the way they want it done. wind actually seems to me to be the wrong direction than i want it cuz i want to burn from the big end of the triangle to the small end but they want the smoke to blow away from the road meaning it will start at the small end and go to the big end and end at a plowline...
imagine being at the wide and of a triangle...and the fire comin to ya instead of going away from ya..idk..they say the wind direction and the roads etc....
waiting on the word to light it off
 
Are they going to come out and stand by with a dozer? In Ga. sometimes you can pay the operators hourly wage and they will bring a truck with a dozer and assist you. But they assume NO liability. $12-$17 per hour here and no travel time.
 
theyll come with a dozer for 108/hr if they use it..25/hr on standby...
fighters git 22/hr standby til they hafta spray water then its 48/hr
ill call em if i need em...
 
Here if you get a burn permit they fight the fire for free. Or so I am told, Don't ever want to find out. Just got back from River Ranch, Lake Wales everthing cost more there than here. Still some nice folks there, and some great stock.
 

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