Weed Wiper and RTV

bordercollie

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Well, the Roto weed wiper and the RTV are hard at work again. I am just along for the ride . Got the headphones tuned to the KLOVE Christian Contemporary (soft rock) station and am just having a thoughtful time ,out there by myself,thinking about all of the things that have been going on the last year and a half.
AnywaY, MS State has a study they conducted with a rotowiper -to control or suppress smutgrass. ( It is a nearly unkillable invasive species introduced to the US) http://forages.pss.msstate.edu/poster07.pdf
The MSU information is very promising and renewed my interest and the b-i-l's pocketbook to try and get a hold on this weed. Velpar is a chemical that has potential but is $275 for a 2 and 1/2 gallon jug. However , it is very ticky about application-- 30 gallons of broadcast mix per acre- keep away from trees, apply just before rain- yea, in the summer in the south...ha.. I used about half a jug of it just spot spraying a mix of it with water as recommended and it did no better that spot spraying with round up.. The only good thing is it won't kill bermuda and some other grasses it gets on but will kill trees dead by translocation through the soil. On the other hand ,Round up (generic) is about $45 for 2 and 1/2 gallon of 41%. And can be wiped on weeds using a 50/50 mix with good results.The wiper is a lot faster than spot spraying and some pastures are so over run with this weed that it would be impossible to spot spray anyway. Here are a few pictures showing a swipe through one pasture a couple of weeks afterwards. That is NOT where a mower has been... just me , the trusty old RTV and the weedwiper with a mix of generic round up. It is very obvious and encouraged me to pursue my efforts.
I also had to replace the rubber strip on the wiper this year so here is a picture of that.Also included a picture of the cylinders I added to the wiper last year, since I could utilize the hydraulics on the RTV. I would never be able to use the wiper other wise... just too many different heights of grass in the pasture-- bordercollie
 

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pepr

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Oh, how thought provoking is farming, be it riding a horse, an RTV, or a tractor. Heck, even chopping soybeans can provide such a thinking opportunity.

Great pictures Bordercollie. What created the clean strips in the field picture? Also, I must say that the sledge hammer on the bench seems a little out of place. What that thumb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

D&D Farm

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Looks like the test patches/strips are proving the way to go.......Does anything forage/graze on smutgrass?...........Hope we don't have nor get it over here.........For me, gettin away from the building of barns and fence lines and being able to watch the grass grow is prime time necessary...........What do the folks in the apartments, condos, sub-divisions, office buildings, and stuck in traffic do?.......lol......watch the news in the next few days after the results of a guy defending himself become fodder for those pent up folks that the best meditating they do is to destroy..........lol...hope that makes sense........God bless........Dennis
 

TWO GUNS

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Great Work Bordercollie !!!!
Your BIL is a lucky man to have you on the farm !!!!
..... and we, are blessed to have you as a friend !!!!
 

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71sschevelle

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B C , are you seeing very many round up resistant weeds growing in your fields? We are getting quite a bit of a weed called mares tail. Anyone know what to use to get rid of them?
 

TWO GUNS

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B C , are you seeing very many round up resistant weeds growing in your fields? We are getting quite a bit of a weed called mares tail. Anyone know what to use to get rid of them?

Have you tried some 2,4-D ? ( not to be used around cotton )

Prowl ? Prowl herbicide is a liquid based pre-emergent weed killer that kills small weeds and prevents additional weeds from growing. But works well for many other applications.

There are many plants that has become resistant to herbicides. Marestail is become resistant in many areas.
Marestail, it is also called Horseweed ....
For decades the plow and the hoe kept fields clean. While the tools may have been pushed to the back of the shed, plowing may be the only defense to weeds that develop resistance to available herbicides. Some people are actually
pulling weeds by hand in fields, for there is nothing working in some areas....
This has been even said by experts in seminars on herbicides......
Our top four weeds of concern are morningglories, hemp sesbania, pigweed and annual grasses, many weeds might be already be headed to glyphosate-resistant status.
Farmers don’t want to get the plows back out, but that could the only option on some weeds. It's done become a battle !!!!

