brought a skid steer with a mulching head into a new hunting prop a few years back. This guy cleared out two areas with the quickness. what he did in two hours would have taken me weeks doing it by hand. He took both areas that were previously loading decks used by a timber company 4 years prior and made them look like a par 3 fairway. If you got big areas to clear, spend the money and hire one of these guys with the equipment to mulch it up for ya.
I dont fully agree with your comment on the aspen and rather taking them out / harvesting them first... If I was the land owner - I would rather mulch the aspen (as you did), chuck in some clover to help fix nitrogen in the soil in the meanwhile. Leave the clover for 2 years and let all that mulch decompose - would create a much richer top soil, which would result in more food production in the long term. Looks great, would be good to see a follow up on this a year from now.
Thanks for the feedback Cordell! What we found in the areas chock full of aspen was an impossibility to get any seed to the soil. I think a fun project/experiment would be to walk an area and broadcast before the mulcher went through to see if that amount of mulch could be pushed through as long as the seed was near the soil to begin with. We will continue to follow up on this property. It's a fun one!
Thanks Kapper Outdoors! I'll be doing a follow up with this project as the landowner has chosen to do lots of cleanup with a skid steer and grapple/rake. It's turning out very well! Appreciate the feedback!
Ken, that company is contracted for lots of spring cleanup in the Red River valley as well as farmland shelterbelt removal in North Dakota. They are based out of Fargo so it's just plain luck that they are close enough to be of use for some of my client's properties. Food plot work is a small percentage for them, but it sure was nice getting the whole property done in a day or two rather than the week or more it would have taken a guy with a mulcher on a skid steer. Sometimes the power is worth the cost.
One thing that I think of is that all those small spruce trees took 10 years to grow and they're soaking up all the moisture in the ground in that area. You could cut the trees half way so that they lean over giving the deer lots of area to walk so that they're hidden. You could take the Grinders in so that you have maybe a 30ft 500 ft area instead of cutting on entire acre or a 20 foot by hundred foot area I just hate the seat cutting all the trees down completely take a bobcat on tracks instead of a 15 foot wide grinder I don't know just my opinion not judging you I just hate to see cutting all the open space especially when they're all young trees some of them look dead though so anyhow good luck God I wish I still had my guns
Karel on any property we look at the limiting resource as well as the overabundant resource. In this area of the property there was a monoculture of conifers that were not allowing other species to grow. This solid canopy was not being used by deer, nor was it creating any predictable deer movement. We removed a total of 7 acres of trees on a 140 acre property adding that much quality winter forage as well as creating hundreds of yards of edge around the new plots for native browse to explode out of the ground. In this situation complete removal was the best option to benefit wildlife and hunters. Subscribe for a follow up to see how these plots have developed!
You have all that open area why would you cut the trees down why not just grind the ground up there's an ice barrier right there I don't know seems like a waste
brought a skid steer with a mulching head into a new hunting prop a few years back. This guy cleared out two areas with the quickness. what he did in two hours would have taken me weeks doing it by hand. He took both areas that were previously loading decks used by a timber company 4 years prior and made them look like a par 3 fairway. If you got big areas to clear, spend the money and hire one of these guys with the equipment to mulch it up for ya.
ox22377 what does it run per acre or per hour about??
Ok i need one
Don’t we all!
I dont fully agree with your comment on the aspen and rather taking them out / harvesting them first... If I was the land owner - I would rather mulch the aspen (as you did), chuck in some clover to help fix nitrogen in the soil in the meanwhile.
Leave the clover for 2 years and let all that mulch decompose - would create a much richer top soil, which would result in more food production in the long term. Looks great, would be good to see a follow up on this a year from now.
Thanks for the feedback Cordell! What we found in the areas chock full of aspen was an impossibility to get any seed to the soil. I think a fun project/experiment would be to walk an area and broadcast before the mulcher went through to see if that amount of mulch could be pushed through as long as the seed was near the soil to begin with. We will continue to follow up on this property. It's a fun one!
Whats that noise in the back ground that you can hear ?
Not sure. Sounds like something in video production.
AWESOME work and future vision for property
Thanks Kapper Outdoors! I'll be doing a follow up with this project as the landowner has chosen to do lots of cleanup with a skid steer and grapple/rake. It's turning out very well! Appreciate the feedback!
Your machinery is amazing...never see anything like that before.
Ken Skierski
Ken, that company is contracted for lots of spring cleanup in the Red River valley as well as farmland shelterbelt removal in North Dakota. They are based out of Fargo so it's just plain luck that they are close enough to be of use for some of my client's properties. Food plot work is a small percentage for them, but it sure was nice getting the whole property done in a day or two rather than the week or more it would have taken a guy with a mulcher on a skid steer. Sometimes the power is worth the cost.
One thing that I think of is that all those small spruce trees took 10 years to grow and they're soaking up all the moisture in the ground in that area. You could cut the trees half way so that they lean over giving the deer lots of area to walk so that they're hidden. You could take the Grinders in so that you have maybe a 30ft 500 ft area instead of cutting on entire acre or a 20 foot by hundred foot area I just hate the seat cutting all the trees down completely take a bobcat on tracks instead of a 15 foot wide grinder I don't know just my opinion not judging you I just hate to see cutting all the open space especially when they're all young trees some of them look dead though so anyhow good luck God I wish I still had my guns
Karel on any property we look at the limiting resource as well as the overabundant resource. In this area of the property there was a monoculture of conifers that were not allowing other species to grow. This solid canopy was not being used by deer, nor was it creating any predictable deer movement. We removed a total of 7 acres of trees on a 140 acre property adding that much quality winter forage as well as creating hundreds of yards of edge around the new plots for native browse to explode out of the ground. In this situation complete removal was the best option to benefit wildlife and hunters. Subscribe for a follow up to see how these plots have developed!
You have all that open area why would you cut the trees down why not just grind the ground up there's an ice barrier right there I don't know seems like a waste