Forestry Mulching Spin off

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Gobble4me757

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For those who have mulched to create a food plot, how did you go about doing so? Did you use a landrake behind a tractor to clear off the ground afterwords?
 
Gobble4me757 said:
For those who have mulched to create a food plot, how did you go about doing so? Did you use a landrake behind a tractor to clear off the ground afterwords?
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I have had a mulcher reclaim a few acres of old pasture but the shreaded mulch was just allowed to lay and rot.

But I have followed up after a dozer with a landscape rake behind tractor while creating a food plot (old log loading area)

From my experience the rake works good cleaning up smaller loose stuff....But (always a "but") your going to need a "ground man" to help clean the tines after each pull....I had a buddy stand at end of plot and I'd make a long drag then raise rake and he'd take his foot and push the tangled trash out of tines....I never got off tractor....pulled rocks, trash, bark, limbs and roots into a row at end of the plot....then took the tractor bucket and pushed the row into a pile....but without a ground man I would have gotten on and off tractor a hundred times and slowed the whole process down.

Also be careful....pulling too much trash at a time you can also drag your top soil to your pile....a dirty or clogged rake will become a blade. So if you have too... shorten your pulls.

But all in all we were very pleased with the landscape rake performance with helping us clean up and develop a food plot.
 
I use an excavator. Hate clearing after the mulcher goes through makes it really difficult. Excavator can clear and leave 99% of the topsoil which is hard to do with a dozer. Can take bigger trees as necessary . Doesn't clear anywhere as fast though
 
Mattt said:
I use an excavator. Hate clearing after the mulcher goes through makes it really difficult. Excavator can clear and leave 99% of the topsoil which is hard to do with a dozer. Can take bigger trees as necessary . Doesn't clear anywhere as fast though
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Agree....preservation of top soil should be a consideration...in our case we had to contract out the work....big dozer $200 per hour or Excavator at $200 per hour...budget dictated the big dozer...plus at the time we had some road improvements to make on the property.
 
DoubleRidge said:
Agree....preservation of top soil should be a consideration...in our case we had to contract out the work....big dozer $200 per hour or Excavator at $200 per hour...budget dictated the big dozer...plus at the time we had some road improvements to make on the property.
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Yes. In my opinion best time is combined with other projects. 200hr probably decent price depending on the excavator. I'm currently turning a pine clearcut to pasture/cutting roads/firelines. Be back at it hard after the first of the year. Pretty cool to see all the nwsg return. Personally I much prefer it over a planted crop. Two years ago it was a pine thicket. The sheer numbers of birds that are around now is pretty wild.we've been watching the deer in it and surprisingly the numbers considering both neighbors feed a lot of corn
 
Mattt said:
Yes. In my opinion best time is combined with other projects. 200hr probably decent price depending on the excavator. I'm currently turning a pine clearcut to pasture/cutting roads/firelines. Be back at it hard after the first of the year. Pretty cool to see all the nwsg return. Personally I much prefer it over a planted crop. Two years ago it was a pine thicket. The sheer numbers of birds that are around now is pretty wild.we've been watching the deer in it and surprisingly the numbers considering both neighbors feed a lot of corn
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Sounds like an awesome project! Next year we have a gas line thats scheduled to go through our property and we are planning a nwsg/pollinator blend over the majority of the new area....and the $200 per hour I quoted on the big dozer was a little over 4 years ago....Im sure that rate has gone up since then.
 
DoubleRidge said:
Sounds like an awesome project! Next year we have a gas line thats scheduled to go through our property and we are planning a nwsg/pollinator blend over the majority of the new area....and the $200 per hour I quoted on the big dozer was a little over 4 years ago....Im sure that rate has gone up since then.
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Prolly so…it's costing me 200/hr for the Mulcher…I have a lil over 3 acres to do total. It would cost wayy more with a dozier and all.
 
How long y'all think it will take the Mulcher to do 2 acres of overgrown brush and then bout 2 acres of 4-5" diameter pines. Planning on doing in mid December when it's the fastest to do this as well per the Mulcher
 
Might be better off using a V-shear and rootrake or trackhoe with a thumb to push the trees over, stack, and burn. 2ac of pine is gonna be a lot to clean up and you'll either need to deal with the stumps day 1 or let'em rot.

1697111578713.png
 
Boll Weevil said:
Might be better off using a V-shear and rootrake or trackhoe with a thumb to push the trees over, stack, and burn. 2ac of pine is gonna be a lot to clean up and you'll either need to deal with the stumps day 1 or let'em rot.

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Don't have many options where I'm doing this…really 1.5 acres of needed rooting and all with .5 being road etc. was thinking to get one of those heavy duty plows to pull behind the tractor and then come back with a disc later. Spraying in mid to late spring
 
DoubleRidge said:
Sounds like an awesome project! Next year we have a gas line thats scheduled to go through our property and we are planning a nwsg/pollinator blend over the majority of the new area....and the $200 per hour I quoted on the big dozer was a little over 4 years ago....Im sure that rate has gone up since then.
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How did this turn out for you? I'm planning on clearing about 10 acres and seeding nwsg this spring
 
Westnvol89 said:
How did this turn out for you? I'm planning on clearing about 10 acres and seeding nwsg this spring
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Gasline project tied up in the courts. Judge is supposed to hear the case in early 2025...so while I look forward to the project, we hadnt made any progress.
Think the gas line dispute is over a couple of creek crossings or something?
Good luck with your NWSG project..keep us posted....and when our project takes off Ill do the same.
 
Westnvol89 said:
How did this turn out for you? I'm planning on clearing about 10 acres and seeding nwsg this spring
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In my previous post I said we hadnt made any progress...which isnt true...while we hadnt made any progress with NWSG or Pollenator blends....we were successful at finally finding someone to the cut timber from future gas line path...so that generated some income which will go towards habitat projects in the future. Currently just waiting on the gas line install and clean-up.
 
I do excavating. I'd tell you in my opinion it's hard to beat a dozer if you know what you're doing. Mulching leaves a mess and it cost a lot. I've got a few excavators, and use them a lot but it's time consuming. Doze and burn is what I'd do.
 
Mattt said:
What he said. Asking a question here, why are y'all planting nwsg? It's already in the soil
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Agree....doing nothing but opening the canopy and allowing sunlight in can generate some great habitat.

And there can be some nwsg in the seed bank but there are also other less desirable plants....sowing a variety of nswg seeds and a pollenator blend can shade out other less desirable species while providing great habitat for fawning, turkey nesting and quail.
 
DoubleRidge said:
Agree....doing nothing but opening the canopy and allowing sunlight in can generate some great habitat.

And there can be some nwsg in the seed bank but there are also other less desirable plants....sowing a variety of nswg seeds and a pollenator blend can shade out other less desirable species while providing great habitat for fawning, turkey nesting and quail.
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I don't know if TVA broadcast seed in the rights-of-way, but once they started maintaining the power-line ROWs with chemicals, they have really filled in with tall Indian Grass. Great for turkey and quail.
 
DoubleRidge said:
Agree....doing nothing but opening the canopy and allowing sunlight in can generate some great habitat.

And there can be some nwsg in the seed bank but there are also other less desirable plants....sowing a variety of nswg seeds and a pollenator blend can shade out other less desirable species while providing great habitat for fawning, turkey nesting and quail.
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Seems to me nwsg and the natural seedbank are gonna have the same growing season. So a crapshoot to what gets shaded out.
 

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