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I shred ranches, so the shredding is done as pasture management.

It's not so much a matter of not being able to get it done because of roughness, it's just a matter of how fast you can go. Or if the brush/trees are too big in diameter, you can't go at all.

This photo shows huisache trees in the background... It was all like that. I brought the tree puller in and pulled every huisache tree I could on the ranch. (Took awhile)

Now I'm following it up with shredding where I pulled the trees out of pastures.



Pulling trees too big to shred..



Huisache, mesquite, and rose hedge can choke a pasture out in short order down here, and ruin your ranch for grazing. It can get out of hand very quickly. Once it gets out of hand, the longer you leave it, the more expensive and invasive the options are to restore it.

Hey, RBB-enjoying this thread!

Here on the IA/MO border Eastern Red Cedar, Honey Locust and Osage Orange ("hedge") are what we battle. Oaks and cottonwoods too.

Can mow off a pretty big cedar and he ded, but the thorny locust and tough hedge can't be very big or you've scattered thorns all over.

I have a shear that mounts on the 3 point and a brush grapple for the loader on a tractor with a shuttle, works good, but it's SLOW going.

And locust stumps need treated, or you just make 'em mad and where there was one 6 sprout back.

Any advice on pullers, skid steers? Do you have to use chemicals to prevent regrowth? Have to mow every year?

You need one of these

Hi Doc!

Thanks for your interest!

Yessir, if I cut a tree off, especially huisache, mesquites, or live oak, I use a homemade stump killer on them. I mix 1 part diesel and one part Remedy herbicide. It works well.

Most of my clients, and myself included will shred once a year. Usually about this time of year, and have it ready for Sept. Oct rains.

My compact track loader was picked for removing brush. About the most powerful lift in any made. That puller id HD as well. It's a Danuser Intimidator. Only problems I've had are replacing the hoses that came with it for better ones.

I don't know Doctor Dan, really well, I've talked with him on the phone, and our veterinarian interred with him.

Good man, straight shooter.

I'm trying to reclaim some pasture that "got away from me" I was too busy with my vet work for a few years and failed to mow it yearly-and now some of it's a mess.

Something I tried this year is basal bark treatment with 1:3 Remedy/diesel. A hand sprayer and just wet the bottom 12-18" of the tree. This is on honey locust up to 2 1/2 to 3 in diameter.

I did some in February and they actually leafed out and it looked like a failure! But in a couple weeks they turned yellow and were dying. They lost all leaves and I sheared them off in July, hopefully they are dead and don't recover.

Spraying stumps as I shear them doesn't work well as I'm a one man band most of the time and that means climbing in and out of the tractor repeatedly. Can't do a bunch and then spray as you can't find the stumps sheared at ground level.

Yeah, we use that basal spraying here too. It works well.

But then you still have the tree to deal with. That's why I'd rather just pull them, and then stack to burn.

They say that the sooner you apply that stump killer, the better it works.

One guy I know has a shear, and after he cut's it off, it has a spray nozzle that sprays the stump! Pretty cool!

Richard, your video of that feller-buncher is a example of how times have changed-

My dad didn't own a chainsaw. He would hire a cousin to drop a few trees with a chainsaw, but dad limbed them up with an ax. We had a buzz saw for the 8N to cut firewood. A maul and a wedge to split the big rounds. Boys stacked wood and piled brush.

Dad cleared brush with a double bit ax-one side was kinda dull that chopped into the dirt, the sharp bit would shave hair. And woe be to him that put the wrong bit of Dad's ax into the dirt!

I moved up to a chainsaw early on, the tree shear 25 years ago, then a tractor with an air-conditioned cab about 20 years ago.

A/C, MFWD and shuttle shift tractor in 2007. It's not really work anymore!

LOL!

Yeah, I was 18 years old before I knew my name wasn't Get Wood!

Seriously. My dad never bought a chainsaw until I left home...

He would buy me a double bitted axe when I wore one out though.

3.4mph with a 15’ cutter is about 6 acres/hr if my math is right and there is zero overlap while cutting. By the time you got done with 1000 acres it’d be time to start over again...

BTDT.

But there's turning time involved. And trees. And as you mentioned, overlap. (you want a decent overlap)

On avg, I feel lucky to get 30 acres a day.

Even using both tractors, that puts over 16 days shredding on the calendar.


Nah... they don't shred a pasture like you'd mow the lawn... when the grass gets high. You just cut them once a year to keep brush controlled, and let the grass come up, and give better access to the grass for grazing.

I do have a couple of places that want me to cut it twice a year though.