The Hedge Cutting Thread

[Grassman]

Wrong time of year to revive this thread I know but I'm looking at buying a hedge cutter for the first time this back end. Not loads to do, only 300 acre farm, but got tractor and time through winter to go when conditions suit. Seen a tidy machine but only 5 meter reach, do people find this too small? 130hp tractor & hedges not too overgrown.

Plenty big enough for most situations

 

[jd24]

Yeah fine if you can get up to the hedge but if you have any roadside hedges with verges just get someone with a big one to do it. Road side is stressful or the drivers are just tossers

 

[Funny Farmer]

Would like to see the health and safety method statement and risk assessment for the cutting public roadside hedges!

 

[Grassman]

Would like to see the health and safety method statement and risk assessment for the cutting public roadside hedges!

Yes. It's a crazy job having a dangerous machine operating on a road and throwing debris out. I hate doing roads now. Little country lanes are ok but others are dodgy.
The most risky is cutting the inside of a roadside hedge with debris going out on to the road. I doubt any other industry would allow it.

 

[jd24]

I am signs a plenty but they are invisible to most drivers. They still honk their horns and swerve at 70mph round a blind bend. l still have nightmares about the cyclist that went under the arm when I was side cutting the hedge.

 

[Funny Farmer]

Yes. It's a crazy job having a dangerous machine operating on a road and throwing debris out. I hate doing roads now. Little country lanes are ok but others are dodgy.
The most risky is cutting the inside of a roadside hedge with debris going out on to the road. I doubt any other industry would allow it.

Don't know what the answer is - didn't someone come up with a collector a bit ago?

 

[jd24]

Yes. It's a crazy job having a dangerous machine operating on a road and throwing debris out. I hate doing roads now. Little country lanes are ok but others are dodgy.
The most risky is cutting the inside of a roadside hedge with debris going out on to the road. I doubt any other industry would allow it.

I have a big petrol leaf blower mounted of the opposite side step its directed down the side of the tractor in a drainpipe. I then bent and shaped it with heat to a nozzle. The control is the cab. I can get a very clear road by only taking small amounts off on each pass and revving the balls off the blower lol

 

[robs1]

Would like to see the health and safety method statement and risk assessment for the cutting public roadside hedges!

Bigger risk not cutting them

 

[jd24]

Bigger risk not cutting them

Damned if you do damned if you dont

 

[James]

Wrong time of year to revive this thread I know but I'm looking at buying a hedge cutter for the first time this back end. Not loads to do, only 300 acre farm, but got tractor and time through winter to go when conditions suit. Seen a tidy machine but only 5 meter reach, do people find this too small? 130hp tractor & hedges not too overgrown.

You can never have enough reach.
5.5 -6m is a good size.

 

[Gulli]

I am signs a plenty but they are invisible to most drivers. They still honk their horns and swerve at 70mph round a blind bend. l still have nightmares about the cyclist that went under the arm when I was side cutting the hedge.

I had one go between the header and the bank when out trimming verges once, luckily for him it was slowing down as I just switched off and pulled into a junction to let a lorry by

 

[Lofty1984]

Any one noticing lots of wasps nests about still while trimming just last night had another one they were attacking the tractor something fierce glad I didn’t need to get out

 

[Still Farming]

Glad to pressure wash and take off.

That's Done for another year.

 

[Lofty1984]

Glad to pressure wash and take off.

That's Done for another year.

Lucky you my list keeps getting longer

 

[Still Farming]

Lucky you my list keeps getting longer

Go slower?

 

[Ali_Maxxum]

Does anyone else really wonder about the future of annual hedge trimming? Or is it just me?

With all these environmental things being pushed, possible farmers going to be incentivised to leave, to not cut for X number of years or leave to grow up and coppice/lay, not to mention the shear cost of doing it now, £45-50+?/hr it does make you wonder.

We used to do some 650hrs a season of it, we're now about just over 400. Lost one farm to rewilding, others have gone elsewhere due to timing and cost. I dunno, I can see some just going with it for this year, but it certainly isn't going to get any cheaper. We've priced up a new trimmer for next season and the cost of the thing is absolutely eye watering.

 

[ARW]

Does anyone else really wonder about the future of annual hedge trimming? Or is it just me?

With all these environmental things being pushed, possible farmers going to be incentivised to leave, to not cut for X number of years or leave to grow up and coppice/lay, not to mention the shear cost of doing it now, £45-50+?/hr it does make you wonder.

