Mowing willows?

[Maver]

I'm reclaiming some sloughy pasture and hay land that the willows have overtaken. The bigger ones need to be dug but the smaller ones can be mowed. Will mowing 1" diameter willows result in flat tractor, implement, truck or quad tires next year? This ground will not be tilled. I'm scared of thousands of 4" spears sticking out of the ground.

[Oliver88]

We’ve mowed off willows without tractor tire issues so far. Seem to always fix a few discer or cultivator tires per year when working up new land.

[seldomseen]

I was told by an older gentleman who had cleared a lot of ground to pump the tires up so they are hard and don’t flex much when on rough ground. I have done it and never had much tire trouble doing what you are doing.

[WiltonRanch]

Once got a bunch of poplar suckers mowed. Complete waste of money as trees came back with a vengeance. Created a bunch of sharp spikes which had sore footed cows who dared go in there. Willows on the other hand I don’t know. Mowers with a chain for a blade are said to be better. They thrash the stumps which doesn’t creates the little pikes and kill rate on the trees is better. PFRA guy said a follow up with herbicide the next season gave even better control.

[Partners]

Sprayed ours with roundup when doing canola.
Lifted over them with sprayer boom.
Dead now.
Snapped them off with the pulldozer today..
Heavy disk should cut to pieces.

[Tucker]

I'm reclaiming some sloughy pasture and hay land that the willows have overtaken. The bigger ones need to be dug but the smaller ones can be mowed. Will mowing 1" diameter willows result in flat tractor, implement, truck or quad tires next year? This ground will not be tilled. I'm scared of thousands of 4" spears sticking out of the ground.

Mowed them with the Bush Hog, blackened it with the tandem Kello 210's. Sprayed when pre harvesting. Seeding next spring. Haven't lost a tire yet but those punji trap looking little willow stumps do put you off your feed for a bit going over them. Black is beautiful. Black 4" tile going in the ground that is.

[shtferbrains]

How far do you go to get a drain outlet. Roadside ditch?

[Tucker]

How far do you go to get a drain outlet. Roadside ditch?

I don't have a quarter that doesn't have a permanent waterway running through it. Never would drain into a roadside ditch. Tile isn't cutting huge ditches to have everything run off in one big whoosh during the spring. It will trickle all year and when the spring melt comes the ground is empty and has so much capacity to absorb the melt without overwhelming the ditch infastructure. I don't know why tiling isn't pushed far harder for drainage. My tiled acres are my most productive.

[WiltonRanch]

I don't have a quarter that doesn't have a permanent waterway running through it. Never would drain into a roadside ditch. Tile isn't cutting huge ditches to have everything run off in one big whoosh during the spring. It will trickle all year and when the spring melt comes the ground is empty and has so much capacity to absorb the melt without overwhelming the ditch infastructure. I don't know why tiling isn't pushed far harder for drainage. My tiled acres are my most productive.

So it more or less creates proper internal drainage of poorly drained soils?

[Tucker]

So it more or less creates proper internal drainage of poorly drained soils?

That's pretty much it exactly. Before I started using a plow I tried the first few areas to trench it in with an excavator. Bad idea btw, it's very hard to smoothly bed the tile. What was really eye opening was watching the trench sides go from 2 feet of black topsoil up to 2 inches of black dirt and the rest yellow clay and back again as I was trenching through the field. Real A-ha moment when you realize why that stupid wet area looks like it should drain but never does. If you could strip the topsoil off a field and see the underlying clay it would be a totally different landscape. Water won't migrate out of those clay bowls under the flat black topsoil. Not until you put a pipe through them at least. Harvesting canola through those areas now watching the yield monitor hit 80's and 90's makes it all worth it. I don't have saline trouble spots in my area but I've heard that reversing the water flow from up and evaporating leaving the salts to water dissolving the salts taking them down and into tile is another amazing benefit of tiling.