Rent/Hire/Buy a Dozer

[Bright Raven]

What would a control burn do to them?
as for buying a dozer I did that to clear cedars ,Government paid me to clear them, so I thought I would buy a dozer , get paid by Gov., sell dozer, and be money ahead. I bought a nice dozer ,not some junk pile, and was taking good care of it every thing going good till it started getting water in oil. I took it to shop last Thur. not much telling how much that will cost me. I am in the dozer right plus what money Gov. paid me I should be ok , BUT if I had it to do over I would hire someone to come out a do the work. They can break and turn to a money pit real fast. I also have a skid loader that is probably the way I would go if I was you.
just my 2 cents worth

I sold mine for that reason. I was concerned about repair cost. The undercarriage was coming up for replacement. I had Whayne Supply do an undercarriage evaluation and estimate. I could not justify keeping it. They are expensive to maintain also. I was lucky that I put 1600 hours on it with no significant repairs. I sold it to a cabinet maker in Illinois. He has a farm. He loves it.

 

[TexFarmer]

At the advice from a number of you I've hired an operator with a skid steer mulcher to come out and spend the day clearing away the black locust trees that over 4 feet tall. I'm still in the market for a dozer but I thought while I shop around and mull it over I need to do something. Here's he is working around my pond this morning.

I've also built a spray rig that hooks onto the back of my tractor that holds a 65 gallon tank that I bought at tractor supply. When the locusts begin to sprout out from under the mulch I'll hit them with the sprayer and hopefully that will put a hold on them... for a little while. I'll get a picture posted of my 3 point spray rig in the next day or so.

 

[Brute 23]

Looks good. With the right chemical you should be able to kill them dead. Don't try to spray it with the cheapest stuff. It always costs more to do it twice. Hit it hard the first go round and then you can drop your dosage over the years. New sprouts are easy to kill, it's that regrowth with huge roots systems you have to pour the coals to.

 

[bird dog]

Sendero on the small ones using foliar spray. Remedy and diesel on the ones taller than 5' doing basal bark. Same with Mesquite. Kill them and let the skeleton stand. When they are dead they will break off easily at ground level. Pile them up and burn. What works in KY won't work in TX. One problem is that if you tear up the ground eith a dozer in the summer, you can't plant anything until fall so you can have some erosion issues. Its time consuming but I don't think there is no better way. I keep a electric sprayer on the four wheeler with the Sendero along with a hand pump up for the diesel and remedy.
Everytime I go check on the cows I spray some. Since they are rotated, every pasture gets some taken out. Spray on the way out there, take a different route and spray on the way back. You can use the basal bark method year round so during calving season, you can do some serious damage.
The dow chemical rep in our area is very helpful on mixture ratios and advise if you need help.

 

[Allenw]

They make good post and fire wood but if you can't control them they become a nuisance. They're just a big pea vine, susceptible to 2-4d especially if you don't want them dead.