Moles

[Mufferaw]

Anybody have a cheap and effective ideas in getting rid of mole hills? I know there are leveling shovels, mole hill leveler etc. No really cost effective to buy and no one locally rents them.

[smcgrath76]

Chunk of railroad rail (not ties) and a big chain to pull it with.

[perfecho]

They have certainly been active around here....all winter even....

[Intrepid1]

Has anyone tried things like the Gophinator with anhydrous? I have problems with pocket gophers on hayfields. Plow in poison but fields surrounded by pastures and neighbors who do nill to control them. Would like to br able to slow down the flow into the hay land

[WiltonRanch]

Getting someone to fill a gophinator is just about impossible. I've dealt with nh3 enough to know the shit is deadly and it doesn't take much of an oops for shit to get real quick. Sure you could rent a tank of nh3 and rig some probe up to put in the holes but if you're standing there cracking the valve and a hose blows or the tank rolls away and rips the hose off then it's like a ww1 battlefield. For the time it takes to gas holes you're better to run a trap line and put out poison. We get pocket gophers something terrible here. Generally try and get the fields levelled with mole shovels on the cultivator with a set of 8' deep chain harrows behind late fall or early spring. Rolling after pushes all the little rocks back in but never seem to get enough time. What I find is if you keep on top of floating fields the field doesn't get real rough but an old field that's never been floated you're wasting your time. You may as well work it up as hay production has tapered and you're beating equipment to ratshit. Clay land is even worse cause once grass has grew threw a rodent mound you'll never float it out.
For floats mole shovels are okay and they are easy to move. Cat rails, uke tires, railroad track, big I beam will float good when ground isn't too wet or dry.

[Mufferaw]

Interesting comments on old hay land that has never been leveled. That's exactly what I am trying to do. Old hayland has no fertilizer bank. Thought of taking a air seeder with 3/4" openers and ripping a fertilizer blend in the ground. Tear up the land - would help with mole piles, fertility and aerate the soil as well. Heavy harrow or roll ground after. Most of the soil would be a loam to sandy loam soil though.

[WiltonRanch]

Yeah if it's lighter land those treatments would likely work better than my clay. I banded nh3 one year into some old grass land. Didn't do it early enough to benefit grass and maybe a bit too dry. Think it needs to be done early as possible and then harrow and roll. Ground has a bit more moisture at that time so it should slice better and pull out rodent mounds. How much if any legume is there? If there is none maybe a litre of glyphosate before the fertilizer pass then broadcast some alfalfa or clover and then harrow and roll. Use mostly pks fertilizer so it favours the legumes and you truly rejuvenate your grass for years to come.

[Mufferaw]

Stand was planted in 2006. Very little alfalfa left 10-15% maybe. Main intent was to put a blend down, especially higher rates of PKS. Tried it on 20 acres last year, but didn't have any rain on it until 6 weeks after fertilizer was put down. Not sure on how well it worked.

[WiltonRanch]

Western beef development centre did some trials seeding alfalfa direct into grass stands. Take home point was most openers get the same result and a spring app litre of glyphosate was necessary to set grass back enough for the legumes to have a chance.

[Intrepid1]

I find that just rolling or smoothing the fields is more or less a band aid.The moles can cause from 10-50 % loss on a field. Just trying to put out traps is only feasible on small fields and unless someone has a LOT of free time doing it on large fields is not viable.