Here's What I Learned | Burning Brush

In this video I demonstrate how to safely and efficiently burn brush.
I also share tips and tricks that have been shared with me recently that should help safely start a fire in most any scenario.
Using our Kubota L2501 Compact Tractor and Iron Craft 48" Grapple we're able to manipulate the brush safely while saving wear and tear on my body.
We use a Kindling Cracker to split pine firewood into kindling. If you have any interest in the Kindling Cracker, here's an Amazon affiliate link to the one I use in this video. amzn.to/3T3NKQM
Thanks for watching!

[@OldIronAcres]

Always good to burn up those piles! I tend to sit too long on mine as well! Hoping to light up 1 or 2 in the next week or so as well! Those Propane Torches "for grass/weeds" are the best. I skip the paper and extra firewood, and just light one of those up and blast the flames! Keep up the great videos! Love all the snow you have!! I'm jealous!!! Cheers, -- J. Andre. / Old Iron Acres

[@Academy_Farm]

Enjoy the burns! Snow seems like a distant memory here now. We had to enjoy it quick this winter... Thanks!

[@joanfrellburg4901]

Is having a brush pile illegal ?

[@Academy_Farm]

Law varies greatly from place to place. Where I am, in New Hampshire, so long as the ground's covered in snow, there's no restrictions to time of day and size of fire. When the snow's gone, an un-contained fire like this requires a special permit where the Fire Chief would likely need to come and inspect it. (not sure he'd want to walk wayyy out here; he's quite out of shape...)

[@redtailwoods]

Just found your channel, good video! Burning brush piles is on my to-do list for this winter too. I've kept waiting for our ground to freeze solid so I can use my tractor without tearing things up too bad, but looks like more warm weather in the forecast. Nothing worse for tractor work than several inches of snow on the ground and temps in the 40's - slush and mud everywhere. So looks like I'll need to do my brush piles the hard way. Looking forward to watching more of your videos!

[@Academy_Farm]

Thank you! It is one of those things you need to time just right it seems. That's part of the reason this one sat for a couple of years... I appreciate it.

[@comlbbeau]

I use a drip torch with a mixture of 2/3 diesel and 1/3 gasoline. A blower is definitely an asset as a kick starter.

[@Academy_Farm]

Thanks for the tip!

[@michaelchastain4957]

Diesel fuel works great in a garden sprayer however I use just a household spray bottle to spray it from. You use very little fuel but it will intensify the heat exponentially.

[@Academy_Farm]

Awesome! Thanks for thr tip!

[@brucemattes5015]

Burning brush is convenient. That convenience comes with a terrible cost in lost nutrients, as well as the lost potential for improved soil health. The fertility in the resultant wood ash in no way equals the potential of slow composted ramial wood chips. I am continually amazed at how shortsighted the vast majority of American farmers and ranchers are regarding trees that have little value even as firewood, as well as the associated limbs, tree tops, leaves, and the low level brush that thick stands of scrub forest contain. The constant complaint is the time and labor required to reduce the brush piles to ramial wood chips. The small diameter branches of hardwood trees measuring 3" or less, are where the true value in the brush piles exist. Those ramial wood chips, once completely composted, will be full of mycorrhizal fungi that will exponentially boost soil fertility faster than just about anything else a farmer can do. Composted ramial wood chips represent a near equivalent degree of fertility enhancement for degraded soils as does rotational mob grazing with ruminant livestock animals. Combine the two methodologies together and absolutely amazing results in the most degraded of soils are possible.

[@Academy_Farm]

You've inspired me to break out the wood chipper more often, Sir. Thank you for the thoughtful insight!

[@brucemattes5015]

@Academy_Farm Sir, you are welcome! I feel that there are two issues seldom, if ever, being discussed within the *Regenerative Agriculture,* slash *Rotational Grazing,* slash *Microbe Farming* community. In this *Old Skool* organic gardener's opinion, both of the issues loom like the proverbial 600-pound gorilla lurking in a room's dark corner. The first is hay. Regardless of whether one grows, bales, stores, and feeds 100% of their requirements for hay off of their own property or purchases hay from another grower; hay does not truly fit into the real world regenerative farming model. Feeding hay to ruminant livestock animals within the current, vertically integrated *Green Revolution* farming model means that the hay fields are constantly being robbed of their nutrients, which does not seem to fit the supposed ethos of Regenerative Agriculture. The problem with hay is that so little arable soil remains in the United States of America, which is optimally suited for growing the most nutritious hays. That's why one constantly reads online or listens to videos online where the *QUALITY* of the hay available to purchase is so variable. It seems to me that a hell of a lot of the hay being marketed in the United States is being grown on soils that are suboptimal for growing hay. A lot of the soils being farmed for hay simply won't grow grass species that are as nutritious as cattle require for optimum overwintering. I've spoken to the folks at Hamilton Native Outpost on several occasions at length and have recently learned that there are small remaining acreages of privately owned native prarie grasslands. These still exist in our midwestern states. A few fortunate cattlemen are grazing the remnants of the historical native praries very successfully. Hamilton Native Outpost told me that these native prarie remnants, with their hundreds of diversified plant species, are astonishingly capable of being rotationally grazed on a year-round basis while maintaining a fully productive and fully healthy stand of grasses, forbs, brambles, bushes, and trees. *ALL WITHOUT* the need for human intervention as far as fertilization is concerned. Hamilton Native Outpost also informed me that there are few places east of the Rocky Mountains where it is not possible to establish a truly diversified stand of native prarie grasses and forbs that ultimately can be grazed on a year-round basis without requiring supplementary fertilization, and without depleting the soils. In other words, we human beings can replicate what Mother Nature created if we are willing to have a long-term, perhaps generational, commitment towards establishing such diversified ecosystems that contain in excess of a hundred species. The second issue that is looming like the gorilla is what I mentioned in my original post. Which is utilizing to one's maximum benefit the potential locked away in scrub brush and trash trees that have little to no economic value.

[@maintenancewithmike]

Now that’s a fire! Leaf blower definitely gets it going. Cheers, Mike.

[@ProductiveRecreation]

Pushing the pile up with a tractor is phenomenal. Really helps get things going and consolidate the fire. Giving it a little lift at the base can let natural draft in there and encourage it too. I did a long line fire last year and kept pushing the coals ahead as it burned down to keep the row going faster.

[@Academy_Farm]

Agreed! A lot better than yanking on scalding brush by hand to throw it back up on the pile. Thanks!

[@badgerlandturf]

Great follow up! Comments can sometimes be overwhelming but I think in general they are well meaning. Hopefully you show a snippet of the end results in your next video. We are in the low 60’s here in Missouri, snow is a faint memory of early January.

[@Academy_Farm]

That sounds warm! We'll get back out here shortly with the stump grinder once the snow melts and the ground thaws. Thanks!

[@603Steward]

Excellent video, my good sir, and thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience with us! Go B’s!

[@Academy_Farm]

It is my honor and privilege. Go B's!