......... two guns :starbucks:
 

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bordercollie

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Oh, how thought provoking is farming, be it riding a horse, an RTV, or a tractor. Heck, even chopping soybeans can provide such a thinking opportunity.

Great pictures Bordercollie. What created the clean strips in the field picture? Also, I must say that the sledge hammer on the bench seems a little out of place. What that thumb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those clean strips were wiped in one direction and about 4 inches off the ground so that the grass below wasn't touched with the generic round up. If I remember right, the tall weeds died and were crispy... Then the cows got in the pasture and walked it over - the dead stuff just crumbled away-
Pepr, that work table is a 4x8 sheet of heavy steel that my Daddy made and used till he got sick, then he gave it to us to use here. It is sure handy to pound on with that shop hammer. I had to pound that holding strip with it because it was all bent . ;)
Dennis, that smutgrass is terrible when mature although it is barely decent cattle nibbles when very young at the first of spring. Once it is mature, it will dull sharp clipper blades fast.There is no way to pull it up. The plant looks like a tufted piece of grass and just gets bigger and bigger till it smothers out most everything else. Hate that stuff.
Two Guns, Thank you! He give me a real nice Christmas bonus every year. :) I treat his place like it is mine- watching , working and being a good shepherd.
71sschevelle, I haven't had much dealings with that but think the pigweed and milkweed seem a lot harder to kill this year. My neighbor is a big row cropper and told me "Mont" pays something on chemicals to catch anything that slips past their RR ready crop spray.. I forgot what he called it but it is happening elsewhere and Mont is trying to keep it from proliferating .. :( Most all of the weeds that are giving trouble here in the US are not native....
I am going to Ark in the morning to do some work on the house so will catch ya'll when I get back. No net over there.... I spent part of the afternoon today building a HDTV fringe area antenna with 20 elements to use over there ...hope it works as I dislike and can't handle the quiet house...Thank you for the interest and friendship. bordercollie
 

71sschevelle

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Bordercollie/two guns thanks for helpful responses. I have some 24d e that I am going to try on the mares tail. Will pass on the results
 

Keifer

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BC
Thanks for the photos and the update on the farming activities.
Keifer
 

luvbus

New member
Hi Bordercollie,

Is your weed wiper gravity fed or does it use a pump? I take it has a spray or dribble bar onto a carpet covered roller?

I have been eyeing one up to go behind my '900 to take care of nettles, docks & thistles on some hay meadow I would like to encourage wild flowers where Grazon etc would wipe out what I'd like to keep.

The downside is off the shelf roller type wipers in the UK start at £1500 and go up to double that. Another option is to fabricate one if I can get the parts for the right price.....

Thanks in advance,

Rich
 

bordercollie

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Hi Bordercollie,

Is your weed wiper gravity fed or does it use a pump? I take it has a spray or dribble bar onto a carpet covered roller?

I have been eyeing one up to go behind my '900 to take care of nettles, docks & thistles on some hay meadow I would like to encourage wild flowers where Grazon etc would wipe out what I'd like to keep.

The downside is off the shelf roller type wipers in the UK start at £1500 and go up to double that. Another option is to fabricate one if I can get the parts for the right price.....

Thanks in advance,

Rich

Hi, You are sure right about the price. Yes it has a pump with a hand operated push button switch. There is a pex like hose under the hood that has small jets that spray onto the carpet.I am thinking, if I remember right, that number about ten. They aren't even real t jets but little emitters really. As much as it costs. I thought it would have real t jets instead of those little cheapo things.... The biggest pain about this roto wiper is the manual height adjustment.... When I first got it,I would have to turn a big nut, partial turns because of the tight spot, on each side to get the height right at each patch of grass. That is why I added hydraulic cylinders. . If you don't have a bunch of pasture, Have you considered just a pipe wick? I found some great instructions for one that I can dig up if you are interested. bordrcollie
 

luvbus

New member
Hello Boardercollie,

Thanks for the reply. I have seen info/plans on the wick type wipers but have fallen for the marketing hype of the roller wipers active wiping of the underside of the weed leaves.

