The poor man's bulldozer

There is a never-ending battle here at the farm. The enemy is steadily and relentlessly advancing. This “enemy” doesn’t rest, he doesn’t take holiday, or go on vacation. He doesn’t sleep in, or work half days. He is dedicated and motivated to conquering our farm. He has even gone as far as calling in allies from Russia, I kid you not! Here is photographic evidence…


Russian Thistle

So we are constantly battling the briars and thistles, which seem to do amazingly well here in pretty much any condition or circumstance imaginable. If left unattended briars can tear down a good strong barb wire fence in only a few years. Also, where the briars grow, the grass cannot. Cows need grass more than they need briars.

Last year we did an interesting experiment with the cows. We learned that if we put their salt lick in the middle of a briar patch, they would tramp out the briars in that area. It is really awesome. It looks like an explosion happened in the middle of the briars, totally annihilating ” the enemy”.

This winter we are feeding the cows in the briar patches. Rather than spending time with the tractor and other machinery, we are letting the cows do the work. Each morning we move the feeders to a new location so that the cows are constantly clearing more and more briars. It looks really muddy right now, but in the spring we will plant grass, and we will have more grazing area for the moos. And that is why cows are called… the poor man’s bulldozer.


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