fence clearing

[Drstrangeglove]

I have bought 60 acres of mostly fields. I started with a kx080 with a tree/brush cutter just above the fence cutting the hedge brush. That was messy. Winter rain stopped me from doing the other fence till next year.
Now there are two cow lots that I want gone. It's grown up in trees and very large hedge. How do I deal with the barb wire? I can't roll it up since the small trees and brush has grown around it. It also is all but invisible from the seat. I started cutting the wire at every post, but that is putting wire everywhere for the tractor tire and bush hog to get into.
I know that a dozer would be better, but I and using what I have. How do you farmers deal with such stuff?

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I use my skid steer and grapple to push old fence lines, works pretty good, I have cleaned quite a few for folks.

 

[Drstrangeglove]

While I am thinking about it, how much debris can a round bailer handle? My rut tree cutter can chip small or dig depending on how fast I feed it. It will sling that stuff about 50 yards. I am trying to keep it clean for a local farmer to cut for hay.

 

[oldnslo]

You don’t want any pieces of barb wire in a hay bale. Animals may eat it and puncture there stomach.

 

[2manyrocks]

I think most would get a dozer to push it in a pile and then burn the brush off the wire.

 

[Drstrangeglove]

You don’t want any pieces of barb wire in a hay bale. Animals may eat it and puncture there stomach.

He can't cut that part. It is my new dove field. The other field where I cut about the wire is his. I plan on herbicide for what comes back. Crossbow, I think, is the name.

 

[Drstrangeglove]

The old man that owned it, left me about 60 bails of old half rotten hay. The string is like brand new stuff. I pile it up on the dump trailer and have 100ft dragging behind me. That poly sting is everywhere, I am surprised it has not rapped my bushog up.

 

[mikester]

Excavator with thumb and root rake or skeleton bucket. Forestry mulcher attachment on CTL or excavator.

If you have barbed wire your best bet is to go in with snips and remove the wire by hand before going at it with machinery. Early spring before stuff starts turning green is the best time for this work in my area. Winter snows packs down the dead weeds making it easier to see what's hiding in the fence lines.

 

[riptides]

....
If you have barbed wire your best bet is to go in with snips and remove the wire by hand before going at it with machinery. ....

This is the way.

Best to deal with it by hand. Time consuming for sure. Be safe, for you and your machinery at some point in the future if you do it.

 

[Sportsman762]

Now there are two cow lots that I want gone. It's grown up in trees and very large hedge. How do I deal with the barb wire? I can't roll it up since the small trees and brush has grown around it. It also is all but invisible from the seat. I started cutting the wire at every post, but that is putting wire everywhere for the tractor tire and bush hog to get into.

Your onto a good start. I would pull the staples holding the wire to the post, then coil the wire the best I can. You do not want the wire on the ground. You need to take it from fence to UTV / Truck bed then to scrap. One idea might be to hook on with a wire puller and hook it to an utv and see how much of a strand you can pull off at once, then coil it up.

Barbed Wire Pullers for Barb Wire, Fence Stretcher Tool, Fence Barb Wire Tighten and Repair Tools Replacement for S16111000 Wire Gripper: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

Barbed Wire Pullers for Barb Wire, Fence Stretcher Tool, Fence Barb Wire Tighten and Repair Tools Replacement for S16111000 Wire Gripper: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

www.amazon.com

To reiterate I would not let the wire lay on the ground, it will go through boots, dog paws, atv tires, or wrap up in the brush hog. Wire is like a hidden snake and it will bite you. (ask me how I know)

I would do this now during your wet season, this is mostly manual labor, so the mud has much less impact. Then i would pull the posts with the kx080, then mulch the fence rows down once the ground dries up.

 

[Drstrangeglove]

Your onto a good start. I would pull the staples holding the wire to the post, then coil the wire the best I can. You do not want the wire on the ground. You need to take it from fence to UTV / Truck bed then to scrap. One idea might be to hook on with a wire puller and hook it to an utv and see how much of a strand you can pull off at once, then coil it up.

Barbed Wire Pullers for Barb Wire, Fence Stretcher Tool, Fence Barb Wire Tighten and Repair Tools Replacement for S16111000 Wire Gripper: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

Barbed Wire Pullers for Barb Wire, Fence Stretcher Tool, Fence Barb Wire Tighten and Repair Tools Replacement for S16111000 Wire Gripper: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

www.amazon.com

To reiterate I would not let the wire lay on the ground, it will go through boots, dog paws, atv tires, or wrap up in the brush hog. Wire is like a hidden snake and it will bite you. (ask me how I know)

I would do this now during your wet season, this is mostly manual labor, so the mud has much less impact. Then i would pull the posts with the kx080, then mulch the fence rows down once the ground dries up.

