Bush Hogging Services in Ohio: Pasture, Field and Overgrown Lot Mowing

A brush hog, known as a bush hog after the brand, is a rotary mower designed for one job: cut through thick grass and weeds, goldenrod, fescue gone wild, brush and saplings up to about 2 inches in diameter. It is a maintenance tool. Forestry mulching is a clearing tool: stems to 8 or 12 inches, honeysuckle crowns ground flush, $1,200 to 2,000 for the same ground. Light brush and tall grass, mow it. Woody brush you cannot push a cutter through, mulch it.

The operator detail: the blade cuts honeysuckle 4 inches up and the crown lives, so a field with honeysuckle in it gets mowed forever. Mowing twice a year keeps a reclaimed field from going back, and keeps a CAUV hay field in the farm classification. Clearing overgrown fields with a cutter alone, past year three, does not work; brush clearing with the mulcher comes first. Send a photo across the field at knee height and I tell you which machine.

Five jobs, one tractor, one service. Pasture and overgrown fields and pastures that missed a season or three. Fence lines, both sides, where multiflora rose starts. Vacant lots in a township that sent you a notice about overgrown vegetation. Pond banks and dam faces, mowed when dry. Open land around a barn or a pad, rough-cut mowing before the surveyor comes. Field mowing on 10 acres is a half day; large areas run 3 to 4 acres an hour in grass, slower in brush and small trees. Weed and overgrowth come off at the same speed. Inherited land for agricultural use that sat empty is the most common call. Preparing land for hay again starts with one pass in August; clearing land of saplings first is the mulcher. Tell me the acreage and I tell you the hours.

$60 to 90 by density, $400 minimum per visit, per field, priced by the acres mowed. Grass and light goldenrod sit at $60; dense vegetation with saplings and rose sits at $90. Five acres of pasture is about $400; 20 acres of hay field gone wild is $1,200 to 1,800. Bundled with a clearing job the minimum drops. Cost-effective against the mulcher only while the stems stay under 2 inches; past that the hog equipment bogs. No travel charge inside 60 miles of a yard. Call (740) 729-8625 or send the form with photos. I email you a budget range and two dates before the end of the day.

Same machine, four names. Bush hog and brush hog are the same cutter on the PTO. Brush mowing and brush cutting are what people call it on a lot instead of a field, and professional brush hogging services are the same thing with insurance. Mulching is the different machine: a drum with carbide teeth on a skid steer that grinds brush and small trees to chips and takes the crown with them. Commercial-grade bush hog pros will tell you the same thing I do: the cutter is for keeping ground open, the mulcher is for opening it. A commercial-grade cutter still stalls on a 3-inch callery pear; a mulcher is ideal for clearing it. Describe the thickest stem you can find and the name sorts itself out.

Once a year in late August on pasture, twice on a vacant lot, and before multiflora rose gets woody on anything you want to keep open. After a reclaim with the mulcher, the first mowing job comes the next August and keeps the honeysuckle seedlings down while the chips do the rest. Let a field overgrow three years and the saplings are past the cutter. Keep your land well-maintained on that schedule and the field stays a field. Land management on a farm is mostly knowing the date. Call me in July.

Dry late summer is the season; frozen ground in December works for a lot the township is after you about. April is out. Wheels on Kokomo flats or lake-plain clay in April leave ruts the cutter hits for ten years. On our jobs in Madison County the rule is simple: if the truck sinks in the lane, we wait a week. Even the toughest field waits for the clay. Tell me how the lane looked after the last rain and I tell you the week.

Within 60 miles of Delaware or Lebanon: Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati and the farm counties between. Farther out, Cleveland to Toledo, the hog comes along only bundled with a clearing job; $400 does not cover a 110-mile tow. Property owners and any landowner near the two yards get the same rate and the same service. Offering expert bush hogging is not the point; knowing when to send the mulcher instead is. If you need brush hogging on 5 acres, I come once a year. If you need bush hogging on honeysuckle, you need me once with the mulcher and then once a year. Quality land clearing services, responsible land clearing, land clearing needs of any size, and clearing for rural ground all start with the same walk. Walk your property with me on the free estimate. Send the form with photos or call (740) 729-8625.