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Frost:

L

loneranger

Well-Known Member
Diggin holes, movin trees,,out in my field today. Frost completely gone. Can Ticks be far behind? I think not. This is SE Iowa.
 
You are lucky. Always hold my breath during March,,hoping it does not stay warm too long,, and bring all my fruit buds out,,then,,WHAM,,a nice hard freeze:mad: Last year was touch and GO, but stayed cold just enough until Mid April,,then warmed for good. Had more frost in ground at this date last year. Some snow piles at least until Mid-March. This Spring may be a warm one?
 
Ticks are right on your heal, as the temps climb above freezing so do they. My dog had one on her yesterday already!
 
Daver said:
Now we're talking!! :D I actually started to make some fire breaks this past Saturday. I may be able to get the ol' drip torch in a couple of weeks.
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Hey Daver, how do you make your fire breaks? Is a strip 8 foot wide, lightly disked, enough?
 
JayEC said:
Hey Daver, how do you make your fire breaks? Is a strip 8 foot wide, lightly disked, enough?
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Light discing often leaves a lot of material that can carry fire, yet... And might leave the ground real rough. I'd either disk it black or if you have the resources, mow it short and lay down a wetline. Lots of ways to skin that cat.
 
JayEC said:
Hey Daver, how do you make your fire breaks? Is a strip 8 foot wide, lightly disked, enough?
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Disclaimer!!! I am not sure I am the best reference for making fire breaks! :D You see, I maaaayy have had a couple of "escapes" over the years. :D

But seriously, there is a lot that could be written about this subject. Here are some quick thoughts...

In the timber burns...fire breaks are easy IMO.

1. I have used a regular riding lawnmower to create a dirt line by simply going back and forth a couple times discharging the chaff such that an approximate 4'-6' dirt line is established. (In most timber burns I think you could probably stop a normal "leaf" fire with about 12" of a break, but to be safe, I like them about 6'.)

2. Alternatively, use a leaf blower and create the dirt line, again about 4' - 6' wide. I also will use the leaf blower to walk through the area to burn and blow leaves away from trees, deadfalls, etc, that I do not want the flames to touch. This is easy to do and goes pretty fast.

3. Otherwise, in the timber, I rely on creeks and ditches to stop a creeping fire too.

In the CRP, things can vary much more IMO. What I will write below applies mostly to brome fields and other, shorter grass/weeds. If you are burning a tall patch of CIR switchgrass...you probably should about triple everything...for real.

I have done it many ways, some better than others. But in the years before I had a real tractor and better equipment, I would do the following...

1. Use a riding mower, or pull behind mower, to mow the brome down as low as you can, with about a 10' width. I sometimes used an ATV disk to further scuff the break and expose more bare dirt. I also sometimes mowed these in advance of the planned burn and the newly cut break would green up in a week or so, adding more protection from fire creeping across it.

If you mow and then immediately burn...you ought to disk too, as strands of the grass that is too low for the mower to cut will serve as "fingers" later for the fire to creep across. I have been, pardon the pun, "burned" before by "creepers". Bare dirt is the best, no doubt.

2. Now, I hook a 6' wide mower to my tractor and make two passes to give me about an 11'-12' wide swath. I then lightly disk with a 6' disk and I haven't come close to having a fire creep across a berak when done that way.

Huge caveat...and yes, I once learned this lesson the hard way...:D

Do not place your breaks, no matter how wide and how well made, on the downslope, or at the bottom of the slope, of the lee side of a hill. I once watched a backfire that I set creep slowly uphill, into the wind and once the fire crested the hill, the stiff breeze shot some embers up, up into the air and then back down again...about 30'-40' away...BEHIND my fire break!!! Yikes!!

I would have lost that fire under those circumstances no matter how wide my breaks would have been. You have to consider the terrain too when placing breaks.
 
DannyBoy said:
Light discing often leaves a lot of material that can carry fire, yet... And might leave the ground real rough. I'd either disk it black or if you have the resources, mow it short and lay down a wetline. Lots of ways to skin that cat.
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Another very good way to approach this. Do you have a sprayer for your ATV or tractor? If so, easy peasy. Doing a larger burn with a backpack sprayer, while I have done it, is tedious.
 
We've done a number of techniques on CRP also. Most recent, and current, far & away favorite technique is about 3 passes with a bush hog mower to get a nice wide mowed strip and then a slow pass around it all with a 6' tiller to get a good, very black break. Then we babysit 2 sides of the fire with a sprayer on a tractor & another on a Gator. Lotta prep work but it sure makes the burn more "un-exciting". ;)
 
Horse Doctor leads me to another point. Often babysitting breaks/wet lines can simply get too hot. A good way to get around this would be to disk/till the outside of the field(s), then mow a few passes inside of your black line. If you light your backing or head fire off that mowed/disced line, the fire will be much less intense and much more manageable. Once it gets to the un-mowed portion, it will obviously take off, but by then you will have PLENTY of black. You will use a LOT less water this way, which is often a concern with backpacks and small atv sprayers.
 
Good info here guys...another thing I didn't really explain well. Whenever possible I will mow fire breaks the fall before the spring burn. That way, your "greening factor" will be higher when stuff starts to grow in the spring, as the shorter grass will begin greening sooner in the spring and you will have less dead duff there in the mowed break for fuel.
 
Central Iowa said:
And from lessons I have learned keep a long ways from any cedars you want too keep!!!!
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I have learned that lesson too. :D However, I have deliberately burned right through cedars without damaging them too. The key is to cut enough of the lower limbs AND remove them from underneath the tree. Go approximately 2' up the trunk, or high enough that whatever grass/vegetation is underneath the tree can't reach the lowest limbs.

A "limbed" cedar is fairly immune to catching on fire, but a tree with the grass you are intending to burn off that has grown up into the lower limbs...total torch waiting to happen.
 
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