The problem:
Lantana creates lumps of bushes 2 -3 meter tall.
I could not find reasonable tool/ device to attack those dense but lightweight bushes on my property.

Hend held trimmers are too small to clear acreage, but crawlers machinery too expensive to consider.
Nothing in the middle.
Solution: I am looking for is something like a self-propelled mower that could chew on light bushes in the front.

Did anybody come across device or tool/attachment to destroy bushes, at a reasonably low price?

I am now thinking about building myself machine - sort of typical mower but in a vertical position that I could push into bushes to mulch it to pieces.
The options are:
1) Typical mower blades - round disk with short swinging blades
2) flail drum with hammers

Australia is still full of bushes to clear ( and lantana is an awful pest).
Can somebody help here?

We used to wade in with chainsaws with long cutter bars. Poison the stumps with roundup. But after a while you learn to admire lantana. It's the sort of stuff with the persistence to claim corners of the landscape that people would otherwise keep bare. As such can be a valuable habitat/refuge for small birds, snakes and lizards.
It was probably originally a forested area that you're having trouble with? When the forest comes back the lantana slowly disappears, it doesn't compete that well in the shade.

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Ian K said..

We used to wade in with chainsaws with long cutter bars. Poison the stumps with roundup. But after a while you learn to admire lantana. It's the sort of stuff with the persistence to claim corners of the landscape that people would otherwise keep bare. As such can be a valuable habitat/refuge for small birds, snakes and lizards.
It was probably originally a forested area that you're having trouble with? When the forest comes back the lantana slowly disappears, it doesn't compete that well in the shade.

When you have a bunch of lantanas in your garden you may enjoy the view and smell.
That was that initial purpose of this ornamental plant once imported to Australia.
Now like Tod Frogs they do invade every possible space killing all natural plants.
I have maybe 10-20 Ha left to clear from lantana and most in quite hilly places.
The main problem is accessing fencing to do some repair, once you need first to cut through 10 meters thick lantana battier.
BTW. Your machinery on the picture is at 100-200k mark.
I am looking at 1-2k solution rather.

All you need is a machete and determination.

Agree with shifu, A good ol skool Mattock is the tool for roots and all.
It's surprising how much you can remove if you really want it gone, This one has done many acres in it's life

Burn it.

A goat and some fencing.

The best method depends on what the land is to be used for after it's weeded. What's your objective?

False advertising, the title of this thread suggested something far more erogenous

FYI Im the second option out of the 2

+1 for the goat

they do he work for you.

Some of the goats' favourite treats are noxious weeds, such as blackberry, scotch broom, gorse, campher laurel, sweet briar, lantana, cape weed, fireweed, english ivy, bitou bush and a variety of grasses. In fact, goats will seek out and graze on weeds rather than desirable pasture species. Seeds are sterilised in the guts of the goats and will not be spread.

You can even hire a goat herd to clean up the weeds

herdsforhire.com.au/

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FormulaNova said..
A goat and some fencing.

Goats are good at cleaning bushes, agree. But the use of goats will not very humanitarian I am afraid.
There are going to die due to liver failure, as lantana is toxic for cattle and goats, and pretty much any other animal that will try to eat it.But indeed that could clear the lot before poor animals learn that is not healthy stuff to eat.The only option could be calling Greens to smoke the weed. I am sure there are more resistant then goats to this sort of poison.

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Ian K said..
The best method depends on what the land is to be used for after it's weeded. What's your objective?

the land is for cattle grazing. After obviously grass recover after consecutive weedkiller that finishes the mulching job.

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Shifu said..
All you need is a machete and determination.

The problem is that human exert 200W of power ( if you are lucky at 35+ Celcius) but any stupid mower has 2HP or more.
The simplest machinery will be 100x more effective.I did use petrol trimmer, hedge cutter but that is still to exhausting and not very effective although faster and safer then machete.

