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Agriculture, Services

Blueberry Removal: Putting them back in the ground.

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June 9, 2022

- Agriculture, Services

When we started this we really didn’t expect blueberry removal to be one of our most useful offerings. I didn’t think it was a big deal to take blueberries out. They seem like such a small light shrub that they would be the easiest of all the crops. It turns out I was wrong, but that turned out alright for everyone involved. They have become one of our favorite crops to work on and we have put a lot into optimizing our process.


It all began fairly crude, backing over rows of blueberries with our big Raptor 800. It was a bit of an overkill, kinda, but it did a pretty decent job and won over some hearts and minds. You see up until that point everyone had to pull them out and either try to burn them or shove them somewhere and hope UFOs took them away.
The problem with pulling them out and burning them is 2 fold, first of all, it’s not like an orchard that averages 120 trees to an acre. Usually, blueberries are planted in rows about 10′ apart and around 4′ from bush to bush. That’s over 1000 plants per acre. For each plant, there is a movement of the machine, typically an excavator. For each separate movement of the machine, there is a cost involved.


So now the blueberries are pulled out of the ground, great… It turns out they have quite a root ball on them. That rootball is made up of a bunch of very fine roots that are really good at holding onto dirt, so now you are shaking each one trying to get the dirt out, even then they aren’t very clean, especially if it is clay soil. Now in that process about half the branches get busted off and maybe a quarter of the root ball is still in the ground. Now gather them all up into a good pile and light them off, make sure you let them dry a bit first. Now you have a pile of unburnt crowns left because all that dirt didn’t shake out as well as you thought. Now you hope they disappear, but they don’t.


The other option is running them through a horizontal grinder, but that still requires pulling, hauling, feeding, then doing something with the grindings.


This is what many have gone through, we had no idea it was such a big deal having never done conventional removal before.


To solve this we apply our reintegration process to put them back in the ground. It is not one size fit’s all, it is variable. Some are over 60 years old and ginormous. Some are up on a mound with all their roots above the average ground surface. Some were planted flat and all the roots are below average ground surface. Some are only a few years old with fine pliable stems.
The challenge of doing this correctly is controlling the bush and roots. Sometimes we use a flail first, then a mulcher, then a rotovator. Sometimes we go straight to a rotovator. Sometimes we only use a mulcher. Sometimes we even go in the opposite direction from normal. Sometimes we use a narrow rotovator, you get the idea… It all depends on the plant. Often a client has either tried to do it themselves or hired someone else to do it. We then get the call when it hasn’t turned out quite right. It’s not because we are awesome it’s just experience gained from doing it so often and learning from our mistakes.


Do we need a client to do anything to help us out before we get on-site? Yes, just make sure all the non-organic infrastructure is out of the way and anything you want to save is marked well and very visible. It is not a big deal for us if you have risers at the ends of the row for drip tubes, we either just need them marked really well, pinned down, or what works best is if they are buried. Burying can be done pretty fast which makes it a really clean process. If they aren’t buried we may hit a few, but not many.


Can a client help out by mowing off the plant before we get there? No, please don’t. This really doesn’t save any work and often results in a worse product as we don’t have control over the plant from the standing phase. It won’t save any money. We have had several clients do this before contacting us and then lament after they saw the process working. We can still deliver a good product if it has been done, but you’re working your equipment for nothing.
The result, when the process is done, is a plant in a million pieces, and that is probably literal. There may be a branch now and then that gets away from us. Maybe a chunk of root crown that is over baseball-sized once in a while. Overall the bush portion should be shattered into pieces less than 4″ in length, most only a few inches long at most. The root crown will be busted into pieces the size of a golf ball and smaller. The roots should be ground away down to a 1/2″ diameter or less.


There should be no problem completing standard conventional farming practices once we are done. Heck, some people don’t even work the field, they just re-mound behind us without even destroying the grass aisle way. A client can finish picking blueberries on day 1, remove infrastructure on day 2, have blueberries reintegrated on day 3, and replace infrastructure and plant on day 4. That would take some heroic scheduling but it is in theory possible with this process.


How is this all done? Well like I said above, it is all about using the right equipment for the right scenario. And beyond that, we have modified the tar out of the different machines. We haven’t found anything yet that delivers the right product as it is off the showroom floor. But that’s kinda what we love doing anyway. We won’t ever get it perfect, but we love chasing after perfection.


