Our new farm has paddocks that have layers and layers of old wet leaves that I’d like to pick up. In some areas, they are creating small “pond puddles” so they’re holding water.
I’m not sure if our tractor could scrape them and our Fel would tear up the ground, which I would like to try to avoid, even though I am planning on reseeding these areas.
The trees were thinned out prior to us moving in but the previous owners never raked up any leaves it seemed.
Any suggestions? Would a pasture vacuum work on old wet leaves that are inches thick?
goats? I had been told that goats eat everything.
Do you want to completely remove them from the area, or just to pile them up higher.
Options I have done in the past:
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Use a lawn mower to mulch them. You may need to use a rake or leaf blower to “fluff” the lower layer. If you have a dense layer of wet leaves, a bush hog might help the first session and the. Use a lawn mower the next. A bagging mower would remove the leaves almost completely, but I find that once the leaves have been chopped the compost into the soil very quickly. It may be something to do over several different sessions. If you go this route, you may want to do a soil test on this area to see if you need to adjust the chemistry to have grass grow the best.
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Hand rake the leaves into your FEL or into a wheelbarrow/wagon/truck bed. Least favorite option!!
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Have 2 people, one with a powerful leaf blower (backpack or wheeled version) and someone with a leaf rake to fluff the wet stuff. You can make a huge pile and burn them or remove them with your equipment.
The problem with piles of leaves is that you never know what’s hidden underneath them, whether it’s old wire, broken bottles, or copperheads…
Dh runs thru our leaves every fall with the bush hog. I don’t know if even our big tractor would have the horsepower to chop thru wet leaves that had been sitting for years.
Go with the FEL for safety reasons.
I use my tractor blade and drag them out. If your skilled it does little damage to the ground.
I don’t think a leaf vacuum would be strong enough to get them separated, and off the ground. Plus, since they’re wet they’re going to be very heavy.
I suggest once you start moving the leaves out of paddocks, you then dump them into a manure spreader. You can empty the spreader onto your fields like with any used bedding. As mentioned, leaves are great organic material, good for the land and grass of pastures. I have spread my excess leaves on the pastures with good results in grass production. The spreader tore the leaves as it spread the leaves, so pieces quickly broke down to become invisible on the ground. My leaves were mostly dry, so I expect wet leaves would break down even faster.
Do you know what kind of trees shed these leaves? You don’t want to spread Black Walnut, Butternut, Horse Chestnut leaves that will could make horses sick. I have Oaks, Hickory, Ash leaves here, all OK for the horses. Well fed horses will ignore things, leaves or plants, that are not good for them in most cases where other food is available.
[QUOTE=Mukluk;9017609]
goats? I had been told that goats eat everything.[/QUOTE]
:lol:
Another old wives tale! Goats do in fact love leaves, but not old, wet, moldy piles of them.
Nothing like good old fashioned back breaking work and it looks like you have that ahead of you, to some degree.
You might just wait for warmer weather to dry them and a good March wind to blow them away??
If you have a sizable tractor, borrow or rent a side rake. That will at least get them up and fluffed into rows.
Do you have some sort of harrow or arena groomer? I’d run that and a mower over them