I enjoy building & fabricating equipment so would get a lot of satisfaction from building a wiper but at the end of the day there has to be a financial benefit compared to buying one or it is just not worth it........

There are a lot of horse & livestock paddocks around us so it might be possible to rent out a wiper to recoup some of the purchase price. Also need to add on the additional cost of obtaining the appropriate spraying certificates!

It is good to hear some hands on feedback of a wipers effectiveness from an owner before taking the plunge.

Cheers,

Rich
 

bordercollie

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Hello Boardercollie,

Thanks for the reply. I have seen info/plans on the wick type wipers but have fallen for the marketing hype of the roller wipers active wiping of the underside of the weed leaves.

I enjoy building & fabricating equipment so would get a lot of satisfaction from building a wiper but at the end of the day there has to be a financial benefit compared to buying one or it is just not worth it........

There are a lot of horse & livestock paddocks around us so it might be possible to rent out a wiper to recoup some of the purchase price. Also need to add on the additional cost of obtaining the appropriate spraying certificates!

It is good to hear some hands on feedback of a wipers effectiveness from an owner before taking the plunge.

Cheers,

Rich

Rich, If you would like any close up pictures let me know. ( the roller is held by pillow block bearings) and it would seem to be quite doable to build your own. I see some improvements that I would add besides the hydraulics... like better emitters, ( these can shift and just be spraying the underside of the hood etc.... I found that out.... bordercollie
 

luvbus

New member
Definitely interested in any photos you could send on of the workings of the wiper then I can decide if it is viable to build one. As you said, it should be doable.

Thanks for the help,

Rich
 

bordercollie

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OK. It has been so awful hot things are slow to get done as the feet seem heavy. But the RTV and I managed to wipe more areas and have some new pictures . The 50/50 mix was used like the MSU link had the most success with. I can tell where I only wiped once - Now, I try to hit it going one way and then on the back swing. The hydraulics on the RTV make all the difference in managing Rotowiper with the different heights of good and bad grass.The first two pictures are from the same field just a different place. (I've got to remember where I take pictures from now on).. The 3rd picture is of a glob of smutgrass that I missed the first time 10 days ago. The last two are of the fields in the first few post I did. You can see one of the earlier wiped ,nice green areas to the right. I went back over the field and touched up the missed places.
 

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bordercollie

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The post on this thread from July the 13 or 14 2013, is where I wiped some Dalis grass. It is a tall , Johnson grass type plant that has only stem and cows won't eat. There are 2 swipes in that test picture. I used round up and set the wiper as low as possible but to avoid the Bermuda. Somewhere in one of these threads is a link to a homemade wick. The weed wiper is way overpriced- a homemade would be a great thing.
 

rjglenn

Member
I was very interested in this thread, so I bought one. The one Ms. Collie has is from New Zeland, but this one - probably a copy- is made in Arkansas. I weed wiped about 20 acres yesterday, I used 1 1/2 qts. of dawn dish detergent, 1 1/2 qts. of Glystar and 1 1/2 qts. of Element 4 in 15 gallons of water to kill briars, broom sage, and some other weeds and still had some left over. I tried to do it without GPS guidance thinking I could see where I had been but that didn't work so well so I had to break out the Centerline and set it for a 9 ft. swath. I'll know in a couple of days how it went. I can see now I probably should have bought a bigger one, but it seems like an good entry model and if I am happy maybe in a couple of years I'll move up.

 

bordercollie

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Bump.
The jacks on RJglenn's wiper are much improved over the ones my rotowiper originally had. These wouldn't be such a pain as the bolt and nuts kind mine had..
 

aurthuritis

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yep!! thats the one i am looking at. that looks like it would be an easy mod to replace those jacks with an electric trailer jack. i haven't asked the MFG yet as to the availability of hydraulics. I think i will get the 15 foot model.
 
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