Smoothing out rough ground

[J+ Cattle]

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to smooth out rough ground without damaging the grass roots? The wild hogs move in at night and root up areas leaving it very rough. The grass comes back soon enough but it's very uncomfortable to try to drive a truck or tractor across. I'm wanting to smooth it out without extensive work or doing any more damage to the grass.

 

[cfpinz]

Completely off topic here, and I apologize in advance. The wife and I were talking about visiting Texas sometime in the near future, and she's always wanted to shoot a wild hog or three. We're both in our 40's and (semi)responsible adults, know how to shoot and been around stock since we were born. I have a hard time paying a guide service to shoot a nuisance animal and was wondering if local farmers would allow folks like us to shoot a couple piggies for fun? Or do folks shy away from such?

Thanks.

 

[bird dog]

The problem cfpinz is that unless you are feeding them like the guide services do, you never know when they will show up. Plus they are mostly nocturnal.

J+, I have always disced mine in the winter and then spread rye grass seed over the disced ground. Its not a good answer but I don't really think there is any other way.

 

[Ebenezer]

Use rail road irons as drags. The heavier the better. If you have slope try to drag the worst spots uphill. If not that, then I beams or whatever you have that is heavy and multiples do better than one.

 

[cfpinz]

The problem cfpinz is that unless you are feeding them like the guide services do, you never know when they will show up. Plus they are mostly nocturnal.

Makes sense, thank you.

 

[WalkerRanch 3-2]

Makes sense, thank you.

Find a guide that uses dogs and horses if you like to ride. It is exciting to hear dogs circling a group and the boars sharpening their teeth. Lots of fun. My favorite Christmas we did this.

 

[cfpinz]

Find a guide that uses dogs and horses if you like to ride. It is exciting to hear dogs circling a group and the boars sharpening their teeth. Lots of fun. My favorite Christmas we did this.

Thanks! That does sound like a lot of fun!

 

[Atimm693]

Disc or a heavy drag. A heavy box blade can work as well.

We don't have hogs but that past few winters have been really wet and the cows made a mess out of some pastures. I used a heavy 3pt box blade a couple years ago that worked pretty well to cut the bumps off and level. Then seeded and ran it over with a tire drag.

 

[tex452]

I hog fenced my hay meadows then plowed and plowed then drug and drug. Then repeat to get it good enough to make hay comfortably.
I have a 14' tandem disc plow and built a drag out of I beam 16'x5'.
It's not easy to get smooth lots of work.
Grass is hard to get smooth.
You would think to plow it once and then drag it once but it doesn't work like that when there's lots of grass.
I'm planning on hog fencing another 35 acres for more hay meadow this winter, if I have time.

 

[1982vett]

I hog fenced my hay meadows then plowed and plowed then drug and drug. Then repeat to get it good enough to make hay comfortably.
I have a 14' tandem disc plow and built a drag out of I beam 16'x5'.
It's not easy to get smooth lots of work.
Grass is hard to get smooth.
You would think to plow it once and then drag it once but it doesn't work like that when there's lots of grass.
I'm planning on hog fencing another 35 acres for more hay meadow this winter, if I have time.

Hog fencing (and an electric fencer) will help keep hogs damage out…won't do anything to keep fire ants from building 12-18 inch tall mounds…

Even a little 6 inch mound is going to throw you around the cab when it's rock hard dry.

 

[greybeard]

Yep fireant mounds are a pita to drive over and anytime I have a box blade on, I drive around and knock 'em down but anyone that has done that has probably noticed they don't exactly smooth out. The whole thing comes up out of the ground in a big chunk and is not really easy to spread about and you're left with a hole or depression where the mound was located. (might just be my clay soil tho)


There never seems to be enough loose dirt to fill in and smooth out where the hogs have rooted either..

 

[Dave]

This place is flood irrigated. The young man who did the irrigation before I got here always drove his quad right down the side of the ditch in the same tracks. Once the ground is really soaked up, even has standing water on it the quad will make ruts. Keep doing that and you get deep ruts. So now I set a tarp in the ditch to form the dam. Water flows over the ditch but instead of flowing out over the field it gets in the ruts and follows them. How do I break up those ruts (sod in them)? Don't want to plow because of all the old river rock under a few inches of dirt.

