What to do after brush hogging?

[RodMO]

I recently had 30 acres bush hogged (It's now early August and very dry). It had many trees, bushes, briars, etc. about chest high. Should I do anything more this year or wait until next spring to spray it with herbicide.

I would eventually like to have a nice stand of red clover and some fescue. Also would burning it off help or hurt? (I would wait to burn until we get more moisture for safety's sake.) Thanks for your input.

 

[bigbull338]

I recently had 30 acres bush hogged (It's now early August and very dry). It had many trees, bushes, briars, etc. about chest high. Should I do anything more this year or wait until next spring to spray it with herbicide.

I would eventually like to have a nice stand of red clover and some fescue. Also would burning it off help or hurt? (I would wait to burn until we get more moisture for safety's sake.) Thanks for your input.

if your not grazing it this yr id brushhog it again.you dont want the thorns briers growing up tween now an next spring.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Spray it with Grazon kill the broadleafs and the seed.

 

[dun]

As dry as it has been and with the added heat, not even the weeds are growing very well. Spraying might help but it's a lot of money to spend for not much success. Brush hog it again if things get a foot tall and burn it in the spring.

 

[msscamp]

Also would burning it off help or hurt? (I would wait to burn until we get more moisture for safety's sake.) Thanks for your input.

Depending on your area, burning it off could leave you with a very nice stand of cheatgrass - which is, in a lot of ways, even harder to get rid of than weeds.

 

[CUZ]

You may just have to hurry up and wait for spring. I've read where spraying when it is really dry is just a waste of money, because the weeds are in survival mode and you want to spray when the weeds are in growth mode. That way they are really sucking up the ground nutrients and therefore pulling the poison into the entire weed.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Bush hogging is a waste of time and money when it comes to mowing weeds all you are doing is spreading seed. You will have a better stand next spring.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Bush hogging is a waste of time and money when it comes to mowing weeds all you are doing is spreading seed. You will have a better stand next spring.

Depends, Caustic...

In our situation, we rotational graze our Longhorns frequently and then brush hog weeds before they start seeding. Been doing this for 5 years now. We have reduced our visible weeds by probably 90% which also gives our bermuda pastures chance to use the moisture. Also, our Longhorns will often eat the baby weeds before they get a foot tall.

Additionally, brush hogging has been very effective to spreading the manure piles, and, we haven't had to do any fertilization. Try to brush hog before a rain; and will water our small pens after we mow them. Some of our smaller areas are beginning to look like lawns...just need to keep the water coming... ;-)

 

[tytower]

Just to see if I can get the 14000 th post in this thread

Ha Ha got it !

Agree with most of this
Spraying if its not growing madly is a waste of time and every page of a poison booklet will tell you so
With the small trees some will probably start growing back from the stump so spraying , cut stump poison , or basal paint is the only way to kill off the root.

If they look like they are growing you can do this by hand anytime. Hire some backpackers or cheap labour if you have a lot to do.
Axe cuts around trunk and Diesel and Garlon sprayed in immediately work for me.
Put some cows on it ,they will tread it down , eat anything cow edible and what youve got left spray when growing

 

[Caustic Burno]

Bush hogging is a waste of time and money when it comes to mowing weeds all you are doing is spreading seed. You will have a better stand next spring.

Depends, Caustic...

In our situation, we rotational graze our Longhorns frequently and then brush hog weeds before they start seeding. Been doing this for 5 years now. We have reduced our visible weeds by probably 90% which also gives our bermuda pastures chance to use the moisture. Also, our Longhorns will often eat the baby weeds before they get a foot tall.

Additionally, brush hogging has been very effective to spreading the manure piles, and, we haven't had to do any fertilization. Try to brush hog before a rain; and will water our small pens after we mow them. Some of our smaller areas are beginning to look like lawns...just need to keep the water coming... ;-)

Man is not talking about an improved pasture but 30 acres of crap you are not going to turn that into pasture bush hogging it.

 

[RodMO]

Thanks for the input guys. My thoughts are to wait till spring, and spray the crap out of it. I might experiment with a few sections this fall if it starts growing back.

 

[Beefy]

depending on what it is a combination of the two could do wonders. like for instance at this point in the year spraying persimmons doesnt seem to do much good for me. but mowing them and then spraying the new growth seems to work well.

 

[Double A]

Depending upon the tree size, most likely you will have re-growth come next spring. We have used brush hogging, burning, and spraying for CRP management. Unfortunately, the bigger sprouts can require a second treatment - we burned one spring and had some (not all) sprouts (mainly larger elm trees 4" diameter +) return, which we later sprayed. Many chemicals require absorbtion through the leaves, so you need to have a good amount of leaf present to kill the root (also why you don't spray during stress periods - excessive heat, drought). Burning worked well for clearing up thatch, cedars, and the small stuff. If you want to encourage fescue, burn earlier; burn later in the spring when the fescue starts to green to set it back and encourage WSGs. One benefit to burning is putting the ash into the soil (and it is cheaper than chemicals). We always disk a fire break along the field edge - it works best to make one pass in the fall and then freshen with another pass in the spring. A soil test is probably a good idea if you haven't done one before you go to planting seeds even for pasture. We are taking some soil samples this weekend. They recommend not much moisture in them - shouldn't be a problem we are sooooo dry, I'm just hopeful we won't need dynamite to get the samples.