The tree sized shrubs have grown around the wire. I can use the ripper that fits nicely between the thumb to grip the wire and pull out what little will come.

 

[Sportsman762]

The tree sized shrubs have grown around the wire. I can use the ripper that fits nicely between the thumb to grip the wire and pull out what little will come.

That sucks a lot as it eliminates most easy options.

If you have barbed wire your best bet is to go in with snips and remove the wire by hand before going at it with machinery.

Best to deal with it by hand. Time consuming for sure. Be safe, for you and your machinery at some point in the future if you do it.

Mikester and Riptides solution is the best answer. You need to remove as much of the fence before you bring in machinery. Fencing and machinery mix poorly and more time will be spend fixing / unwinding fence than if you remove it upfront.

 

[MMC]

That sucks a lot as it eliminates most easy options.



Mikester and Riptides solution is the best answer. You need to remove as much of the fence before you bring in machinery. Fencing and machinery mix poorly and more time will be spend fixing / unwinding fence than if you remove it upfront.

Well, as the folks before offer, there's really no easy way to do this. In a perfect world, I suppose you could cut off everything above the old fenceline, hire a bulldozer, and then dig a pit and bury everything.

No one I know lives in that perfect world. I have taken down miles of old fenceline like you're talking about and reclaimed it. This is one of the times you have to actually get off the tractor, grab your fencing pliers and cutters, and do this by hand... Get everything metal pulled out you can and then assume you missed a bunch. The wood posts will still have staples (or steeples, as some farmers call them) left in them. Burn them in one place and bury what's left or sort through it for metal.

Steel posts are your enemy. Old ones invariably break off at or below ground level. When finished, take a tractor and straddle the old fenceline and use a grader blade to spot the stubs and dig them out. Otherwise, guarantee you will ruin a good (and expensive) tractor tire sometime in the future...

The brush and small trees your tractor can handle. Large trees...backhoe time.

Doubt you can find an easy button on this. A metal detector can be your friend when you're finished...

Crossbow will certainly take care of woody regrowth and even Round-Up applied in very strong amounts to fresh stumps can work too.

Best of luck.

 

[hayden]

How do you guys roll up or otherwise bundle the lengths of barb wire? I have a lot of it to deal with too and it doesn't come out in very long lengths

 

[ericm979]

When its too short to roll up I just fold it up and tie it by hand.

 

[riptides]

How do you guys roll up or otherwise bundle the lengths of barb wire? I have a lot of it to deal with too and it doesn't come out in very long lengths

Depending on the condition of the wire:
Really old stuff: We folded it in 12 inch lengths until it snapped and placed it in a steel garbage can.
New stuff: We found an old spool, rolled it onto that, either dumped the spool or carefully unloaded it into the steel garbage can. At which time the tension left go and expanded in the can. A few 2X4's to smash it down was required.

At the dump the cans would either be tossed, or emptied depending on the hassle factor.

We have been removing barbed wire on and off for twenty years. Some of it is over 100 years old. Some of it is new. Lucky the fence lines have not changed too much over that time. I still find really old strands on the way back property, where an old fence line was a long time ago. So the problem is not new to us.

 

[2manyrocks]

You could use a garbage can to contain the pieces.

I wear a helmet with a mesh face shield when clearing brush. I wouldnt want to get a piece of wire in my eye.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

How do you guys roll up or otherwise bundle the lengths of barb wire? I have a lot of it to deal with too and it doesn't come out in very long lengths

If it's not rusted to the point that it falls apart when trying to roll it up, just roll it up in hand coils as big as you can comfortably handle.

 

[rob in ore]

In addition to the other suggestions, I sometimes use an old, cheap pair of welding gloves for coiling long strands.

 

[RayIN]

Excavator with thumb and root rake or skeleton bucket. Forestry mulcher attachment on CTL or excavator.

If you have barbed wire your best bet is to go in with snips and remove the wire by hand before going at it with machinery. Early spring before stuff starts turning green is the best time for this work in my area. Winter snows packs down the dead weeds making it easier to see what's hiding in the fence lines.

He was doing that but left the wire laying instead of rolling it up as he went. That's the way i read his post anyway.