The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

Myself I lean more towards the JCB lineup. My nephew has a Cat skidsteer with the tracks over the tires. Even with the added lift from the tracks with anything but the stock bucket on it can be difficult to exit the machine. It takes maneuvering to get the arms down low enough to get out of the cab by opening the door as it will not clear the implement. He actually ends up removing the door much of time to make it usable.

Climbing in and out of the SS is a young man's game - Keeps me from using it as much as I could. The other thing that makes me choose the forklift or the tractor are the reduced work area visibility (I installed 2 rearward cameras), and the slow rough ride...

I’d love a JCB tracked teleskid, except that its only about 75HP.
That Takeuchi I posted the link to is like 112HP and will lift or run anything high flow you can put on it. It’s a beast.

The JCB tele skid has the side entry door, which is a great feature. It could also potentially stack and unstack bales higher than a standard skid steer.

Wish they’d build a 100HP teleskid. It gets rid of the claustrophobic feeling with that side door and would have enough ass to get really heavy jobs done.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

We are 98% done all cutting of hay & fields. Just one place left to do.
Suffice it to say, we are in “off-season” mode.

I just started a fence clearing project. About 1000’ of fence with about 15 years of unabated growth. A real mess. Briars, vines, olive, etc. Just started on Thursday & Friday. Here’s about 50’ of this glamorous work underway.
I’m using My Stihl HT-103 pole pruner and Stihl Kombi 91 with a Stihl tri-blade.

I will benefit a little from this clearing because it’s along a hay field I cut and should help me get a little relief from overhanging branches.


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Can you believe there’s a fence in there?

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Some more progress. Can you see the railroad berm in the background?


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My fence row was almost just like this when we got our property. I did mostly the same as you are doing. I had a lot of blackberry vines and for me a sling blade worked faster than a trimmer. But I did not have one with a metal blade at the time. I was able to basically fillet the vines off the fence like a fish slab. Then once I could get enough off the fence that I could get it to lay down I mowed over them to mulch them. This was also pre-tractor so I took very small bites with my riding lawn mower, or push mower.

 

[Hay Dude]

Making some progress on the fence line. All hand to hand combat. 30’ deep swath of brush and cars on a blind curve.
I have a “WORK AREA AHEAD” sign down the road and cones. Yet people still miss me by 1-2’ and I see them looking down & texting.
Have about 1000’ done and about 500’ to go.

 

[EddieWalker]

Seeing how bad that fence looks, wouldn't it be better to just rent an excavator and take all of it out in a day, then put in a brand new fence?

 

[Hay Dude]

Seeing how bad that fence looks, wouldn't it be better to just rent an excavator and take all of it out in a day, then put in a brand new fence?

Yes, definitely.
The owner wants the old craggy fence to keep kids in 4-wheelers off the property.
He’s limited on funds to install new fence.

It’s also noteworthy that a dozer would push the debris onto the road, since the road is less than 10’ from the fence. You’d probably “rake” it back into the field with a mini-ex, as you suggested, then burn all the plant material, then cram all the fence wire into my dump truck and haul away.

But he wanted to keep the fence to discourage off-roaders.

My guess it we will probably try to prop-up some of the fence before it completely falls over.

 

[Hay Dude]

The fence posts and partial wire still do a decent job of discouraging off road vehicles.

 

[Jason05216]

The fence posts and partial wire still do a decent job of discouraging off road vehicles.

I don't understand people thinking it's OK to ride on the property with their off road vehicles without the fence being there. The way I was raised, you didn't go on someone else's property without permission, with or without a fence. Especially with something like an ATV or UTV that could cause damage.

 

[Hay Dude]

I don't understand people thinking it's OK to ride on the property with their off road vehicles without the fence being there. The way I was raised, you didn't go on someone else's property without permission, with or without a fence. Especially with something like an ATV or UTV that could cause damage.

Agree.

Originally, the fencing was used to keep cows contained on the land. Cows been gone 20 years. Now I just farm it for organic hay. Owner likes the rustic look of the fence and also the deterrence effect.

 

[mrmikey]

Yet people still miss me by 1-2’ and I see them looking down & texting.

That's scary as he77. Brings the expression "watch your azz" to a new meaning. Make sure you do watch your azz HD, there are some idiot drivers out there.
Don't 'spose there's any way to park your truck a couple hundred yard before you is there? Road looks really narrow

 

[pmsmechanic]

My guess it we will probably try to prop-up some of the fence before it completely falls over.

A "T" post inserted behind a few posts and wired on would prop up the fence and wouldn't interfere much with the rustic look.

 

[LHF2019]

I don't understand people thinking it's OK to ride on the property with their off road vehicles without the fence being there. The way I was raised, you didn't go on someone else's property without permission, with or without a fence. Especially with something like an ATV or UTV that could cause damage.

Just the way it is anymore. we would like to allow some people the opportunity to ride on our property BUT if somebody sees tracks then it must be alright. So we shut it all down and make it well known. Have amish trespassing for archery. Trying to control that. Wife and I went through all our woods and reestablished the timber company markings on the trees. Making our presence known. Even thinking of putting up boundary barb wire were it used to run a century ago? for 2 purposes, boundary line and future silvopasturing.

 

[Hay Dude]

A "T" post inserted behind a few posts and wired on would prop up the fence and wouldn't interfere much with the rustic look.