 

[SmokinM]

This place is flood irrigated. The young man who did the irrigation before I got here always drove his quad right down the side of the ditch in the same tracks. Once the ground is really soaked up, even has standing water on it the quad will make ruts. Keep doing that and you get deep ruts. So now I set a tarp in the ditch to form the dam. Water flows over the ditch but instead of flowing out over the field it gets in the ruts and follows them. How do I break up those ruts (sod in them)? Don't want to plow because of all the old river rock under a few inches of dirt.

Depending on soil type and depth if you can get it wet and had a heavy roller you might could roll them out. Otherwise filling them in with clean soil is about the only way i know of.

 

[J+ Cattle]

I'm trying to avoid any heavy tillage as it's on sloped ground and I don't want to create a bigger mess than the hogs did.
Plus whatever I do I know they will come back later and mess it up again.

 

[GoWyo]

This place is flood irrigated. The young man who did the irrigation before I got here always drove his quad right down the side of the ditch in the same tracks. Once the ground is really soaked up, even has standing water on it the quad will make ruts. Keep doing that and you get deep ruts. So now I set a tarp in the ditch to form the dam. Water flows over the ditch but instead of flowing out over the field it gets in the ruts and follows them. How do I break up those ruts (sod in them)? Don't want to plow because of all the old river rock under a few inches of dirt.

Those ruts are going to be a problem. You might have to put a piece of sod in each rut at every tarp dam set and hopefully they will fill in with silt over time. Might be best to go buy a pallet of sod next spring and set chunks in the ruts every 50 or 100 feet, depending on your ditch slope. Then maybe could use a loader and start filling in the in between places with corral manure with some cheap annual grass seed or something to start building the ruts back up.

 

[bird dog]

Dave could you use a blade to cut the ridge down on the downhill side of the rut to give the water an alternate route to flow out?

I have a similar problem with cow trails on the steep parts of my highly erodible pasture. What sometimes works well is to lay net wrap in the pathway ruts in three or so spots about 20' apart. Mound up some rocks over the net like a grave. Then roll out a roll of hay over the whole mess and let the cows have at it. This will clog up some of the soil washing down the pathway and the hay will help seed it in.

This does not always work. Sometimes the water just works its way around the rocks. Other times it works very well. I guess the flow velocity and volume are what changes the outcome.

 

[Lisagrantb]

cut grass as low as possible then lightly disk it until it's level. You may need to go over it 5-6 times to get it right. Trick is to disk shallow not deep enough to destroy all the roots. Works really good if you do it before you expect a rain The rain starts the grass growing again and in a few weeks you won't even know you had been there. I have to do this every year for the same reason.

 

[tex452]

cut grass as low as possible then lightly disk it until it's level. You may need to go over it 5-6 times to get it right. Trick is to disk shallow not deep enough to destroy all the roots. Works really good if you do it before you expect a rain The rain starts the grass growing again and in a few weeks you won't even know you had been there. I have to do this every year for the same reason.

It depends on the soil type and the amount of grass and how much rain you get.
My place in Leon county has sandy loam with lots of grass and we usually get ample rainfall.
So it works better if I plow it as deep as I can to get as much dirt mixed with it as possible, it spreads the sprigs out, and it comes back very thick.
Any plowing will help weeds too, but we take care of them.
I do have a ranch that has rocks, but no hogs yet. I hope it stays that way.
We are planning on planting wheat in a few spots for grazing in the future, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Brute 23]

I'm trying to avoid any heavy tillage as it's on sloped ground and I don't want to create a bigger mess than the hogs did.
Plus whatever I do I know they will come back later and mess it up again.

A drag of some sort is your best option probably... Harrow, cattle panel, tire drag, etc

 

[Lucky]

Completely off topic here, and I apologize in advance. The wife and I were talking about visiting Texas sometime in the near future, and she's always wanted to shoot a wild hog or three. We're both in our 40's and (semi)responsible adults, know how to shoot and been around stock since we were born. I have a hard time paying a guide service to shoot a nuisance animal and was wondering if local farmers would allow folks like us to shoot a couple piggies for fun? Or do folks shy away from such?

Thanks.

If you're in North East Tx I bet we could put you on one.