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 ...

 

[Cycledude]

Never see any Tumbleweeds around here but I have seen them for sale on eBay and folks were actually bidding on them.

 

[tacticalturnip]

If you have a gunfight there is a chance the tumbleweed will assemble in an easily disposed of formation.

The Italians used to make documentaries about this.

 

[BackRoad]

Like moss hanging from cypress in the deep south and sap buckets hanging from maple trees in the northeast - tumbleweeds are about the most iconic symbol there is for the west...now I can't get the music from High Plains Drifter out of my head!

A quick Google search shows tumbleweed mulchers exist although I suspect demand for a personal TW mulcher may be low...

Seems pretty easy conceptually to design an implement based on a mountable wood chipper or a snow blower for a basic "tumbleweed mulcher" for a ranch owner...if there was demand.

Also suspect the OP and this thread is a punk hoax. It was their first and only post on the forum.

 

[scootr]

WHy can't we just bail them up and send em back to Russia where they came from...

 

[CH4Ohio]

Also suspect the OP and this thread is a punk hoax. It was their first and only post on the forum.

Yep. Sounded fishy from the beginning.

 

[deserteagle71]

Seems pretty easy conceptually to design an implement based on a mountable wood chipper or a snow blower for a basic "tumbleweed mulcher" for a ranch owner...if there was demand.

Mulching tumbleweeds would be the easy part. Destroying the seeds is a whole other process. The reason they evolved as they did is that as they roll they drop seeds. Lots of seeds.

So once you mulched them you'd need some process to kill the seeds or the next year you'll REALLY have a problem. Which is why most of us gather them up and burn them - to kill the seeds. Burning a pile of tumbleweeds requires only a windless day. Don't know how you'd burn tumbleweeds once they were mulched. They'd smolder for days. Maybe in an incinerator?

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Seeds are also spread when you run over them with a truck ... !

 

[scootr]

My tumbleweed control is forking them over the fence on a windy day while yelling 'Be free be free'

 

[Dr_Zinj]

My tumbleweed control is forking them over the fence on a windy day while yelling 'Be free be free'

Now that sounds, Evil. lol

 

[Gord Baker]

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:
View attachment 4798108

I had read recently that they were protected species in some area. What a mess on that fence. FEL mounted Bush Hog?

 

[deserteagle71]

I had read recently that they were protected species in some area. What a mess on that fence. FEL mounted Bush Hog?

Absolutely not! Bush Hog would scatter the seeds everywhere causing a huge problem next year. No, unless they are baled up the only good solution is to gather them into piles and burn them. They burn extremely hot which kills the seeds. Takes a lot of time and effort!

 

[scootr]

Now that sounds, Evil. lol

I don't allow TW to grow on my place.
They weren't mine when they got here, so they are not mine when they leave.