Cost per Cord - 2015

[Woodworks]

If you have ever grown an arable crop in a field with trees along the hedges you would see a vast difference under the trees. Lack of light, nutrients probably taken by the trees. I'm not saying flailing is right just explaining the financial reasons. I grew up on a farm with some trees on hedges BTW

 

No I can see that but surprised you lose 5m. Thing is around here it's all permanent pasture yet still every hedge you see is flailed annually. Their loss I supose.

[Woodworks]

I am surrounded by farm land here and it seems the current push is to restore the natural prairie on all the bits in between. So down come all the bush at the edge of field, along rivers and streams. Some larger wooded areas owned by the state are being clear cut. Fast forward to autumn when all the corn and other crops are harvested and what do we have? Dust storms! There is nothing to keep that loose black soil from flying, nothing to slow the winds down. What do we have in winter? Roads drifted shut repeatedly for the same reasons. Yet no one see how this is harmful, and how history is repeating itself.

That sounds like a nightmare. In the past were the prairies stable?

[slack ma girdle]

If hedges are left to grow then the farmer loses a wide strip of growing area around his field.

1000M perimeter around a field 5 M wide would cost around £10K to purchase that area so £10K wasted

 

Not if it is done like this

[Capetown]

Not wishing to tread on Grizzly's toes, [ame]

[/ame] I expect the prairies were stable as the topsoil was never disturbed.

[muldonach]

Not if it is done like this

 

Exactly if it is done like that - you have put up a photo of a grass field in winter with the leaf off the tree - now try to imagine the trees in full leaf and an arable crop in the field - the loss of light at the woodland edge and moisture competition depress the yield around the margins - even if you are just taking silage.

 

Now imagine a modern silage chopper or combine trying to work around the edge of the field with all the expensive bits to knock off.

 

It may not look like it to you but the production of that field is very probably reduced to a degree by the surrounding trees.

 

Cheers

mac

[Grizzly Adam]

That sounds like a nightmare. In the past were the prairies stable?

 

Yea, but as another member stated there wasn't loose soil to blow around. Another thing I forgot to mention are the deer. As soon as the harvest was completed suddenly the deer have no cover or food available to them and have to begin wandering. These season has been one of the worst I've seen, and in the last month I nearly hit a deer, hit another deer and then nearly hit two this morning. I just got my replacement fender back from the painter and haven't even bolted it back on yet.

[cornish wood burner]

No I can see that but surprised you lose 5m. Thing is around here it's all permanent pasture yet still every hedge you see is flailed annually. Their loss I supose.

Depends on the trees and their height. I have a triangular strip of land with woody hedges that have grown for about 20 years without cutting. The narrow end of the field grows virtually nothing until it widens to 7 or 8 metres. At 10 metres wide its a reasonable growth of grass but not as lush as the wider end. Most of the trees send out their lower branches into the centre of the field in search of light so further shade the grass. It suits me well though as my crop is firewood from the hedges.

[farmer rod]

Exactly if it is done like that - you have put up a photo of a grass field in winter with the leaf off the tree - now try to imagine the trees in full leaf and an arable crop in the field - the loss of light at the woodland edge and moisture competition depress the yield around the margins - even if you are just taking silage.

 

Now imagine a modern silage chopper or combine trying to work around the edge of the field with all the expensive bits to knock off.

 

It may not look like it to you but the production of that field is very probably reduced to a degree by the surrounding trees.

 

Cheers

mac

 

Im with you on this, £60 for a tractor mirror and arm, £28 per tonne, and having just fought through a few metres for a hedge job which produced a load of brash and a few sticks to take home, I have to ask, which do you prefer , forest grown straight up for 12 metres and a light top, or bendy hedgerow?

[County 764]

Im with you on this, £60 for a tractor mirror and arm, £28 per tonne, and having just fought through a few metres for a hedge job which produced a load of brash and a few sticks to take home, I have to ask, which do you prefer , forest grown straight up for 12 metres and a light top, or bendy hedgerow?

 

Second that, letting it get to that stage on productive arable ground would be madness.