I tough for a while that I could spread the news Taliban is hiding in my bushes, so AFP could run few helicopters with agent orange that will clear the hill completely.On another hand cleaning, reamining cluster bomblets that didn't explode will be even more problematic.
BTW indeed ADF had for a year's free landing site for their Black Hawks fleet on my site, but now cattle took over the place.

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Macroscien said..

Ian K said..
The best method depends on what the land is to be used for after it's weeded. What's your objective?

the land is for cattle grazing. After obviously grass recover after consecutive weedkiller that finishes the mulching job.

Well just go for it with something big powered with fossil fuel. 20 ha is a large area, if your aim was to sort of restore the original bushland - you'd have to think twice. Do cattle eat fresh lantana shoots?

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Ian K said..

Macroscien said..

Ian K said..
The best method depends on what the land is to be used for after it's weeded. What's your objective?

the land is for cattle grazing. After obviously grass recover after consecutive weedkiller that finishes the mulching job.

Well just go for it with something big powered with fossil fuel. 20 ha is a large area, if your aim was to sort of restore the original bushland - you'd have to think twice. Do cattle eat fresh lantana shoots?

Yeep cattle, unfortunately, could also eat fresh lantana and that is not healthy for them either.we have to remember that lantana is not an element of our natural land. This is invasive species imported some time not long ago. It we remove lantana then even natural Australian bush can return in original form.
For example, fences where made here 20 -30 years ago and I imagine there was not a problem to access to put them. But now everything is just hidden under unbelievable dense lantana bushes.

Cows are not an element of our natural land either.

+1 for a big bonfire and roast goat.

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Macroscien said..

Goats are good at cleaning bushes, agree. But the use of goats will not very humanitarian I am afraid.
There are going to die due to liver failure, as lantana is toxic for cattle and goats, and pretty much any other animal that will try to eat it.

I would ring the people in the link I posted earlier...they say their goats eat lantana, and they inspect the property for plants that could damage their goats....I don't think they would risk their herd if lantana posed a risk.

herdsforhire.com.au/

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Macroscien said..

I

It we remove lantana then even natural Australian bush can return in original form.
For example, fences where made here 20 -30 years ago and I imagine there was not a problem to access to put them. But now everything is just hidden under unbelievable dense lantana bushes.

Generally weeds are slow moving into intact bushland. The lantana would have jumped in when the original bush was cleared and fenced. There's a lot of work in assisting the return of native bush. I'd guess about 10 man years of careful hand weeding and spot spraying to "restore" what a D9 did in 10 minutes 50 years ago. Lantana is here to stay, we'll never eradicate it. It'll be here when civilisation self destructs, you might as well call it native now. Sooner or later a biological control will evolve.

Lantana is reducing in the Illawarra escarpment however now that the natural vegetation has been allowed to thicken up. Maybe just enough of the original vegetation remained after logging, Maybe the feral deer have something to do with it?

Grazon will kill it without harming pasture
every two months for 6 months and it'll be kindling
cutting will just encourage root growth

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Rails said..
Grazon will kill it without harming pasture
every two months for 6 months and it'll be kindling
cutting will just encourage root growth

I use Roundup now after trying 5x more expensive Bowsaw and similar. There is not much grass left at area infected by lantana anyway.
But after Lantana is killed there is still monstrous skeleton needed to be crush and removed.So I prefer the other way: first mulch it down, then spray.
I am going to buy some parts and build machinery like that:
-horizontal shaft 4 stroke motor 12HP
-Mower disk from rideon mower with swinging blades-clutch,
- some solid steel protection from this rotor
-carriage on wheels
then run/ push this into the bush lump and see what happen .....
.I thought that hammers from flail mower could be better but don't know if could handle lantana branches

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Ian K said..

Macroscien said..

I

It we remove lantana then even natural Australian bush can return in original form.
For example, fences where made here 20 -30 years ago and I imagine there was not a problem to access to put them. But now everything is just hidden under unbelievable dense lantana bushes.