The bottom line is: we love removing blueberries.
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Forestry, Services

The Cost of Brush Mulching

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June 7, 2022

- Forestry, Services

Most would define the question of, “how much does it cost to mulch some brush”, as impossible to narrow down. However, over the years we have mulched our share of brush, so we are going to give it a whirl. For this article, we are going to focus on the small rural landowner type of mulching. If you are someone who has land covered in brush and you are looking to open it up, we hope by the end of this article you will be better informed about brush mulching.


Now to start- what are the variables that go into mulching? The five factors that are probably the biggest are density, environment type, species, finish quality, and terrain. As it turns out it is pretty hard to define those very well when comparing one property to another. We have found that the old adage “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” is equally true as “one man’s thick brush is another man’s field”. For this reason, we almost always do a site visit before we offer an estimate. We do not want to overestimate and scare a potential client with a high price or give such a low price that we set false expectations.


Now with all that said, let’s try to break it down by each factor.

Density

Can you walk through it? Is it over your head? Are there a lot of small stems or are there fewer big stems? When we are talking density what we really care about is how much volume of material is there per acre. It is really hard to quantify and thus takes a trained eye to get a close approximation. For example, try walking through a thick patch of scotch broom (an arch-nemesis of western Oregonians). It would seem pretty thick. It really isn’t all that dense though, it is nearly impossible to walk through it, same with a wall of Himalayan blackberry.


Now imagine a mass of wild cherry, cascara, vine maple, and wild hazelnut all intertwined with Himalayan blackberry. That’s dense! You have the base layer of blackberry then the stems of everything else that stretches to the heavens with numerous branches to about twenty-five feet in the air. We see this type of density all the time. For us, it is often fun and the most rewarding because of the huge difference we see at the end.


For sake of simplicity, we will say the above examples are on even terrain with nice soil and the project is only big enough to bring in a smaller machine like a Cat 299d3 XHP. To mulch the scotch broom is probably around $400 – $700 per acre. The thick Himalayan blackberries will be about $400 – $700 per acre. Mulching the big mess of everything from blackberries to small trees will range anywhere from $800.00 – $1,300.00 per acre. This is all to a moderate finish level.

Environment Type

When I talk about the environment type, I mean is it an open pasture? Is it a stand of young timber that has never been thinned? Is it a large mature forest with big spacing between the trees? Is there large downed material everywhere on the ground, or stumps hidden in the brush that an operator will have a hard time seeing? These factors all play a huge part in the price of mowing down a few twigs.


As an example, if we are fairly positive that an area was just a pasture or open ground before being covered with brush, we can go charging in with some assurance that we won’t slam into a stump. Can we slam into a stump and live to tell about it? Usually yes, but it is hard on equipment. There is only one guarantee with machines-they will break, so we try not to hit things too hard. It can also be hard on the operator, even at 1-2 mph, a sudden stop can be quite jarring. When we walk the project we look for clues and ask a lot of questions about what is known regarding the state of the ground under the brush. We also pull historical satellite imagery and sometimes do a drone survey.


If the project is what we call “under brushing”, which is mulching all the brush under the canopy of an existing stand of timber; then we have to duck and dodge as we work. Since a lot of our time is spent going in reverse, and we hate scarring up retained trees we have to work slower. Even in our forward passes, we won’t be able to work in a grid as we might in an open environment.


During the walk-through, you will probably notice the project manager has an infatuation with rocks. It’s not because we are in love with it, quite the opposite. It makes everyone’s day worse. At the minimum, a small rock increases the wear on the machinery’s teeth. At the most, a big rock is hard on everything- tracks, carbide teeth, knives, operators, etc. Yes, we can do it, and yes a good carbide tooth can take a hit. However, carbides do break, are expensive, and worse is that we will have to run carbides on the full rotor if there is a lot of rock. We try to run knives in the center of our drum most of the time. They make a huge difference in production, but if there is a high percentage of rock it simply isn’t worth it.


Do we still want to look at your projects with rocks? Yes, it just makes a frustrating impact on the price of mulching.


Environments like working a brush patch in an old clear cut, or under brushing in a thick stand of timber versus a wide-open known area can impact the price anywhere from around 25-50%. Rock can be even worse and in some instances, calls for a different configuration of machine like a swing machine.


Oddly enough the higher the density, the lower the effect on the environment because the density of the material keeps us moving at a slower pace. In the wintertime, there is less leaf load. Leaves or the lack thereof allow an operator to see the obstructions that are coming up, it can make a 5% difference in productivity on some sites.

