Too Much Grass, Please Help
4205raymond
Member Posts: 3,316 ✭✭✭✭
I am about to make a return trip to Kent's Store, Virginia and am desperate for ideas on what to do with my three acres of 5ft grass. No one local wants to cut and bail area this small. The problem areas near the back lot line (woods) and under trees I have done. I raised blades on my older Craftsman with twin cylinder Kohler and ended up with about 4" of leaves/trash. At this point I use the big RedMax blower and drop the blades and blow again. This works but it is killing me. I already have 4 piles of grass about 20' across and 2.5' high. Now what do I do with the piles of grass??????? I have chronic back pain and this is making it worse. Also, I have now developed a Hernia low right side. Bought a Hernia Belt last night. Because of my age they don't want to operate on me unless it gets bigger or starts to hurt.
I know it is out of season but thought perhaps someone could suck up the piles and truck them away with commercial leaf vaccum like they use in the fall.
My good friend and neighbor use to cut my grass but had to stop a few years back because they changed his hours at work. At present he has started to bush hog a section as his time will allow. After he goes over grass, I am left with about 8" from the 5'. Then I cut it with the Lawn Tractor with blades raised and end up with about 4".
What if I cut the bush hogged areas and discharge to the outside with chute up??????????? If I do this a few times will this Damn grass eventually become fertilizer.
Please don't tell me to transport my Uncle Jack's goats up to Kent's Store from Goochland. I am desperate for constructive suggestions. Any suggestions from you folks are greatly appreciated. Thank you. —————————————-Ray
Comments
Can you safely burn the piles? I I would get word out and pay double and I bet you get a taker. I just did that on a 60’ tree in my back yard that is half rotted and leaning towards neighbors house. I got no takers until I bumped up cash money- getting done Tuesday.
JUST to clarify, in the last 6 weeks we have had 3 severe storms that took out hundreds of trees in 4 counties. The tree people are running 2 months to get to you hence my offer as I don’t want mine falling on the neighbors house.
Grasshopper, I usually call the Sheriffs office and they enter me in the log book if I need to do any burning. I am sure grass will smoke a lot and eventually be too wet to burn. I have to be careful about burning close to neighbor. Lots of hay stored for animals.
I will try and get my neighbor to put word out that I will pay in cash no matter the price. He hates to recommend anyone. Been burned to many times.
If I could only get someone to cut and bail, I might be able to find out of way place to put the bailed grass. ———————————Ray
Not knowing your finances but there are answers out there, unfortunately they come with a price… Maybe you could sell the bales and recoup some of your investment
Not sure about selling bales. My daughter is a horse lady and says my grass is no good for horses but maybe ok for cows. i guess the biggest demand is for the correct hay for horses? ——————————-Ray
If there are other farmers in the area with cows , maybe one of them would be interested. Find the nearest feed store/ milling company and put out the offer.
they are HAY BURNERS what the heck is this »> that it's not good enough for them LOL
Give it to whom-ever is willing to bale it.
Goats and cows are not picky eaters. Horses are another story but they aren't as picky as the people who have them as pets just so they can say they have horses.
Someone with a flail mower would make short work of it. Maybe contact VDOT and ask them who the contract to mow right of way.
I have a 84 in. flail mower and it will mow knee high grass like a lawn mower.
Jim, Son in Law is familiar with flail mower. He was #1 guy at local dhpw before he retired about 3 yr ago. I assume I still have to get rid of grass remaining. SIL talking to my neighbor on right. He is a builder and raises Black Angus. Has a lot of land in Kents Store and Goochland. Sounds like he knows someone that might remove piles that I have made so far. ————————Ray
So far no luck on a taker for cut and bail.
Never considered my daughter Heather as picky and her horses as pets. Never owned a horse just so she could say she is a horse owner. She was jumping English (Dressage) almost when she was knee high to me. Took many hard falls, got up, climbed back in the saddle no matter how bad she hurt.
In the early years I towed her horse all over even took him to college to stay with her where she studied Animal Husbandry and later Physical Therapy. She belongs to a organization that lets little kids with disabilities ride horses.
