Tearing out fence

Now that I'm unemployed and have lots of time on my hands, I decided to start on tearing out the fence on west side of the farm. Part of it is clean and some of it has trees growing up in it. All the wire is buried 4 to 8 inches deep with grass roots grown into it. A short 1/2 mile long. Have to dig down next to wire to get it out and every other post is a rotted off wood post, so they have to be dug down to get something to get ahold of. Wish I had a better loader tractor, the old 400 won't hardly steer with a load in the bucket. Got a wash farther down the fence, so I'm taking the dirt down and filling it up. Seems like a waste of good dirt, but it needs to be filled and stopped from washing or I'll have to start farming around it. I'm tired tonite! Chris

That's an honest days work even if the pay isn't too good.

ohh man thats a lot a work!!!!!!!! my back is aching just lookig at that!!!!

yeah alot work, been there and done that before.

Looks like fun. I sure could use that old woven wire!

But, it looks like you did one heck of a job 99!!

There aren't no easy days! I use my little D-2 Cat, but if I am not real careful I get the danged wire wrapped up in the tracks. Almost as easy to remove the wire like you have done.

Gene

If the wire is not too rotten I lift the wire out of the ground with the tines on the loader. This usually will lift the posts also. Lift it out, take it off the posts and roll up.

Took out 1/2 mile of fence last week.

Plowed down the hump where the fence was yesterday.

Sure is a tiresome job that's for sure.

Gary

I found out an SC or DC Case with side arm steering is particularly effective.

I'll give you all you want, just come and get it.

Come and get it!! Western Rock Island County, Ill. I'll even throw in the rotted off wooden posts for free. Chris

That would be way to easy!! I'm 57. I remember Grandad putting that fence in in the early 60's, must have been 11 or 12. When he farmed it, he would get as close to the fence as he could with his C A-C and 2 bottom plow and throwing the dirt into the fence. It's too rotten to pull it out like you did. Not sure why he plowed that close, guess he wasn't worried about having to take it out. Chris

Here is where most of the dirt is ending up, filling a washout. The dirt I have to dig out by hand is going up by the machine shed in a stock pile for when I need some around the yard. Chris

But Super99 that looks like a Farmall???

Yes, its a 400. I needed a loader a few years ago, and that was all I could find in my price range. When I get back to work, it's going for something better. I also have a JD 70, but don't tell anyone. Chris

You might want to be careful doing that, some of the larger caterpillar tractors from that era, wrapping something like that had the potential to take out the bellows seals on the final drives, I think with tractors used in landfills, it was more common, because of all the trash, all kinds of things wrap and coil up. I'm not sure if the D2 has the same configuration on the final, but if so and to replace em, I believe you have to split the track and pull the sprocket etc.

SCANDALOUS! :wink:

I've got a lot of old barbed wired fence shot through with brush and grapevines. If the posts are good we cut the wire and pull the post. If not we wrap a chain through the fence pull for as long as it'll go. Then roll the whole mess up and burn the posts out then squash it, load it on a flat rack and take it to the metal dumpster. Then we brush hog and scrape the fence line, straighten things out and rebuild the fence.

The best thing I can do is keep the fence clear. Once you let the brush start it's all over!

I'll watch that, sure dont want to have to get into a final drive. Not much of a mechanic and to hire someone would cost more than the little Cat is worth!!!

Gene

Some general info on filling in low spots in a field:

Several years ago, a farmer filled in several low spots in one of his fields, because the machinery would get bogged down when he crossed it! This in Pennsylvania.
Somebody told on him to the Conservancy, who in turn informed the Feds, and the farmer got into a heap of trouble over it! Spent some time in jail! I never heard how it all shook out, sinmce it happened about 200 miles from me.

As usual, I love seeing dirt from other parts of the country. The dirt looks nice. The tractor looks good, and looks like it's doing the job. Good work!

Do you have to get a permit to burn an old fence line where you are at? I can just imagine the camotion that would cause if I tried that here. One mile from city limits of 50,000 people. There would be all kinds of red flashing lites on the seen before I blew the match out.

Do you haver a 3-pt hitch box blade? If so, it will quickly cut down that hump even more and will leave it smooth as a pool table. You can set it down and pull across the hump cross ways and then feather out the load into the field. Tom

You ain't kidding about that, after looking at a photo of our place in the 40's, everything was clear cut, not many hedge rows, just locust posts and 3 or 4 strand barbed wire fence, even around crop land, could never figure out why so much fence, where they used the land as crop land, not grazing. In the early 70's my father cleared out a bunch of it with our D7 on some adjacent property for our neighbor who planted crops on it. One thing is for sure, those fence rows don't take long to be come hedge rows with brush and trees.

Yes Gene, only thing is I am not familiar with the final on that model, but thought it good to mention, I know on my D7's those bellow seals often times succumb to age, especially if they sit a long while, something causes em to fail when you move the tractor, something dries out sticks I believe and the seal rips. Somewhere in the stack of books and military tech manuals I have on these old caterpillars I've seen mention of this, not sure if I recall correctly on all aspects, but the entangling of things like wire is a factor for some of these models, you might be able to see by inspecting the final housing/sprocket, if in fact something can get in there and do as I mentioned. I think there is a gap on some of these. If in fact a tractor has a leaking final, you just have to keep the lube full, and stay out of water, deep muck etc. as it can get into the final housing. Again, might be a myth with yours, but there is some truth to this for other models, and I'll always mention something like this I am aware of, even if it turns out to be "the boy who cried wolf" or if I'm in fact comparing apples to oranges, still good to know if true, and like you said, hired out, will cost you some labor to split the track pull those sprockets and replace the seals. I can remember clearing out sheet metal and other debris, after being told to do so on a D8K I was picking up to take to another job, boss saw there was a lot of junk caught in the undercarriage, though I don't think these had the same bellows seals, must have been a reason, just had a new U/C put on, sure was no fun to clean that junk out, had to get a torch, cutters and other tools, can't imagine what the old landfill operators used to deal with on this. Same tractor, dumb operator did not keep the carrier rollers clear, they were new, and soon ovalled out.

I like your fence clearing "style". Remove it in layers rather than just use a dozer and roll everything up into a big ball. Your method requires more effort but when finished you aren't left with a mess that may never be totally cleaned up. When I bought the first farm and had more ambition, all the fences were removed using a similar labor intensive method. Did have a dozer come in afterwards and remove the stumps rather than rent a stump grinder.

Chris, if you have some small straw or grass bales put them at the beginning of your washout to keep the dirt in place until you get something growing on top of it. Good job of cleaning up that fence row. Did the same with mine 20 years ago and still looks good to this day. Me and Hericides are good friends.