Species

Species make a bigger difference than most would think. To be honest, I still get surprised by it sometimes. What it boils down to is: how strong and how pliable is the wood fiber. The reason this makes a difference is that ultimately what a mulcher does is breaks wood fibers apart from each other and shortens them. Vegetation is a bunch of elongated fibers bound together in different orientations.


Some species like cherry and oak have incredibly strong fibers, which are bound very tightly to each other. Others like pine and hawthorn are very weak. About the easiest way to determine how something will mulch up is to try to break it. Whenever I encounter something new I try to snap a limb. If it just keeps bending it will probably be difficult to get a nice breakdown. If it snaps, but not all the way, and keeps fraying out, it will probably be moderately difficult. If it completely snaps in two pieces easily, you know you’re going to have a fun day of mulching since those kinds of wood shatter fast and progress to a fine finish pretty easily. If you can tie it in a knot and swing through the forest on it, well, you’re in for some chewing. The best way to mitigate this is to up the game by running knives and or a higher top speed. Often times after someone has mulched with dull carbides in this type of material, you will see frayed stumps sticking up everywhere like upside-down brooms. This is because of a lack of edge on the tool being used. If a person doesn’t care much about how it looks then this may not be an issue, it just takes a little extra time and being particular about the method.


The most stubborn you will come across in the Northwest is the Viney Maple. The easiest is something like ponderosa pine. Himalayan blackberry, although very pliable is not very strong and scotch-broom is really brittle. The mixture of trees, bushes, and vines like we mentioned, make up the catch-all term “brush”. The difference in species can generally account for about 30-40% discrepancy in the price of mulching.

Finish Quality

The finish is a function of time when it comes down to it. Another way to put it would be passes over the material. As I’ve outlined in this article,

“Why is he going backwards all the time? A technical look at the material breakdown”

each time the mulcher goes back over the material it is drawing it up through the housing and reducing it more and more. The higher the number of passes, the finer it will become. Some materials with more brittle characteristics won’t take many passes at all; some may take 3-4


A really rough pass can be done with a forward pass as a Sunday drive through the woods. It won’t look very good, but it might do the job. This is sometimes requested for a simple reforestation job, where the only goal is to kill material and get it down to where a person can walk through, plant a tree, and treat it with spray.


Finish level varies from super rough like I outlined above, to extremely fine and beautiful, which is often referred to as a “Park Out”. In other words, we are going to make that mess of brush look like a park you will want to play frisbee on. In fact, we did a frisbee golf course not long ago. Most sites can be made to look like a park, it just takes time, energy, and an operator with some finesse.


The time it takes to blow out the ground to a really rough finish versus a fine park-like finish can be double. Yes, a 200% increase. It just depends on what you want.

Terrain

Last but not least, is the terrain. The terrain or topography is one of the only things that can really make a person say, “This can’t be done”. Let me be clear, the way I look at things is that anything can be done. But is it really feasible and worth the cost? We can do some crazy stuff with a helicopter and a rock climber, but there would have to be an extremely good reason.


The most difficult type of terrain we run into is when it is really steep. Luckily, we can usually work on steeper ground than most people think. It might require using a different machine though. A typical forestry skid steer with rubber tracks on it can hang onto a 45-degree slope in optimal conditions. We rarely see optimal conditions though. The factor that we look for when assessing a site is how stable is the soil. A lot of time hillsides have very soft crumbly soil, which can limit the machine. The biggest factor is how wet is it. It doesn’t take much rain to make the soil surface slippery.


When we aren’t sure if we can handle a hillside or not the tipping point for us is if we have an escape route or not. Most operators prefer to work from the bottom of a hill toward the top, that way if it gets too steep gravity is helping you get back onto already worked ground, instead of pulling you into unknown areas. As we work, the layer of mulch on the ground can increase the traction of the machine as well.


It may be that we just have to schedule the job for when it is dryer or bring in one of our specialized steep slope machines.


The other most common terrain challenge is soft ground. Most of the tracked mulchers you will see are somewhere between 4.5 – 8 psi. When all my weight is on one foot I’m putting about 6 psi on the ground. So I usually figure if I can walk on it then I can probably mulch on it. What will compound this though is how many passes we will have to make. The soil compresses and expands every time pressure is applied and removed. This compression and expansion in wet soil are what makes mud. The other factor on PSI is how it is distributed. A set of tracks that can move independently of each other, like some of our machines means that pressure is spread more evenly over the uneven surface of the soil.


