BX24 and blackberries

[ore540]

First, thanks to all on TBN for the advice that led to the purchase of my BX24 birthday present.

One of the main justifications for buying the tractor was to keep the blackberries along our seasonal creek under control. Besides sucking up land they're a fire hazard in this country. For a number of reasons it's been difficult to spray and the rocks and size of the area made using regular mowers and (big) weedeaters difficult. Besides, I needed a tractor!

Bought it with a 48" Big Bee rear mower (which does have a stump-jumper). Added a Markham toothbar and Bro-Tek skid plates.

The little beast works great. Use the FEL and toothbar to lift and then rake back the vines and also check for rocks, car parts, etc. That thinned the vines and brought them down so I could get over them. Then either mow forward over it or back into the thinned area.

First pass was a little slow - looking for those rocks and the odd hole - but went quicker as I figured how things worked.

Had a few day delay when the mower found about 10' of 3/8" steel bar that was disguised as a berry vine It wrapped around the shaft a couple of times and was beyond my tools (for now) so I paid the dealer to get it out. After that I checked under the vines even more carefully.

Once I got the mower back, the rest of the first section went pretty quickly.

Here's some more pictures of my progress.

Next step is to get a culvert into the creek before the water starts to run. Then I can get the tractor to the other side even when the rains come. I should be able to get it cleaned up before next summer's fire season. Once the creek dries up again I'll spray it. A couple of years of mowing and spraying should get it under some kind of control.

-- Larry

 

[PA hayseed]

Nice pics, sorry to hear about your vine problem. Worst feeling in the world, take out a brand new mower and hear a big bang an hour into the project. I always wince when I hear a big bang behind me.

 

[sandman2234]

I did that one time, and just anchored the end and pulled the piece off by driving away from it very slowly. I would stop ever few inches to raise the bar over the bolts of the blades, and then pull again. Torch was at home, so I couldn't get to it out in the middle of a field, but slow but sure worked fine.
David from jax

 

[bigballer]

when i was clearing 10ft+ high blackberries in the pasture i brushogged two garbage bags full of cans and glass. yeah that was fun.. former owner apparently thought it was easier to just toss his garbage in the blackberries. didn't cause any damage to the brushhog but scared the snot out of me when it happened, it was loud. after i realized what it was i cursed him the rest of the day.. from then on i removed the remaining blackberries ever so cautiously. last winter i was removing another section and was watching my front wheels very closely when one raised up a bit, i kept going but noticed a handle so i backed out and uncovered and old rusty wheelbarrow buried under the vines. that would have deserved two days of cursing and possibly a bill..

congrats on your new tractor, i've determined mine to be a must have, it's already increase the value of my land by at least 2x the machine purchase price.

be safe out there, bb's can harbor some nasty stuff.

 

[Jimbrown]

It makes me ill please box up all of those berry vines and send them to me. I would love to have that problem.

 

[bigballer]

It makes me ill please box up all of those berry vines and send them to me. I would love to have that problem.

i'd be happy to - they are the worst thing i've had to deal with since buying property, a close second would be wild holly..

 

[ore540]

It makes me ill please box up all of those berry vines and send them to me. I would love to have that problem.

If you had a little more water in AZ you wouldn't mourn them. Even after I get this bunch cleaned up I'll still have about 400' of property line covered in the things. I love the berries, jam and pies but that's more than enough to cover the need. You wouldn't believe how these things take over if they find a little water, they've even stopped the deer from crossing the place.

When I ordered my skid plates from Bro-Tek, the fellow was fascinated that I was going to mow the berries. He was just getting ready to plant some. I guess things grow differently in Arizona and New Brunswick.

 

[sandman2234]

Hidden barb wire usually gets me worse than anything else. It wraps around everything and is a pain to get loose. Even with gloves, you still get a nick or two when unwrapping it from the spindle shaft.
Instead of bush hogging them, is it a viable option to use the back hoe to dig them out so you don't have to keep mowing them? The answer is the back hoe is probably too slow, but I was curious just how bad it would be. We don't have that problem here, although I have the solution if we ever do...
I would assume that your back hoe has an auxilary pump, so I was wondering also if mounting a mower deck on the hoe, in place of the bucket would be a good idea. Makes it into a boom mower, after a fashion. A hydraulic motor and a small deck would be easy to rig up to make one. Mine is a flail mower which would take a little more fabrication work.
David from jax

 

[firefighter9208]

Goats! My Boer Goats love blackberry vines. They will eat them down to the ground and eventually kill the plants. They also love Privet, weeds, other weeds, then grass.

Chris

 

[ore540]

Goats! My Boer Goats love blackberry vines. They will eat them down to the ground and eventually kill the plants. They also love Privet, weeds, other weeds, then grass.

Chris

And star thistle, bless their scheming little hearts. Didn't even know I had it until after they were gone. We used to have 4 pygmy goats and they did keep the berries back. Wouldn't eat the big vines but all the newer stuff was gone.

Unfortunately they also love tree bark. Had to wrap fencing around all of our trees in the field - they stripped and killed a 6" diameter cedar in their first hour in the field A little learning experience. Then there was the time they got up to the house and sampled the siding They were fun though.

 

[tony123]

Enjoyed the photos!

I agree with the comment about property value increasing more than the cost of the tractor. I'm positive that ours has paid for itself in just the first several months of ownership! So maybe I can buy something nicer now?

 

[SkunkWerX]

Hidden barb wire usually gets me worse than anything else. It wraps around everything and is a pain to get loose. Even with gloves, you still get a nick or two when unwrapping it from the spindle shaft.
David from jax

David I know the feeling! I snagged one of those "invisble" dog fence wires, I wrapped about 50 feet of it real tight!!

I used a bucket (as a stool) and a pair of wire cutters, and snipped until my hands hurt. That yellow poly rope is also some stuff that will make you use 'colorful" language, too.

ore540, nice place you got there, and you were real smart getting that toothbar bolted on, looks like you have plenty of future use for it.
let me add one word for you, when you can afford it, GRAPPLE!
You'll never be sorry.

thanks for the pics!

 

[Tororider]

Not with a tractor but on my zero turns while I had the company every once and a while we would get kite string or regular poly in the deck. Man, those blades spin so fast it doesn't take but a couple seconds of winding around the spindle to cause a long time of wishing you were cussing.

 

[sandman2234]

Try barbwire and it will make you appreciate kite string, lol!!!
David from jax

 

[woodlandfarms]

There is something oddly pleasing about blackberry mowing. I think it is the unknown.

You are fortunate you are on flat ground and your blackberries are so low. For a few of us blackberries are more than 10 ft high and so thick they stop the tractor cold. And then the slopes... But your property looks beautiful, you are quite lucky...

But back to the thrill. I realize there is an adrenalin high for me in mowing. First the knocking of stuff down , the pleasure of turning around and seeing it so different from what i thought it would be. But also the thrill of the unknown. Will it be a piece of iron, steel cable or a random tractor part that will make me fill my shorts, or will it be the random hole the crack addict dug that I will drop the tire into and pitch me precariously forward, yet still not reveal itself fully because of the overgrowth... Or the D8 catepillar that the neighbors swear is down in one of the ravines, just waiting for someone to stumble upon and restore.... Or finally the holy grail, the mound where the body is buried....

Yes for me it is much more than just the loud roar of the engine, the high pitched whine of the hydraulics or the weird singing noise of the spinning blades... It is the thrill of the unkown...

Oh man is this writers strike getting to me..........

 

[sandman2234]

My wife is out there in LA this weekend hosting a meeting of some sort. Too bad I couldn't come with her and help with those fancy berry bushes!!
David from jax