That’s been done a few times already lol.
The overgrowth put a lot of weight on the fence and made it lean over badly. They used whatever they had for posts. Pipes, RR ties, T-posts, logs….lol

 

[Dryland Farmer]

Making some progress on the fence line. All hand to hand combat. 30’ deep swath of brush and cars on a blind curve.
I have a “WORK AREA AHEAD” sign down the road and cones. Yet people still miss me by 1-2’ and I see them looking down & texting.
Have about 1000’ done and about 500’ to go.

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That job looks to be no harder than sitting in mine den.

 

[Hay Dude]

That job looks to be no harder than sitting in mine den.

You forgot it’s “sitting in my den watching tv”

That’s way harder than just “sitting in my den”

 

[Hay Dude]

Just the way it is anymore. we would like to allow some people the opportunity to ride on our property BUT if somebody sees tracks then it must be alright. So we shut it all down and make it well known. Have amish trespassing for archery. Trying to control that. Wife and I went through all our woods and reestablished the timber company markings on the trees. Making our presence known. Even thinking of putting up boundary barb wire were it used to run a century ago? for 2 purposes, boundary line and future silvopasturing.

One of the people I farm for has an extensive chunk 500+ acres. Shes an elderly millionaire, but in great shape and very with-it.
After her husband passed, she found herself inundated with hunters, trappers, fishermen, 4-wheelers, night spotters, motorcycles, etc.

She had to hire a pretty prickly tough guy and let him live in a guest house on the property to get rid of them. He’s a friend of mine. I farm the property. He explained to me it took him close to 5 years to get rid of all of them. Some went on first encounter. Some involved fights and threats. He spent a lot of hours sneaking up on them, chasing them in a 4-wheeler, etc. Some were wealthy neighbor’s kids and it caused some uncomfortable times for them.

Growing up on my parents land, my father, brother and I had some confrontations with trespassers, too.

 

[Molalla1]

One of the people I farm for has an extensive chunk 500+ acres. Shes an elderly millionaire, but in great shape and very with-it.
After her husband passed, she found herself inundated with hunters, trappers, fishermen, 4-wheelers, night spotters, motorcycles, etc.

She had to hire a pretty prickly tough guy and let him live in a guest house on the property to get rid of them. He’s a friend of mine. I farm the property. He explained to me it took him close to 5 years to get rid of all of them. Some went on first encounter. Some involved fights and threats. He spent a lot of hours sneaking up on them, chasing them in a 4-wheeler, etc. Some were wealthy neighbor’s kids and it caused some uncomfortable times for them.

Growing up on my parents land, my father, brother and I had some confrontations with trespassers, too.

Yep, we also had the same (4-wheelers etc.) my boy took care of that very quickly . . . although you always get some new ones from time to time . . .

 

[Hay Dude]

It’s pretty amazing to see the “addy-tudes” some of these punks have.

 

[Molalla1]

It’s pretty amazing to see the “addy-tudes” some of these punks have.

My boy (47) has the attitude of take no prisoners, I have to calm him down from time to time.

 

[LHF2019]

One of the people I farm for has an extensive chunk 500+ acres. Shes an elderly millionaire, but in great shape and very with-it.
After her husband passed, she found herself inundated with hunters, trappers, fishermen, 4-wheelers, night spotters, motorcycles, etc.

She had to hire a pretty prickly tough guy and let him live in a guest house on the property to get rid of them. He’s a friend of mine. I farm the property. He explained to me it took him close to 5 years to get rid of all of them. Some went on first encounter. Some involved fights and threats. He spent a lot of hours sneaking up on them, chasing them in a 4-wheeler, etc. Some were wealthy neighbor’s kids and it caused some uncomfortable times for them.

Growing up on my parents land, my father, brother and I had some confrontations with trespassers, too.

After mom divorced the guy she married after dad passed(he doesn't deserve the step title) She gave me control of who is allowed permission on 2 of the 3 parcels of the farm. The one parcel that is a little out of the we would keep seeing wheeler tracks in. The neighbor had approached us on a couple occasions about hunting but at that time we didn't have the control of giving permission. I always suspected he was the riding on the ground. After the divorce I was working and saw him outside and told him about the tracks and told him if he ever sees anybody riding on the property he can run them off because if we catch them we keep the state police on speed dial and will be calling for property damage to crops . Haven't seen tracks since. Was a much better way than just confronting and accusing him as we have never actually seen anybody ride.

In some ways you feel like somebody in the movies patrolling your property because nobody has any respect anymore.


Just had another occurrence just recently. Brush hogging property that I was hired to do. Was just recently bought and overgrown field. Guy comes at me on wheeler demanding why I'm brush hogging it. "has permission to hunt" I ask who gave him permission. Tells me and I say he doesn't own it anymore. Tells me to shut off my tractor so he can talk to me. Just look at him. "I don't own it." tell him who does and he hytails it out of there. Come to find out he is a convicted felon not allowed to own guns(archery) and has permission from nobody to hunt on any ground and is not well received in the community. Owner of ground says he doubts he has any hunting friends.

Owner will probably have us start using this for hay. We already use his fields beside this one.

This is the first time on his other ground I spent time with the bucket cleaning. Pushed in the edges and condensed the brush around the rock piles. No compensation, just for my satisfaction and of course the owner is much appreciative. Quality wise the fields are very rough. We didn't take 2nd off and this is what it looked like. Needs lots of help that only comes from time and money. His wife is not a fan of spraying so we are limited. If 2,4d didn't smell so strong he would have me spray when she's gone for a while. lol

 

[Hay Dude]

Looks like he has a goldenrod problem.. ..
I can’t believe how similar, in some ways, our lives are.
So many large property owners are land rich, money poor.