PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. – Brush was a growing problem for Wade Tanner.
About half of the 14,000-acre pasture he managed for Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration at Poplar Point, Man., was covered with poplar and other pesky brush trees.
The brush was spreading at the rate of about five percent per year. In 20 years, the pasture would be completely covered.
Tanner tried several methods of killing the brush.
He didn’t like working with herbicides and wanted something that would quickly clear more pasture for the cattle.
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He needed a mower that could withstand rocky soil. The solid, flail-type blades on his PTO-driven deck mower were quickly dulled by rocks, and often broke. At $100 a piece, repeatedly replacing the blades became expensive.
He took the problem to Doug May at the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute station in Portage la Prairie.
May wanted to make a giant weed-eater from a mower that had a brush bar with solid blades.
He said his theory was that shattering the tree’s stump, rather than slicing it, would do a better job of killing the tree.
May first tried a cable with a weight on the end to replace the blades. He said the $350 cable worked well, but after 12 hours of use, the cable frayed.
Next, he attached six links of 3Ú4- inch logging chain on both ends of the brush bar with good quality bolts.
The change cost about $100. “It’s a very cheap modification for a farmer,” noted Turner.
He used it for 80 hours behind a 75-horsepower tractor, and found he could go almost five kilometres per hour over trees with 2.54-centimetre trunks.
“It did a tremendous job of taking it off,” said May.
Turner said timing is everything in killing brush, and different plants are more effectively killed at different times of the year.
He said a smaller sized chain might work better, but he ran out of time to test it. And the deck of the mower, dented and damaged by flying rocks, could do with some heavy steel plate.
May also put a wire mesh shield on the back of the tractor pulling the mower to protect the driver from flying debris.