Again wet soil may mean that we just have to use a different specialized machine. This may ultimately mean the difference between being able to do the project or not. Much of the time wet ground is associated with Riparian areas or wetlands that may be illegal to work in. However mulching is often used to restore this type of ground, so it is a case-by-case basis.

Overview

I hope this has given you some idea of what to expect, and what we are looking for when we do a site visit. As I said above, this was tailored to a typical small rural landowner, but it also gives you a glimpse of all the factors in any project. It is very difficult to narrow down the price, but I hope I have helped give you a general ballpark of the project cost.


To consolidate this all, we rarely see projects of this nature below the $400.00 per acre mark and rarely over the $1,800.00 per acre mark.


Ultimately the three biggest factors in completing a job at the expected price point are:


1. A project manager that takes the time to understand the client’s needs, the challenges of the project, and the ability of the individual machinery.

2.An operator that understands the goals, how to manipulate the machine, and most importantly cares about providing the best job they can for the customer.

3.The right machine for the job is outfitted with the correct hardware for that specific project.
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Services

“Why is he going backwards all the time?” A technical look at the material breakdown.

By on

June 2, 2022

- Services

You might have noticed operators are going backwards almost as often as they are going forward. This isn’t just because they like looking through a little camera screen. It also isn’t because they are pretending they are Mater from the movie, Cars. Although Mater was correct when he said, “Ain’t no need to watch where I’m going. Just need to know where I’ve been.”


There are two different primary functions in a mulching operation. First is the rough breakdown, that takes place going forward on most all front-mount mulchers, such as your typical forestry skid steer. Then there is the secondary breakdown, which occurs in the backward direction.


As the machine is moving forward the rotor is spinning simultaneously in a downward and forward direction. This motion drives the material down toward the ground, out under, and behind the machine. This is why it is generally a bad idea to stand directly behind a mulcher; you’re probably going to get something thrown at you.


During that downward and forward rotation, the material is not broken up very much, since it is just bashed against the ground and ripped backward. It is enough though that it allows the machine to keep on advancing. There are a few factors that can influence how much the material is broken down during that motion. The main factor is the type of material. Stringy material will tend to grab onto the teeth and hurl out under the machine without many breakdowns. The more brittle the material the more the tooth will break it into small chunks, instead of throwing it out under the machine.


So while the forward pass is necessary, it is not where the big value comes from; the back pass is where it all happens. During the back pass, the rotor is rotating upward, this lifts the material into the mulching chamber. The mulching chamber is the area from the back lower edge of the mulcher to the front upper edge. There are usually some type of fixed knife, solid bar, or “fingers” that stick out from the frame inside the mulching chamber that the rotor smashes the material into. Once the material enters the chamber, there is nowhere for it to go but continue through the maze and be thrown out on the other side.


Because the material is trapped it keeps going through a repeated series of getting hit by a tooth, then slamming into a fixed finger, then it gets slammed by a tooth again and hurled into another fixed finger. This rapid series of changes in velocity is what accomplishes the highest percentage of the breakdown of the material. The efficiency of an operator is ultimately based on how quickly they can get the material broken down into small particles.
Because of all this, you may even see an operator driving forward without engaging the head with the work at all, then they will drop it down and go backwards. This is because the time driving forward can be used to get the rotor back up to speed; thus storing energy. Then when it is dropped down and backpass, you get the highest degree of reduction possible with the energy available.


The backpass is also what gives that beautiful smooth look to a job. As the operator is moving backward, they can manipulate the door and or angle of the head to spray mulch from dense areas to areas where the mulch isn’t as heavy. This evens everything out, gets a better distribution of material for decay and breakdown, and covers the tracks.


There are a lot more factors that contribute to material breakdown, but the direction of the machine is probably the most noticeable to the outside observer and plays the biggest factor in turning big growing things into small particles of matter.


Below you can see an example of a forward and backpass with our 630 hp Prinoth Raptor on 20′ tall Christmas trees.
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Agriculture, Services

Double Density Thinning: A Basic Explanation

By on

April 13, 2022

- Agriculture, Services

Farmers here in the valley know this well. For those just driving around, you have most likely noticed, that hazelnuts are getting planted everywhere in the valley.

