Have about 885 acres in LaSalle County and I would like to clear a good chunk (400-500 acres) for fields while leaving some cover.

Debating two options but have to choose quickly due to application timing.

Option 1: Aerial Spray Sendero all 885 acres with heaviest concentrations where I would like to have cleared feed senderos or fields....wait a year, then go in with a dozer and clear and stack

Option 2: Clear and stack, seed, then treat re-sprout afterwards with Sendero from booms from truck or tractor.

We would like to continue a little hunting in upcoming years, but I need more land cleared and more grass for Cattle as well. Hence the 50/50 ratio I am targeting.\

Any guys out there experts on mesquite/Sendero?

I've got more experience than I'd like to have. PM me we can talk offline if you'd like. I've used pretty much every common method out there - cut stump, remedy/diesel, sendero, grubbing with a back hoe, and have seen good and bad results with aerial sendero. It's complicated - your land goals, brush size and density, available time, $, personnel. Each method has its plus and minuses you'll need to consider. If you haven't contacted your county NRCS I'd also suggest doing that as well. The aerial spraying has a niche and it's not clear based on your info whether that would be best for you.

Allen76 will hopefully show up and chime in.

Welcome to the mesquite killing club, there need to be more of us!

Don't have any experience with aerial applications, but we've been using sendero at my dad's place for awhile now. His pastures are pretty well maintained so it isn't like we are spraying 10 acre blocks of nothing but mesquites, but for smaller trees and lighter density areas it does do well. Have had mixed results on bigger established trees just by spraying, tend to get a much better result if you cut it down and spray the stump with diesel/remedy.

ag94whoop said:

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Have about 885 acres in LaSalle County and I would like to clear a good chunk (400-500 acres) for fields while leaving some cover.

Debating two options but have to choose quickly due to application timing.

Option 1: Aerial Spray Sendero all 885 acres with heaviest concentrations where I would like to have cleared feed senderos or fields....wait a year, then go in with a dozer and clear and stack

Option 2: Clear and stack, seed, then treat re-sprout afterwards with Sendero from booms from truck or tractor.

We would like to continue a little hunting in upcoming years, but I need more land cleared and more grass for Cattle as well. Hence the 50/50 ratio I am targeting.\

Any guys out there experts on mesquite/Sendero?

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2 is NOT a good option - the resprouts would kill you. If wildlife is part of your operation, you darn sure don't want to spray all the acreage - especially if there are large mesquites and mixed brush species. Does the thought of fire frighten you? Option 1 with a burn a couple of years later might do the trick. Check with Kathrine Menke with the NRCS in Cotulla. She's good people and you might get government $ to help out. Tell her the short Aggie in Calallen sent you.

Thanks for the input guys

Here is the deal. My cousins and I split up our ranch. My portion has only 1 field, a 50 acre field. The rest is literally 80 years of mesquite growth. I don't have many options for the shear amount of mesquite. I mean it's almost too thick for even heavy deer traffic now.

When the Senderos and seismic paths have been cut in the past, they just bulldozed them. They generally took a few years to start filling in. I figured if I did the same thing, but clearing 30-50 acre patches totally about 400 acres, I could then disk it and then when regrowth starts back, go back in with floater trucks and Sendero.

I'm a little concerned that aerial spraying will be sloppy and not get a great kill rate anyway

so. how big of mesquites we talkin'?

800 acres of mesquite ranging from 5-15'
Sone bigger

Land hasn't been worked in years and years

If you spray some whiskey on it, the Baptist's will...oh wait, never mind, that's Johnson grass

ag94,

I'm with B-1. Kill those damn things first, then worry about removing them.

I saw a field where a guy hired in a hydro axe to take out the mesquites, and within a short time it was a mess again. He had 'planned' to spray later, but never got around to it.

My experience killing mesquites has been on much smaller tracts than what you have, and we've always used the diesel + 61% triclopyr (Remedy) basal spray method.