Generally weeds are slow moving into intact bushland. The lantana would have jumped in when the original bush was cleared and fenced. There's a lot of work in assisting the return of native bush. I'd guess about 10 man years of careful hand weeding and spot spraying to "restore" what a D9 did in 10 minutes 50 years ago. Lantana is here to stay, we'll never eradicate it. It'll be here when civilisation self destructs, you might as well call it native now. Sooner or later a biological control will evolve.

Lantana is reducing in the Illawarra escarpment however now that the natural vegetation has been allowed to thicken up. Maybe just enough of the original vegetation remained after logging, Maybe the feral deer have something to do with it?

Great historical video. Some may be offended seeing converstion on industrial scale bore land into farm land.
But I would rather see sustainable green farms instead of mining pits and moon like scenery left after.

It was interesting that back then in 1959 there was no hint at all that there may be a few negatives to go with all that farmland.

The reduction in rainfall in the SW has now been linked to the clearing. (But we'll never know for sure if or how much)
Maybe we could have cleared half as much forest, had 20% more rainfall and no loss of productivity?
theconversation.com/deforestation-linked-to-rainfall-decline-in-western-australia-20593

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FormulaNova said..
A goat and some fencing.

On a leash works great, an old local spot in the uk had a couple to keep bush down,
they made great entertainment in head pushing comps too

Who else reads macroscien posts in a borat voice...?

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Macroscien said..

Rails said..
Grazon will kill it without harming pasture
every two months for 6 months and it'll be kindling
cutting will just encourage root growth

I use Roundup now after trying 5x more expensive Bowsaw and similar. There is not much grass left at area infected by lantana anyway.
But after Lantana is killed there is still monstrous skeleton needed to be crush and removed.So I prefer the other way: first mulch it down, then spray.
I am going to buy some parts and build machinery like that:
-horizontal shaft 4 stroke motor 12HP
-Mower disk from rideon mower with swinging blades-clutch,
- some solid steel protection from this rotor
-carriage on wheels
then run/ push this into the bush lump and see what happen .....
.I thought that hammers from flail mower could be better but don't know if could handle lantana branches

It sort of sounds like you are describing a stump grinder. I hired one recently and I was surprised how easy they were to use and how easily they tore apart the softwood stumps. The hardwood stumps were a bit harder, but still okay.

They look pretty dangerous too, but probably no more dangerous than the machine you are talking about creating.

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theDoctor said..

Who else reads macroscien posts in a borat voice...?

I read them in Manuel from faulty towers voice.

I read them and wonder why he asks the questions in the first place, he doesn't take any suggestions on board as he already made up his mind.

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kk said..
I read them and wonder why he asks the questions in the first place, he doesn't take any suggestions on board as he already made up his mind.

No, I expect that somebody tells me that device or machine I want to have or build already exist, and is available to buy.
There MUST be somewhere someone that comes with a similar problem and solved it already.Medium size ride on mower to mulch bushes. If I can not buy one from Bunnings yet, doesn't mean anybody build even sold devices like that.For example, snow blower - is unknown in Australia, but overseas motorized wheelbarrow size blowers are used commonly.Motorized wheel barrow that eat lantana bushes must exist somewhere.

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Macroscien said..

Rails said..
Grazon will kill it without harming pasture
every two months for 6 months and it'll be kindling
cutting will just encourage root growth

I use Roundup now after trying 5x more expensive Bowsaw and similar. There is not much grass left at area infected by lantana anyway.
But after Lantana is killed there is still monstrous skeleton needed to be crush and removed.So I prefer the other way: first mulch it down, then spray.
I am going to buy some parts and build machinery like that:
-horizontal shaft 4 stroke motor 12HP
-Mower disk from rideon mower with swinging blades-clutch,
- some solid steel protection from this rotor
-carriage on wheels
then run/ push this into the bush lump and see what happen .....
.I thought that hammers from flail mower could be better but don't know if could handle lantana branches

Something like this?

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theDoctor said..

Who else reads macroscien posts in a borat voice...?

I do now