Tumbleweed Management

[Thomas351]

I am a college student designing a implement to handle tumbleweeds. I am sharing this so I can get feedback to design it with the costumers in mind. It is my goal to have a version that fits your needs.

 

[CH4Ohio]

What's a "costumer"?

Tumbleweed used to be one of my favorite restaurants. I think they need new management. Kinda gone downhill over the years.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

I am a college student designing a implement to handle tumbleweeds. I am sharing this so I can get feedback to design it with the costumers in mind. It is my goal to have a version that fits your needs.

good on you!! nice to see entrepreneurship and active young minds.

I would think a header (like a corn header) that varies its width so if you are in a narrow ditch you can make it small to very wide if you are covering big/wide areas, need not be ground hugging or heavy dutty as weight of tumble weeds minimal.

Header would feed into a mulcher / grinder to break down the large volume / little weight material into a handlable volume.

Then either auger / belt / bucket system to move into a trailer / bucket / hopper for transport if sharp remaining thistles are a worry OR if not worried about the thistles sharps left over a simple chopper / spreader like we run at the back of corn combines to spread the chopped material onto the ground.

 

[deserteagle71]

Years ago one of my coworkers redesigned a hay baler to work with tumbleweeds. The header was two piece - with a horizontal and a vertical portion that would pick up tumbleweeds not only off the ground but also pick them off a fence. Here in northern Nevada most of the tumbleweeds end up being caught on fencelines and ranches and farms around here would pay him to get rid of the tumbleweeds. He would bale the tumbleweeds into small rectangular bales just like hay bales, then run them through a mill that ground them up. He had a process by which he would turn the ground-up tumbleweeds into pellets to burn in a pellet stove. I wish now I had taken pictures when he gave me a tour.

One of my fences after a windstorm:

 

[big bubba]

I am a college student designing a implement to handle tumbleweeds. I am sharing this so I can get feedback to design it with the costumers in mind. It is my goal to have a version that fits your needs.

good work. how are you conducting your research other than online, University Ag program, grants? welcome to this forum, keep us informed

 

[Shawn T. W.]

If it were my land ... I'd just cut them down before they grew to 12" tall ... Just like other weeds, if they can't mature, they can't make viable seeds is my theory ...

 

[deserteagle71]

If it were my land ... I'd just cut them down before they grew to 12" tall ... Just like other weeds, if they can't mature, they can't make viable seeds is my theory ...

They are called tumbleweeds for a reason. The ones in my photo above didn't grow on my place. They came from miles away, carried by the wind.

I have a video somewhere taken a few years ago during a windstorm. It looks like the surface of the ground is on the move - there's so many tumbleweeds rolling. They hit a fence and pile up, and when the fence is buried the tumbleweeds still coming are able to roll over the fence and keep on moving.

So, to your theory about seeds - that's why it is necessary to gather them up and then burn them.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Yes, I use to live in Arizona, and understand about the migration of tumbleweeds ... If they come from the neighbors that's different that controlling them on your own property ... The OP didn't make it very clear to me on exactly what "problem" they were trying to solve ...