It's been over 90% effective, and can kill some very large mesquites. I can't imagine, however, doing that on 800 acres.

Allen76 is pretty sold on Sendero, but I don't think he's sprayed it from an airplane, though.

Good luck. Texas has so many acres infested with mesquite right now. I pass by areas that were once fairly good pastureland and they're just covered in the stuff from years of neglect.

How much money do you have?

IF you hire a dozer, you have to root plow it. Figure about $400/acre. Otherwise you are just pissing the mesquite off. It also depends what grass you have and whether the grass will take over if you spray it. Grass planting isn't cheap or easy.

You need to leave sprayed fields alone for 2 years after spraying according to the Sendero rep.

Happy to discuss offline if you have questions about my recent experience.

You really should figure out your crossfencing situation and make a plan for long term maintenance prior to dropping a dollar.

Agree with you completely. This is why the OP should contact NRCS. They will come out and meet with you, do a survey, and use aerial maps to plan cross fences. You can apply for NRCS $. Sounds like you want to do exactly what we have in progress on our place. Partnered with NRCS to clear several large tracts to open up grazing opportunities while still maintaining a lot of heavy mesquite for deer and other wildlife. Then the plan is to re-seed those areas with a blend of native grasses and forbes. Purpose of cross fencing is to do it in stages, as you can't graze those areas that are re-sod for 1-3 years depending on survey. So you can still graze some of your property while waiting for grasses to establish.

On the aerial spraying of sendero - it's not uniformly effective. The landowner south of us got lucky and had a 90% kill with very few half-killed trees. But I know of several places in our county where at least 1/3 of the trees were 1/2 kills - the tops are dead but the rest of the tree survives. This looks terrible and the tree is still alive, yes you get more grass growth but it's the worst case scenario if you're trying to get a complete kill and good looking property. When you have large and heavy infestations, it's very difficult to get full contact with every leaf, which is what's needed with sendero.

This is where budget, manpower, skid steer/tractor/UTV, personnel or available man hours come in. A quick areal spray isn't likely going to be what you're looking for if you want a combo grazing and hunting property.

I really like our NRCS rep, and his take on aerial spraying sendero is that it's great for property owners that have medium to high infestations and who are solely interested in increased grazing opportunities for cattle, many times as remote land owners. He says that if you want to look at your property and enjoy the aesthetics of your brush control, don't spray sendero from a plane bc many tracts end up with a ton of those bizarre 1/2 kill trees. You'll likely need a combo of sendero sprayed by tractor or UTV with a wand for your roads and fence lines, diesel/remedy as basilar or cut stump, and some grubbing and backfilling.

Happy to answer more questions if you have them.

I use the cut down tree and spray stump method. Very successful kill rate.

I agree with everyone saying NRCS. They have programs that can help reduce cost out of pocket to the landowner.

Removing the tops of the trees and then expecting to kill a mature, established root system with a tiny amount of foliage up top to absorb the chemical is a recipe for disaster. You should root plow if you go that route. I know the stump spray method works for smaller trees, but for larger ones I would imagine you'd get runners popping up from the root ball underground from roots that didn't die. It also might get expensive rather quickly on a stand of large, dense trees. Not that root plowing is cheaper, but it's more of a sure thing.

From a wildlife perspective, I would inquire about the aerial sendero/clean up burn idea and what experience they have with it now. Sendero is relatively new.

One more thing: You didn't say "huisache", which is a big deal. Or it will be once you take all the mesquite out. Sendero doesn't touch it.

Kathryn Menke is the NRCS conservationist for La Salle County. Office is off of Main St. in Cotulla. I have always enjoyed working with her. She will also be the best resource on EQIP availability.

Man, this is a club I really wish I wasn't a member of.....

Good stuff here. Bookmarked.

Heres a little help of what we are doing on a much smaller scale. we originally had about 150 acres of the best coastal around and then after my great grandpa passed the farm withered away. In 10-15 years the brush has overcame the entire field leaving us with thick 10-20' tall mesquite brush.

