Any experience with Chapman FM120 ATV mulcher for rushes?

[JohnGalway]

Hi folks,

Posting in this section as that's where I figure the most experience with rushes will be

I'm thinking of renting an ATV flail mower for a week. The selection is precisely 1 make and model

I'll attach a photo, I wonder if they're any use on heavy rushes before I waste a week and some €?

Thanks

 

[DanM]

Hi folks,

Posting in this section as that's where I figure the most experience with rushes will be

I'm thinking of renting an ATV flail mower for a week. The selection is precisely 1 make and model

I'll attach a photo, I wonder if they're any use on heavy rushes before I waste a week and some €?

Thanks

we have an FM150 with the wheels running behind. It does a good job on rushes, brambles, bracken etc. It’s a slow job though unless you take it down in stages. Pull it with 500cc no bother!

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Cheapest way to top rushes is a crop sprayer . But then that's not what you asked

 

[Yale]

@chapmanmachinery

 

[sheepdogtrail]

I find that the smaller rushes are no problem for that machine or a 500 cc quad. Bigger rushes about the size of your quad back wheel can be done if you go slow and the flail mower is running at least 3/4 max out. Those machines are belt driven. I have extra belts on me when I use my machine. The machine is certainly durable enough to handle the job.

 

[pycoed]

You won't be able to drive the quad slow enough to cut the rushes with those. My neighbour had one & half ruined his quad trying to get through heavy growth. Luckily it was stolen soon after.
The flail will need to go at 1 mph max to do it & the quad will overheat trying to pull it on any sort of slope or bog (we have both! - not perhaps as testing as Galway tho')

 

[brigadoon]

Hi folks,

Posting in this section as that's where I figure the most experience with rushes will be

I'm thinking of renting an ATV flail mower for a week. The selection is precisely 1 make and model

I'll attach a photo, I wonder if they're any use on heavy rushes before I waste a week and some €?

Thanks

Absolute waste of time in heavy rushes - get yourself some spare drive belts because you will need them

If you want to treat them now then use a weedwiper, otherwise wait till the ground dries and mow them.

Once you have mowed them or dosed them then that toy may be of some use but its not likely

 

[steveR]

I had one of the Wessex V twin toppers years ago and found it a complete waste of time as the quads ( I used it with 2) were just too quick, and that was topping rough grass.

Blades need to be razor sharp, disc grinder needed through the day I'd say on your landscapes there @JohnGalway

 

[JohnGalway]

OK, I figure that answers that, the rushes would be fairly mature!

 

[Muddyroads]

I borrowed an FM150 as @DanM has mentioned. It did a pretty good job but worked hard. You’ll get through some petrol and will have to go in opposing directions as the wheels at the sides will flatten the rushes. As mentioned elsewhere, a wiper will do a better long term job. If you can’t wipe (we can’t as organic), then cut and clear is better in my opinion. If you can get it dry enough it makes reasonable bedding and cheaper than straw. Leaving thick cut toppings on the ground will smother the grass which should be competing with the rushes.

 

[JohnGalway]

Yeah, not leaving cut rushes on top was the reason I was thinking mulcher rather than topper etc.

 

[sheepdogtrail]

Luckily it was stolen soon after.

The Flail or the ATV? sh!t...they should have taken the rushes for a proper job. barstewards.

 

[Will 1594]

Wait till hay time ,top them with an old mower ,and bale them ,then when some fresh regrowth ,weed wipe ,and some lime on it

 

[Ffermer Bach]

If I were not organic, I would weed wipe (best with roundup), then top them all later (to tidy the job up and get rid of the dead rushes). I topped mature rushes here with topper and found low first gear in the renault 106 was too fast and kept breaking shear bolts. Have tried "mob" grazing the cattle on the rush ground and to be fair it has thinned them out far more than topping ever did.

 

[Muddyroads]

Yeah, not leaving cut rushes on top was the reason I was thinking mulcher rather than topper etc.

The mulcher will still leave the rushes there though. Clearing them by baling gives the grass a better chance to grow and compete.

 

[JohnGalway]

The mulcher will still leave the rushes there though. Clearing them by baling gives the grass a better chance to grow and compete.

Balers aren't common where I farm

 

[Adam@Rumen]

We've been trying to nail them over recent years. Findings...

Topping on its own is a waste of time, next year they will look exactly the same
Mowing and baling thinned them out fairly well, not a bad idea for organic
Weed wiping straight onto older established rushes had limited success

Best is to top/mow and wipe or preferably spray the regrowth.

This years target is soil PH with lime

 

[JohnGalway]

Unfortunately I'm already resigned to the fact I will have to spray them initially. I'm also going to drain this field, the neighbour has agreed to open his drain to let the water flow better also, but the digger man refuses to go in before the rushes are moved out

I'm not going to lime, I'm going to approach soil fertility a different way.

In my youth, a two wheel drive ford escort estate I think it may have been was able to drive on this field pulling small stacks of hay on a old car bonnet.

Crazy as it would seem to anyone who knows the field I have designs on putting in a market garden.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Unfortunately I'm already resigned to the fact I will have to spray them initially. I'm also going to drain this field, the neighbour has agreed to open his drain to let the water flow better also, but the digger man refuses to go in before the rushes are moved out

I'm not going to lime, I'm going to approach soil fertility a different way.

In my youth, a two wheel drive ford escort estate I think it may have been was able to drive on this field pulling small stacks of hay on a old car bonnet.

Crazy as it would seem to anyone who knows the field I have designs on putting in a market garden.

lots of rushes here, and I have just had a farming connect soil test done over the farm, findings were, P, K, pH, Mg are all fine (he said, basically keep doing what you are doing as your soil indices are fine, and re test in five years when you will need lime again), so in its self lime does not get rid of the rushes. Nitrogen will allow the grass to outcompete them, but as organic, am not able to do that. I think keeping the ditches running is important.

 

[deleted user 837354]

No good spraying any chemical on mature growth now.

Top the rushes as low as you can now.

By June, they will haver regrown back hard- lovely green and much softer growth. Spray or wipe them then. If spraying use at or near maximum dose of 2,4D and MCPA. Use an adjuvant and good steady spraying.