 

[RodMO]

Depending upon the tree size, most likely you will have re-growth come next spring. We have used brush hogging, burning, and spraying for CRP management. Unfortunately, the bigger sprouts can require a second treatment - we burned one spring and had some (not all) sprouts (mainly larger elm trees 4" diameter +) return, which we later sprayed. Many chemicals require absorbtion through the leaves, so you need to have a good amount of leaf present to kill the root (also why you don't spray during stress periods - excessive heat, drought). Burning worked well for clearing up thatch, cedars, and the small stuff. If you want to encourage fescue, burn earlier; burn later in the spring when the fescue starts to green to set it back and encourage WSGs. One benefit to burning is putting the ash into the soil (and it is cheaper than chemicals). We always disk a fire break along the field edge - it works best to make one pass in the fall and then freshen with another pass in the spring. A soil test is probably a good idea if you haven't done one before you go to planting seeds even for pasture. We are taking some soil samples this weekend. They recommend not much moisture in them - shouldn't be a problem we are sooooo dry, I'm just hopeful we won't need dynamite to get the samples.

How much earlier are you talking for burning?
How do go about your soil test-ie who do you use to test them?

 

[Brute 23]

Bush hogging is a waste of money. Its cheaper and more effective to spray.


I would bush hog everything down to the ground at the end of this growing season.

Then when everything starts growing next year let everything get about 1-2' tall and then spray it.

DO NOT BUSH HOG EVER AGAIN... spray annualy after that. Spot spray by hand places the booms cant reach, large trees, bushes, ect...

Couple of years you should have a nice field.

 

[dun]

How much earlier are you talking for burning?
How do go about your soil test-ie who do you use to test them?

You can get it tested via the extension service or your local fertilizer dealer, like MFA. Your best bet is to talk to your USDA NRCS office. They can tell you the best dates for burning in your area plus give you tons of help. They have publications covering soil testing also.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

ol' timers will tell you the best time to bushhog is during the dawg days of summer or around mid august. to knock back weeds. when the food reserve is at its lowest in the plant. burning pasture's this time of year can wipe out a good stand of grass if you had one .a week or so before green up is the best time when the ground is starting to warm up.

 

[Double A]

How much earlier are you talking for burning?
How do go about your soil test-ie who do you use to test them?

You can get it tested via the extension service or your local fertilizer dealer, like MFA. Your best bet is to talk to your USDA NRCS office. They can tell you the best dates for burning in your area plus give you tons of help. They have publications covering soil testing also.

Ditto, for my answer. The NRCS is a good source on burning and the MO Dept of Conservation (went to their burning seminar) too. I'm sure they can help you with guidelines; but, as you well know you can't exactly do it by dates. Depending upon the weather, we have burned in both March and April (we are north of hwys 70 & 36); but this is in the CRP. One thing you have to watch is that if it gets too green the fire doesn't burn as well and as hot and this can decrease its effectiveness and sometimes won't get all your tree sprouts. Some have burned as early as Feb and early March in our area and this may give you the most benefit since fescue is a cool season grass and starts its growing season early (see what the office recommends). Those burned fields turn a lovely green after the spring rains (you'd almost swear you fertilized compared to how it looked before). I don't know what it is, but in our area, if the neighors find out we are looking to burn they all run and go get their torches and shovels...wanting us to wait for them - "fire bugs" .

I believe our MFA does soil samples and some fertilizer companies too (if you don't want to do them yourself). We just do ours ourselves through the University of MO Extension office. You just go into the office and they'll give you the samples boxes (directions are on the box). One box can cover up to 20 ac, but you may want to divide it up into smaller sections depending upon the land. If I remember right (can tell you after Monday) I think it is now $15/per sample box. Here is a link to the Univ. of MO extension you can find local office locations and search their publications on soil testing (and lots of other subjects too). http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/

We do some brush hogging, but it does have it's limits. It can be helpful and cut sprouts down so they don't require as much chemical spray. We will mow a few strips in the CRP - along woodlines and over some sprouts in areas that won't be burned that year. Sometimes we will "top" some pasture areas in the summer before the weeds (like ironweed) go to seed and this seems to help create better pastures too. One other thing we have found that will help keep weeds down is to burn the old hay where the bale rings were in the winter (do this early spring) otherwise we always have extra weedy patches where the rings were (even though we move them around). I guess we have a bit of a "fire bug" in us too.

 

[MissouriExile]

After several hours of bushhoggin I usually have a couple of very, very cold beers. :lol: :lol: Then , I think about what herbicide I'll spray over the area, come Spring. Once I decide, I have another cold beer to reward myself for work well done. :lol:

I'm too new to the business to have an opinion about how effective bush hogging is for weeds. What I do know is what a great stress buster it is after sitting at a desk dealing with people all day. I've taken to rationing the few scrub trees I have left, saving them for after a hard day. A cold beer is good afterwards but ice tea works as well for me.

Jon

 

[ALACOWMAN]

After several hours of bushhoggin I usually have a couple of very, very cold beers. :lol: :lol: Then , I think about what herbicide I'll spray over the area, come Spring. Once I decide, I have another cold beer to reward myself for work well done. :lol:

• I'm too new to the business to have an opinion about how effective bush hogging is for weeds.

What I do know is what a great stress buster it is after sitting at a desk dealing with people all day. I've taken to rationing the few scrub trees I have left, saving them for after a hard day. A cold beer is good afterwards but ice tea works as well for me.

Jon

it can be real effective but timing is the key. and how good a grass stand is...... if you have a thick grass stand and and a few weeds. best to let the grass outcompete the weeds. are spot spray. thin grass stand and more weeds is a bigger problem if you bush hog the weeds their likely to come back stronger and choke out what grass you have time to invest in a broadleaf. i get my best results in weed control by spraying in [early ]spring and hogg'in late summer