Marking location of holes in the pasture

[StuartDK45SE]

Every time I brush hog my pastures, I'll run across a few holes where armadillos and other critters have a dug a hole big enough to make me say ^*@*)&_&!!!! It is not practical to stop and mark them with a stake, so I just keep on rolling. And trying to go find them later is like looking for a needle in a haystack at times. I need something I can throw out to the side that will mark the grass/ground well enough to come back and fins them later so I can fill them in. I am rehabbing my hay fields and when I switch over to a disc mower I will be going much faster and the bumps will be even worse. Any ideas?

 

[Buxus]

When I am on a lawn tractor I carry a squeeze bottle filled with flour to mark weeds that need attention, but I don't think this will work for you. I would use either one foot sections of those brightly colored foam pool toys called noodles, or similar sized foam crab pot markers (basically small buoys). Both are foam so if you forget one and run it over, no damage.

 

[oldballs]

How about a spray can of marking paint? That stuff stays put and visible for several weeks.

 

[hosspuller]

Depends on how many holes you want to mark at a mowing. I would tie an inflatable beach ball to a bag of sand (about a pound worth) to keep it from blowing away. Throw it over the side when you hit a hole.
After filling the hole, deflate the ball and use it again. Get a ball large enough to see in a mowed field.

A few thoughts: A balloon may pop. Putting sand in the ball may be an option. Wind might roll the ball with sand in it.

Yet if you forget the marker, it won't damage a cutter.

 

[Deere Dude]

Deleted

 

[Deere Dude]

When mowing we sometimes use marking flags which have a orange flag with a 18-24" thin rod. We see an ant hill mound we stick a flag in and come back the next day to poison them and retrieve the flag. They last a long time in the weather and are cheap and easy to see.

I am tall enough where I can just reach over from my garden tractor seat and stick them in the ground but from a big tractor you might have to get off the seat.

 

[jaxs]

I like the spray paint idea. If you don't want to get off tractor,use parking lot paint with the stick made for them.

 

[stuckmotor]

You might mow a circle around them and not mow inside that circle, then come back later, and just look for the tall grass. When you fill them in cut the grass.

 

[/pine]

Fwiw...a hand held GPS unit will plot and take you right back to them after mowing for filling...

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Fwiw...a hand held GPS unit will plot and take you right back to them after mowing for filling...

Best idea yet! How accurate are the cheap consumer ones now? I don't think my phone would be accurate enough.

 

[TheMan419]

The spray paint stuff they use to mark utilities? That is on a pole and could be used from the tractor seat. It would not be right on the hole of course since you already drove over it..... but it will get you in the area to then find it.

 

[JRobyn]

You can buy "marker dye" intended to be used to mix in herbicides/fertilizers/whatever when spraying, so it's easy to see what's been covered and what has not. Available at TSC, any farm supply, some hardware stores. Some of that, mixed STRONG with just water in a cheap 2 gal sprayer with the wand set on "jet" should do it. Bungee down the sprayer somewhere convenient so you can occasionally pump it up.

 

[joecdeere]

we always carry a handful of the marker flags too, I evnkeep one on the lawnmower incase I see something that needs later attention

 

[Deere Dude]

I need to mark stuff also when I run my bigger tractor but am looking for an easy way and just about gave up on it until this thread came about.

After some thinking about it I think I will buy 2 or 3 swimming pool noodles, cut them in 8-12" chunks, weight them down with something and carry them around in a bucket and throw them out as needed. They last forever and are bright to see. The other thing I thought of was to orange paint 4x4 blocks and heave them over as needed.

Time to check the clearance aisle at walmart.

 

[aczlan]

I need to mark stuff also when I run my bigger tractor but am looking for an easy way and just about gave up on it until this thread came about.

After some thinking about it I think I will buy 2 or 3 swimming pool noodles, cut them in 8-12" chunks, weight them down with something and carry them around in a bucket and throw them out as needed. They last forever and are bright to see. The other thing I thought of was to orange paint 4x4 blocks and heave them over as needed.

Time to check the clearance aisle at walmart.

If you're going to do blocks, I would use three pieces to make something similar to a Caltrop so that no matter which way you drop it one side ends up like a flag.

I say this because I have no problem losing things much bigger than a four-by-four out in our hay fields...

Aaron Z

 

[mcfarmall]

Call MISS DIG and have them mark the utilities around your house. That's how I get my free flags in several different colors.

 

[jenkinsph]

Call MISS DIG and have them mark the utilities around your house. That's how I get my free flags in several different colors.

Not me I buy them when I need flags for about 15 cents each. Much better than having others spend a few hundred dollars on a locate which the consumer ultimately pays for.

 

[Brazos by Nemo]

I have some flagging I use when dove hunting. Basically it is a lead fishing weight with flagging streamers tied to it. When I shoot a dove (and action is heavy and I am still shooting) I toss the weighted streamer to the location where the dove went down so I can come back ro it. You could do the same thing cheap. Go buy some lead fishing weights. Go to Home Depot and buy a roll of flagging tape. Take 2'-3' of flagging and attach to it to the weight. Make up a bunch of them. When you hit a hole just toss out one of your markers so you can find it later.

 

[Rara Avis]

pine had it right...set a waypoint in your GPS unit every time you encounter a hole you want to repair

The upside is if you get busy and the field regrows as long as those waypoints are sitting in your GPS...you can use it to AVOID the holes the next time you mow...

 

[aczlan]

I have some flagging I use when dove hunting. Basically it is a lead fishing weight with flagging streamers tied to it. When I shoot a dove (and action is heavy and I am still shooting) I toss the weighted streamer to the location where the dove went down so I can come back ro it. You could do the same thing cheap. Go buy some lead fishing weights. Go to Home Depot and buy a roll of flagging tape. Take 2'-3' of flagging and attach to it to the weight. Make up a bunch of them. When you hit a hole just toss out one of your markers so you can find it later.

You could probably do the same thing with a box of 7/16" or 1/2" nuts and the flagging streamer.

Aaron Z