Last year we had the tall broom weed growing as well as other stuff. It was about thigh high and taller. This year, I want to get rid of it so I can see better. There were several occasions I could not shoot a coyote or bobcat because the veg was too tall.

What can I use to get rid of it? I don't think a standard mower will handle the larger broom weed, as well as some cactus. Will a riding lawn mower chew that stuff up?

A standard push mower will mow darn near anything... provided its a good mower and not one of the $50 ones from Walmart and you cut at the pace the mower will cut.

We have about a 1/2 acre yard at our place that grows up with broom weed purple thistles Johnson grass etc. thick as can be and 3-4 foot tall that we mow with a 15 year old murray 22 inch cut push mower with a 5 hp brigs motor. Top off the oil and gas and it cuts every time... the mesquite stumps are hard on blades, but ive gotten those taken care of by now. It may not like it but it will do it. Also use it to mow inside of our feed pens. Anything else its nice to have equipment for.

Riding mowers work alright, but they are less forgiving of abuse than a push mower.

Like he said, a normal mower will work. Just go back and forth. I use a brush cutter head on my Echo trimmer. $50 at Home Depot. Will take down small trees too. There are two blades. One is a saw and is more for grassy brush. And my mower is an old Murray too. Keeps going week after week.

I will tell you this, if you mow or trim in late April or May when it emerges and is tender, it will make cleaning up now a breeze. No hard stems to deal with.

I thought about getting a nice hand help trimmer and getting a heavy duty metal blade on it to chew through the thick stuff. I wasn't sure how long that would last, or if it would hold up to the abuse of a large area.

I may get a standard mower and pull it behind my 4 wheeler!

Works great and lasts. And you can file the blade to sharpen it up. Sun and heat is worst part.

We use one of these. $300 at home Depot
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Remington-22-...J7783/205691840

Before we had a tractor a lot of times we would round up roads then come back later and drag a railroad tie over it with the pickup the dead gras/weeds would just snap off.

Believe it or not, when I bought my place about 15 years ago, the neighbor was kinda' young and had also just purchased his place. He really wanted a 4-wheeler, but needed a riding mower. Couldn't afford both. He picked up two push mowers from a pawn shop and welded the decks together with angle iron after pulling off both sets of "inside" wheels. For about three years he fired both up and dragged that contraption behind his new 4-wheeler. I'm pretty sure it was still working when he finally got a rider.

I've used the push mower combined with the weed eater, use heavy string and bought one of those saw blades that fit on the end, did fine for me. I did keep the snake boots on.

A while back I used a push mower in my pasture. Set the deck as high as it'd go and got to it. Lowered it and hit it again. It was a strip where I planted about 20 oak trees and I wanted to keep the trash down. I've since been trimming around the trees with a weed whacker.

Last year I rented a brush cutter, worked great but was slower than I wanted. This year purchased a pull behind brush hog ($1300)that will cut anything you can drive over. Worth every penny.

Chad, I am not sure of the area that you are trimming, but I have a Stihl Kombi that will allow you to put various attachments on it (larger model). It has a sickle bar blade (like you do hedges with) that will go through 1/2" trees, briar, but you have to work at prickly pear with it. It will also go through rusty barbed wire fence far too easily.

The sickle bar is less handy for grass, of which the string trimmer will handle. You can also attach a pole saw to it (which is what I use for all my limbs, regardless of size), edger, and a couple of other things. It is my generic land clearing tool.

http://pages.stihldealer.net/kombi/?gcli...ggnoaAiH38P8HAQ

Of course, if this is just a once a year deal, you might be better off with a rental as noted above.

I have a push mower with a 6.5hp Briggs that does a great job on that stuff. I don't even open the side shoot. I just let it mulch that crap with no issues. You do have to go slow but it gets the job done. I suggest making sure the blade is sharpened.

I brushog it once a year in the spring then spray with roundup.

I spray anything around my blinds I do not want to tall with a Glyphosate weed/grass killer once or twice per year. On cactus I just hit it with a Remedy and water mix when I am spraying brush in my feed pens or around the blind that I do not want. The rest of the area I used to rent a tractor with as shredder for a day and mow all the rest. Was a $145/day for tractor, shredder and a trailer. The tractor has foamed filled tires. Look at a rental place in your area. Don't mow to early since it will grow back quickly if you get the rains and ground/day temps are still warm enough.

For $20-$30, you might try one of these heavy duty blades for your weedeater.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004OTC70...&ref=plSrch

thinking outside the box

Tall broomweeds are not fun to cut with a weadeater or any lawn mower. Been there and tried it last year in a feed pen with waste deep broomweeds. Those woody stems on 4' tall broomweeds will hold any lawnmower off the ground and weedeater will just pizz you off. I used a machete for a while just to get to feeder. That ended quickly. Ended up renting a tractor to haul over and cut shooting lanes or everything I need to be able to see game in the tall weeds and brush around feeder/shooting lanes. Even used the tractor inside the feed pen. Best $145 I ever spent.

Rent a tractor or pay someone in the area to mow it for you.

I've got one as well. Perfect for this type of work.

Drag a heavy 8' railroad tie sideways behind your ATV using a chain with shackles at the hitch to keep the tie parallel to the back of the ATV. It will lay the broom weed over and it stays down this time of year. You may need to make a few passes to get it flat on the ground. I have had no luck with broom weed and residential grade trimmers.

Drop a disc on the mess.

This is what I use to knock down the 5ft tall weeds in my feeder pens that always grow about this time of year, and clean up the path to my deer blind. The tool rental part of Lowes rents them for around $60 a day.

I used a Stihl FS 240R weedeater to tackle this mess. Love my Stihl!