Our initial efforts consisted of remedy and diesel but over time the diesel has killed our sprayers and getting that remedy on you just doesn't sound too safe for me long term.

What we have found success in and what we are doing now is the sendero kill which has been super effective. What we do is every winter we cut acres of mesquite trees about 4-6' from the ground and then let them sprout in the spring so when we spray them in the heat of June/July all of the spray is concentrated onto such a small surface area and we aren't reaching all the way up to hit every leaf. We have done this method for only a year now and have effectively killed, stacked and burned away 20 acres of this brush. Which has really helped our coastal start spreading with the cows grazing it.

Time for us isn't the issue clearly and I understand you have a "much bigger" issue than us. But at some point if you find yourself battling the mesquites on foot this is an option we have found that works for us in Stockdale, TX

Just DM agrams. From what I can gather he can control your Mesquite problem and you will be left with a 800 acres of beautiful furniture.

I thought about borrowing my cousins industrial chipper and starting a business selling mesquite chips

Quote:

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Just DM agrams. From what I can gather he can control your Mesquite problem and you will be left with a 800 acres of beautiful furniture.

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Maybe some brilliant scientist will uncover a myriad of life saving cures from mesquite bark and send droves or workers to cultivate and clear them all out....

The pods supposedly have more protein than soybeans so the problem would be that folks wouldn't want to clear them but instead harvest them. So really, what you wanna do is rope off the sections you want cleared and then for the rest, leave the mesquite. Then harvest the pods, crush them into meal and roll out your own brand of Mighty Mesquite Meal that you have mixed with nuts et al to make a breakfast cereal. It replaces the grain-of-the-month quinoa and with a little marketing to the crunchy crowd about the health benefits, you've got success. Use those funds to pay for the clear out of the rest of the mesquite and by the time the mesquite fad passes, Aggrams can come pick out his wood and you can chop down the rest.


Can't you just see it? Get the little tree from Guardians of the Galaxy to be your Mighty Mesquite mascot and you'll be money! Just remember the rule of get in, sell and get out and you are on your way.

RanchAg said:

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Kathryn Menke is the NRCS conservationist for La Salle County. Office is off of Main St. in Cotulla. I have always enjoyed working with her. She will also be the best resource on EQIP availability.

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She's one of my best running buddies.

Give M&D Aerial a call.

They can walk through all options, he travels the state doing this work and will be honest about it.

www.mdaerial.com
806-202-2360

Can I talk to you about mesquite control. 713 874 4678. Land is in Muldoon tx

ejdugi said:

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Heres a little help of what we are doing on a much smaller scale. we originally had about 150 acres of the best coastal around and then after my great grandpa passed the farm withered away. In 10-15 years the brush has overcame the entire field leaving us with thick 10-20' tall mesquite brush.

Our initial efforts consisted of remedy and diesel but over time the diesel has killed our sprayers and getting that remedy on you just doesn't sound too safe for me long term.

What we have found success in and what we are doing now is the sendero kill which has been super effective. What we do is every winter we cut acres of mesquite trees about 4-6' from the ground and then let them sprout in the spring so when we spray them in the heat of June/July all of the spray is concentrated onto such a small surface area and we aren't reaching all the way up to hit every leaf. We have done this method for only a year now and have effectively killed, stacked and burned away 20 acres of this brush. Which has really helped our coastal start spreading with the cows grazing it.

Time for us isn't the issue clearly and I understand you have a "much bigger" issue than us. But at some point if you find yourself battling the mesquites on foot this is an option we have found that works for us in Stockdale, TX

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If you're going to do this, you might as well cut them off flush at the ground and do the remedy/diesel stump treatment. It is highly effective, even on multi-stem mesquite. The trick is you have to treat EVERY SINGLE CUT, and it has to be done right away. I'm surprised you get that much success on re-sprouts, because I'd think you don't have enough leaf canopy to get enough herbicide into the plant.