Hazelnuts have had a long history in the valley, dotted here and there, breaking up the monotony of grass fields and the occasional row crop. In the past decade with industry fluctuations, and innovation on how this nut can be used; the market has expanded.

More and more old orchards have been replaced and thousands of acres have been converted from a different crop into hazelnuts.

Most new plantings are installed in a double-density pattern. This means that ultimately there are twice as many trees per acre as the mature orchard will have. This is done so that production will be higher earlier in life. The orchard pictured below was put in at 10’x20′ spacing with the goal of a 20’x20′ mature orchard.

We first started working in and around this crop in the renewal process; removing old orchards that were stricken with blight, so that a new resistant variety could be planted. We have renewed hundreds of acres now. 

In addition to full removal and land clearing for new orchards, we thin more and more acres every year. Every client is different in what they want for a final product. Some clients want the tree shredded extremely fine to be ready for harvest, while some just want it coarse so they can continue flailing on their own time. The end particle is generally directly correlated to the energy put into it along with other factors. Some clients just want the stump flush with the ground, some want most all the roots completely ground out, and some just want the center of the stump removed.

Wider spacing and square patterns let us fit in larger equipment to be more efficient. We have found that modifications and custom equipment are necessary to get the perfect result; at the right price point.

Overall it is a highly variable process and we treat every orchard and client as an individual; to get the result they are looking for. We love working with these farmers. They are understanding and team oriented. They have the attitude of “a rising tide lifts all boats” and “let’s all pull in the same direction”. I admire their resilience through uncontrollable markets and weather.


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Agriculture, Services

Rotovating – Subsoiling – Forestry Tilling: What is it?

By on

April 6, 2022

- Agriculture, Services

At Advanced Land Management we call it rotovating. Some others call it subsoiling and some call it forestry tilling. It seems to depend on your location on the globe and the industry you are in.


Typically we get odd looks when we start talking about rotovating since it is still somewhat unknown in comparison to other industry services like excavating, logging, and mulching. 


Rotovating is sometimes confused with mulching. What is the difference between mulching and rotovating? Mulching is the process of breaking down the organic material above the surface of the soil and rotovating is breaking up what is under the surface. Mulching is to mowing as rotovating is to plowing.


Rotovating is treating the soil horizon below the surface down to a predetermined depth. The purpose of which can be singular or multiple, such as crushing rock, grinding up stumps and roots, or just conditioning extremely stubborn soil. Most ground that we treat with rotovating has had the organic matter above ground treated through mulching.


Rotovating is a big time power game.  It takes pretty much all the HP you can throw at it which is why we use such high HP tractors. Soil moisture can make the highest impact on production due to the added weight of the moisture in the soil and the higher amount of friction in the chamber of the rotovator.


We follow the mulching process with the additional step of rotovating to fully incorporate it into the soil. The biggest advantage to this is that it chews, rips and tears through anything that is down below the surface. It grinds stumps and roots into small bits, smashes rocks into pieces, and pulverizes hard chunky clay soils.



There are several ways to control the result of rotovating. In most cases, it is not difficult to make it look good, but the true quality of the product, especially when dealing with organics like stumps and roots, is the size of the resulting material. Once you start working through the soil in the future big chunks and long stringy material will be unearthed if not done correctly. Adding modifications, adjusting speed, changing direction, and proper preparation beforehand is how we mitigate these issues. 


Rotovating is not a fast process, but it does provide a very thorough product when done correctly. It can also solve problems that other methods have a much harder time with. The typical speed is around .5-1.5 mph on an 8’ wide 10” deep pass. The density of the soil, compaction, moisture, and other material in the soil like stumps will dictate the speed.


Our primary choice for rotovating is our Fendt 1050 with an FAE SSH/HP. This combination is extremely efficient and allows us to travel quickly from site to site. It puts out 515 horsepower and lets us go up to 20” subsurface, which is deeper than generally needed. In a single pass we generally go to depths of 10-12” in most circumstances. We use this tool along with mulching to complete land clearing and crop removal without the need to burn or haul off the material. We grind up material into small particles and then rotovate it back into the earth as organic matter. This allows the soil to be replenished, improving the health and fertility of the soil.


Sometimes rotovating is the correct tool for the job and sometimes conventional or haul-off methods are still the right tool for the job. We will outline the pros and cons of different methods in a future article.


-The team at Advanced Land Management

LinkedIn: Matt Bostrom

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