Moving to new Place, need advice its overgrown

plowhand · #21 08/25/12, 12:18 PM

They make a mower to pull behind a 4 wheel, or find an old cultipacker and flaten em down

secuono · #22 08/25/12, 12:23 PM

Pay someone to bushhog it for you?

lazyBum · #23 08/25/12, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by themamahen

how you gonna make hay with all the brambles?

You make bramble hay. Dad would take every hay field he could get. Lot's of people let us make hay from over grown fields as long as we kept it mowed. And mowing it close to the ground and removing the brambles with the bales will kill it out quickly. Cows and goats will pick out what they want. Goats will eat more of it than cows. The horses were always too picky and sensitive to feed it to them.

oregon woodsmok · #24 08/25/12, 02:25 PM

If you want blackberry jam, get rid of the Himalayan blackberries and plant named varieties in controlled rows and keep them up so they don't get out of control.

themamahen · #25 08/25/12, 02:33 PM

When life gives you blackberries, make blackberry wine. Benefit from it. Next year, life will see that you understand and be much more kind.

jwal10 · #26 08/25/12, 03:34 PM

People who don't live in western Oregon can't imagine how fast and big blackberry vines grow here. Plus if hilly and stumps were left from logging, how hard they are to control. Goats are the easy way, but you need fence. If the stumps are there, left rough from logging and the slash was left, no one will want to bushhog it. Get a trail around the perimeter and let the goats do their thing....James

WV Farm girl · #27 08/26/12, 12:44 PM

Sounds as if you had already decided on brushhogging before you posted and knew that animals were out of the question. Land takes work. If you are just planning on brushhogging and then not following up with what is necessary to make it meadow or running livestock on it, you are wasting time and money. Ground reverts quickly back to nature. In a year or so you will be brushogging again. So unless you are ready and able to put time/money into it immediately leave as is and enjoy the fruit until you are ready/willing.

jennigrey · #28 08/26/12, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motdaugrnds

I second Raeven's post. Please don't stake goats. It makes them too vulnerable to predators!

If you decide on goats, please don't get the "dairy" ones. Their udders tend to get too scratched up by thorny bushes. Get the "meat" type and they, too, will do a good job destroying those brambles for you.

We purchased a DR Field & Brush Mower to keep all the brush off our place. It is much cheaper than a tractor, is better than dragging something behind a 4-wheeler and will chop up anything it can push over...even 3" tree saplings.

My dairy wethers, with horns, are much more vigorous, destructive and voracious browsers than my meat breed doe. The meat doe prefers grass and won't work hard for her meals. The boys break, crush, rip and smash brush and saplings flat and shred the bark with their ridged Alpine horns. Another part of the problem is that, as a meat goat, the doe is an "easy keeper" and just doesn't have the all-consuming appetite that the two wethers do.

jennigrey · #29 08/26/12, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwal10

People who don't live in western Oregon can't imagine how fast and big blackberry vines grow here. Plus if hilly and stumps were left from logging, how hard they are to control. Goats are the easy way, but you need fence. If the stumps are there, left rough from logging and the slash was left, no one will want to bushhog it. Get a trail around the perimeter and let the goats do their thing....James

I've got stands of 2-year-old Himalayan blackberry with canes easily greater in diameter than both my thumbs put together. There's no running Himalayan blackberry canes through a baler. It would be like baling bamboo or sugarcane.

themamahen · #30 08/26/12, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WV Farm girl

[B]Sounds as if you had already decided on [/B]brushhogging before you posted

Well obviously U didnt read or didnt BOTHER to read the part where it says I CANT afford it, I am losing my current house to foreclosure hence = NO MONEY???

I was hoping for a drag suggestion or maybe a setup of some sort my hubby could build.
and knew that animals were out of the question. Land takes work. If you are just planning on brushhogging and then not following up with what is necessary to make it meadow or running livestock on it, you are wasting time and money. Ground reverts quickly back to nature. In a year or so you will be brushogging again. So unless you are ready and able to put time/money into it immediately leave as is and enjoy the fruit until you are ready/willing.

But thanks for the not so nice reply

you have a great day too

themamahen · #31 08/26/12, 01:58 PM

I really don't want to get animals that I cant take care of every day because i dont know that i will be at that property everyday to tend them, so those are out of the question until we are staying in the house. but i did talk to my hubby after I spoke to my neighbor and think i may have found something for him to make to drag behind the 4 wheeler

if I can get them knocked down to where i can get my lawn tractor to cut I can take care of the rest until spring.

Zilli · #32 08/26/12, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by themamahen

I really don't want to get animals that I cant take care of every day because i dont know that i will be at that property everyday to tend them, so those are out of the question until we are staying in the house. but i did talk to my hubby after I spoke to my neighbor and think i may have found something for him to make to drag behind the 4 wheeler

if I can get them knocked down to where i can get my lawn tractor to cut I can take care of the rest until spring.

I totally agree with you about not getting animals until you are going to be on the property full time.

When I had made my initial suggestion about goats, I had assumed you were actually moving onto the property right away.