Land clearance -15 acres of brambles and gorse

paam

Hello all

I recently purchased a house with 15 acres of land in Co Roscommon. The terrain is full of patches of brambles and gorse besides nettles, rushes, etc.

I am looking for advice on the most cost effective way of clearing the land for pasture. Currently I started with a trimmer and I managed to clear a couple of small patches but it is rather time consuming, besides I will have to burn the brambles once they dry up and spay the roots.

I was thinking of a quad bike with a flail mower. Any one has tried this? Or would I be better in hiring a tractor with a flail mower and then spray the land with glyphosate?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

Odelay

paam wrote: »

Hello all

I recently purchased a house with 15 acres of land in Co Roscommon. The terrain is full of patches of brambles and gorse besides nettles, rushes, etc.

I am looking for advice on the most cost effective way of clearing the land for pasture. Currently I started with a trimmer and I managed to clear a couple of small patches but it is rather time consuming, besides I will have to burn the brambles once they dry up and spay the roots.

I was thinking of a quad bike with a flail mower. Any one has tried this? Or would I be better in hiring a tractor with a flail mower and then spray the land with glyphosate?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

Hire someone in to do it. Anything else is a waste of time and money.

magicbastarder

i suspect this would be better asked in the farming forum. you are most likely going to need a local farmer to do it for you.
i know this will probably come across as rude, but i am wondering why you bought land with a view to turning into farmland if there are basic issues you're asking the internet for help with.

paam

magicbastarder wrote: »

i suspect this would be better asked in the farming forum. you are most likely going to need a local farmer to do it for you.
i know this will probably come across as rude, but i am wondering why you bought land with a view to turning into farmland if there are basic issues you're asking the internet for help with.

I tried to find the farming forum but this was the closest. If you can move it that would be great.

Regarding your comment, it is not rude at all. I grew up in farm just in a different country with different problems. The land will mostly be used for horses and it is a small holding :-)

Casati

Best option is to hire a contractor with large digger to clear the area and scrape back all the brambles etc. 15 acres is a lot to clear even if parts are good so you might want to do it in manageable sections

magicbastarder

i don't have the ability to move it, but this is the farming forum - there's also a smallholding subforum there:

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=845

Charles Ingles

Can you burn it?

magicbastarder

No burning allowed till Autumn. OP says it's patchy so might not suit a burn anyway. Maybe just get goats in?

Lumen

Might need more then just clearance if it's for horses. I'm not a horsey person but AFAIK they need fairly even ground or they can injure themselves.

Ask local horsey people.

Pretzill

How about fostering a couple of donkeys - they are browsers and love brambles, nettles etc. I would say goats too but goats can be hard to keep in one spot - sometimes the donkey sanctuaries can be on the look out for places to house donkeys in the summer - (the fields would have to be secure because donkeys do like to roam and they would need a little shelter too)

beertons

Be the jaysus, 15 acres is some garden.