She has lived and breathed Horses her whole life and was never born with a Silver Spoon in her mouth and I have never ever heard her brag about owning horses. Probably has mucked a million stalls.
A picture of her in ditch laying water pipe from house to her barn. ——————-Ray
Thank you. Not many dairy cows but lots of Black Angus. Next time I go to Louisa I will check and see if feed store still there.——Ray
Back in the day, I'da smoked it. Oh, hay you say….
way back in my younget care fee days there was no such thing as too much grass now shortage of rolling papers was a panic
As for the real concern I agree maybe a local would like to use your field as a feed lot ?
I hope you find a way to work it out
If you are out of the the city limits I wouldn’t see any problem with burning it off, unless you have close neighbors right by you. However if you have already windrowed it so to speak it might be harder to burn off completely. When burning off grass and old fashioned bristle broom is the best tool for controlling a grass fire.
This year I’m letting a fields go to seed, but I thought I would cut and area in the field and put a table a chairs out in the cleared spot and we could eat out in the field a couple times. But I started early in the spring cutting it. Call it yard art. lol
Walter, looks like a landing pad for ET and his spacecraft. 👽👽
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Kind of hard to come by these days….. but if you can find a couple of hard-working young men, they could knock out 3 acres with sling blades no problem, and relatively cheap.
Growing up, I used to love that sort of work…..get a work-out and make a little cash at the same time. Win-win for everyone!
See if you can establish a crop of Mary Jane in those fields . Lot's of folks will gladly help you burn it.
Frogdog, before I got started had couple locals look at property. One said "I will bush hog it and come back and cut it again in a few weeks. Another said will see if my friend will cut and bail. Will get back to you. " Could read their face from mile away. "Man this looks like work" They vanished never to be heard/seen again.
Couple hard-working young men are very hard to come by even for right price and cash. Worst part is getting rid of it after it is cut. —————-Ray
Waltermoe, can't burn this 5' grass. Tips look like broom straw though. Too close to my neighbor on the left. Yep, i been know to use the old broom around my burn pit at times. ———————-Ray
One bright spot. Guess my SIL and Daughter getting concerned about my health and have been talking to my neighbor on the right side that raises Black Angus. He says my neighbor on left side has bush hogged 95% of what I did not cut. He gave them a contact in his church I believe and he has a large trailer? and is interested in the job. Don't have a clue how he will get up my piles of grass and what is left from bush hogging. Long handle pitch forks I guess. He will come and scope out my place when I get back down there.
The Big RedMax blower does a beautiful job but is a killer if you swing it for hours and days. Bought a Hernia belt, now I have to educate myself on how to wear this contraption. ———————————Ray
Do you want an opinion from a real farmer? First: determine what species of 'grass' you have. That will help determine the best way to control the over growth issue.
Five acres isn't worth the trouble to move equipment very far. Other than haying the area, nothing can be done this late in the growing season to handle the 5' growth that doesn't end up with huge piles of residue. Even if you find someone to brush hog the 'grass', there will be piles of residue that will kill the grass underneath, present a fire danger, and do nothing positive for your situation. Grinding and re-grinding with a lawn mower simply makes the residue into smaller pieces but it's still there. Even if you find a livestock owner to graze the grass, cows/goats/sheep don't just mow it off into a neat golf course look and there will still need to be mowing.
You need to be looking at next year for a solution. There are chemicals that will retard growth w/o killing the grass but those will require uniform, careful application as a little too much will kill.
Oh BTW, I wouldn't expect there is ANY value to week old 'bush hogged' grass as livestock feed. Maybe 'the guy' will help you out and haul it away?
Mobuck, after much pain and a whole lot of work, I agree with you completely. For six years I had to chose between taking care of my sweetheart Diane and the last two abandoning my property. I chose to take care of my sweetheart. I will never regret it.
I think my only option this year is to remove the grass and keep up with the cutting.—————————Ray
Back yard under huge oak, persimmon tree in center. Center area was cut twice and blown twice (Pile on left) looking towards my rear lot line and 10 x 20 shed. Grass on right uncut. You can see under the persimmon tree, it only takes about three days for grass to start to green up.