Bush Hogging in Middle Tennessee
Overgrown fields, pastures, and lots cut back down to something you can walk, mow, or use.
What bush hogging is
A bush hog is a heavy rotary cutter run off a tractor or a skid steer. It is the tool for ground that is too rough and too grown up for a lawn mower but not wooded enough to need a mulcher. Tall grass, weeds, briars, and light brush up to about the thickness of your thumb. It knocks all of it down in one pass and leaves the cuttings on the field.
It is a rougher cut than a mower and it is meant to be. The job is to get the ground back under control, not to make it look like a golf course. Once it has been hogged, a regular mower can usually keep up with it from there.
When to call
The calls I get for bush hogging mostly sound like this:
- A field or pasture that has not been cut in a season or two and is going to briars.
- A lot that needs knocked down before it can be looked at, listed, or built on.
- Fence lines and ditch banks the mower cannot reach.
- Keeping a place cut a couple of times a year so it never gets away from you again.
Before I cut
The thing that makes or breaks a bush hogging job is what is hiding in the grass. Stumps, rocks, old fence wire, a tire, a concrete block somebody left in the field years ago. Tall growth hides all of it, and any of it can wreck a cutter. Before I start, I want to know everything you know about what is out there, even if you are not sure it is still there. A quick walk of the field together saves both of us a bad day.
What affects the price
Acreage sets the base. After that, how tall and how thick the growth is, how rough the ground is, and how much of it I have to slow down for. A field that gets cut every year is a quick job. One that has sat for three years with saplings coming up in it is a slower job, and if it has crossed over into real brush, it may be a mulching job instead. I will tell you which one you have when I see it. The quote is free.
Questions people ask
How often should a field be bush hogged?
For most Middle Tennessee fields, a couple of cuts a year keeps it a field. Once a year holds the line on grass. Let it go two or three years and the saplings and cedar move in, and then it stops being a mowing job. Regular cutting is the cheap way to own open land.
Bush hogging or forestry mulching?
Bush hog for grass, weeds, and light brush. Mulcher for saplings, cedar, and anything with a real trunk. Land that has been let go for a long time usually needs the mulcher first and the bush hog after that to keep it. If you are not sure which one you have, that is what the site walk is for.
Do you take the cuttings off?
No. Bush hogging leaves the cuttings on the field, same as mowing hay. They dry down and disappear into the ground in a few weeks. Hauling cut grass off a field is not something anybody should pay for.
Will you cut a small lot?
If a machine can get to it, I will look at it. Some lots are a better fit for smaller equipment, and I will tell you if yours is one of them instead of tearing up your yard getting in.
Where I do this work
Based in Mt. Juliet, working across Middle Tennessee.
Ready to talk it through?
Tell me about your land and I will come walk it with you. You get a firm number before any work starts, and the quote costs nothing.
Serving Middle Tennessee, including Cookeville, Wilson County, and the Upper Cumberland