Burn baby burn!

[yoderjac]

We used to hire a certified burner to oversee our controlled burns and provide the labor ourselves. Now that most of the owners are aging, we are backing off from that. We hired a company to conduct our last couple burns. We did nothing for that not even prep because we were timbering at the time and had a contract to put firebreaks around our new bedding clear-cuts.

We met with the certified burner today. We plan to execute 3 burns in 2026. Two of those burns will need very little prep if any. I'll probably run our fired disk around the perimeter just to be cautious. Our plan is to burn an older 8 acre clearcut and a new 5 acre clearcut in late March or early April. Then we have another 10 acre clearcut. While we did not have a lot of success with our previous warm season burn, we plan to try another warm season burn on that 10 acres. The failed warm season burn was on a NE facing slope and had a lot of hardwood growth and little broom sedge to carry fire. We had a hard time with it carrying fire and the burn was pretty cold. That area was small and we finally decided the effort to set it back is not worth the cost and effort. The 10 acres where we are planning to do the warm season burn is a SW facing slope and is full of broom sedge. It should carry fire well and burn much hotter.

I'll report back after we execute. For now, it was just great to get out into the field on a beautiful day!

 

[buckdeer1]

Let us know how it goes,are you going to spray broomsedge after it starts coming back or will you just fertilize and try to choke it out.

 

[yoderjac]

Let us know how it goes,are you going to spray broomsedge after it starts coming back or will you just fertilize and try to choke it out.

Oh no, I love broomsedge bluestem in a bedding area. It provides great cover. The certified burner asked about seeding other warm season grasses from his drone. I don't really think it is worth it. While it would add some diversity, the broomsedge bluestem is the natural warm season native grass in our area. Broomsedge is a bunch grass so even when it dominates, it does not inhibit other growth like a turf grass.
I consider broomsedge and asset.