We used to do some 650hrs a season of it, we're now about just over 400. Lost one farm to rewilding, others have gone elsewhere due to timing and cost. I dunno, I can see some just going with it for this year, but it certainly isn't going to get any cheaper. We've priced up a new trimmer for next season and the cost of the thing is absolutely eye watering.

We are the opposite here, more and more trimming annually for the benefit of a good hedge, costs are huge but there’s no one else out there doing it, there’s only a few of us and we are run off our feet

 

[robs1]

Any one noticing lots of wasps nests about still while trimming just last night had another one they were attacking the tractor something fierce glad I didn’t need to get out

Had one trying to get in the house this week, was trimming bu some bee hives friday lots out flying

 

[Goweresque]

Does anyone else really wonder about the future of annual hedge trimming? Or is it just me?

With all these environmental things being pushed, possible farmers going to be incentivised to leave, to not cut for X number of years or leave to grow up and coppice/lay, not to mention the shear cost of doing it now, £45-50+?/hr it does make you wonder.

We used to do some 650hrs a season of it, we're now about just over 400. Lost one farm to rewilding, others have gone elsewhere due to timing and cost. I dunno, I can see some just going with it for this year, but it certainly isn't going to get any cheaper. We've priced up a new trimmer for next season and the cost of the thing is absolutely eye watering.

Its one of those swings and roundabouts things. Its costs me about £5k/yr in contracting charges to have my hedges trimmed, and thats not the whole farm each year, thats road sides every year and the rest every other year. If I left it to grow I'd save some of that each year. Not all because if I left the road sides I'd soon have the council on my back, so I'm going to have to pay for that regardless. But I could probably cut 75% off

But then after 10-15 years I'd have massively overgrown hedges, I'd have lost god knows how many acres to hedges spreading into the field, and then be faced with how to manage the out of control growth. And thats going to probably be as expensive as the annual flailing bill was.

Fifteen years ago when I took over my place from my father, the hedges were in a right state, having been largely left for 20 years prior to that, with just occasional side trimming to reduce the worst of the sideways spread. Its taken me over a decade of working each winter to get most of the hedges back under management. Thats a lot of hours on the excavator with a tree shear, a lot of chain sawing, a lot of hours on the telehandler pushing up and burning brushwood and generally tidying up to achieve it. Some of it is my time, some contractors (the chainsawing mainly), all of it my machinery. But I'd have put that annual cost at somewhere in the same ball park as my hedge flailing bill now.

So it seems to me that you could take a holiday from hedge cutting, save X thousands of pounds per year, only in 10-15 years time to have to spend the same amount of money per year sorting out the resultant mess. I guess that the savings in the here and now could make a difference if times are really hard. But the reality is you're just skimping on maintenance which will cost you eventually.

 

[Lofty1984]

Its one of those swings and roundabouts things. Its costs me about £5k/yr in contracting charges to have my hedges trimmed, and thats not the whole farm each year, thats road sides every year and the rest every other year. If I left it to grow I'd save some of that each year. Not all because if I left the road sides I'd soon have the council on my back, so I'm going to have to pay for that regardless. But I could probably cut 75% off

But then after 10-15 years I'd have massively overgrown hedges, I'd have lost god knows how many acres to hedges spreading into the field, and then be faced with how to manage the out of control growth. And thats going to probably be as expensive as the annual flailing bill was.

Fifteen years ago when I took over my place from my father, the hedges were in a right state, having been largely left for 20 years prior to that, with just occasional side trimming to reduce the worst of the sideways spread. Its taken me over a decade of working each winter to get most of the hedges back under management. Thats a lot of hours on the excavator with a tree shear, a lot of chain sawing, a lot of hours on the telehandler pushing up and burning brushwood and generally tidying up to achieve it. Some of it is my time, some contractors (the chainsawing mainly), all of it my machinery. But I'd have put that annual cost at somewhere in the same ball park as my hedge flailing bill now.

So it seems to me that you could take a holiday from hedge cutting, save X thousands of pounds per year, only in 10-15 years time to have to spend the same amount of money per year sorting out the resultant mess. I guess that the savings in the here and now could make a difference if times are really hard. But the reality is you're just skimping on maintenance which will cost you eventually.

Bet you get allot of satisfaction seeing them neatly trimmed now after the mess they were in when you took over