My wife and I purchased 26 acres of fine "hillside" this summer. We are situated in southern Ohio. It seems that the briars like this land more than most other vegetation. Can anyone recommend a management program for a low income land owner who just happens to own clay-like soiled, steep hillsides? I appreciate any help, all the help "we" give the wildlife helps ALL OF US sportspeople.

OhioDuckHunter

Buy some goats. They are pretty inexpensive and once they've cleaned the place off, you can get your money back. Get a portable fence if you don't want to fence the area in permanently. If a goat won't eat it, it don't grow. Sounds like a joke, but they are very effective in cleaning up a piece of land.

Another alternative is a bushog. Unless the steep hills you mentioned in your post would make it difficlut to get the job done. If it is Blackberry brambles, cut lanes thru it, fertilize the rest, and start selling Blackberries.

Russ

fourwheeler or truck with a plow or just burn it or some combination of the two
what are your goals for the land you should know what you are trying to do before starting to avoid doing somthing you regret or spending more money
than you need to

p.s clover grows eveywere its cheap will prevent eriosion and will also improve soil quality

You cant bush hog it or it will ruin your tractor tires if it is extremely thick. Get a chain several in fact, leather gloves and start pulling out the larger clumps and then back blade them, until the heavy duty stuff is gone then bush hog them and then disc it with a heavy disc, if there is a farmer in the area hire him to disc it with an extremely heavy disc, then spray if they return and plant it and keep it mowed and under control. Might take a couple years to get it in shape like you want it.

ODH; There may be an easier way. You probably don't want to plant all 20 acres as deer forage. Do the clearing on 1 - 2 acres and plant your clover, etc. on that area. In the thick briar areas either cut out or spot spray spot areas with roundup. Plant quick growing trees such as poplars, pines, larches or willows. The trees will eventually grow and shade out the briars. It'll take years for the trees to take over but the briars provide deer cover and you have a percentage planted into deer attracting forage until that point.

Dan O.

Thank you all for the input. My "briar patch" is not the such that you can pull them. However, all of your sugestions have given me some ideas for improvement. Thank again!

Bob

How about spraying them?