Mulching After Land Clearing: Why It’s Beneficial

Picture this; you and your crew have just finished clearing a whole bunch of brush or pioneer growth. It’s all mowed down.

What do you do now? Do you haul it away? Chip it and sell it? Consolidate it in a pile and burn it?

You can do any of these things, but there’s a process that’s (on the whole) better: mulch it with a skid steer mulcher attachment, distribute it, and leave it in place.

Here’s why mulching makes sense.

1. Mulching is good for soil

When you mulch, provided you’re using the brush you mowed down in the first place, you’re returning to the soil everything that came out of it in the first place.

This means you’re re-fortifying the soil with wood, leaves, and other organic matter, returning nitrogen and mineral content to the soil which successive generations need to grow.

Also, using the existing cuttings to mulch and cover the soil will prevent you from introducing potentially dangerous fungi, insects, and pathogens into the ecosystem that might not have been there to begin with.

2. It helps control pests and inhibits weed growth

First things first, mulch serves as soil cover, which prevents light from getting to the layers underneath. This action alone can prevent weed growth and helps to control successive vegetative generations.

In addition, mulching with cut brush can also help control the establishment, growth, and subsequent spread of invasive (or otherwise undesirable) species.

3. Mulching can prevent soil erosion

Removing brush from mown-over, cleared ground can be disastrous for soil ecology, especially for loose and sandy soils. Rains and runoff can cause or badly exacerbate erosion, and moreover, can also result in nutrient leaching and loss.

Providing a top cover in the form of mulch serves as a barrier that helps slow (or completely halt) the effects of runoff and erosion.

4. It retains moisture

If you’ve left some trees standing and have only cleared the underbrush, mulching the soil helps improve moisture retention which can be highly valuable in arid and semi-arid environments.

This can help improve the overall health of the plants present, supporting the ecosystem. Just be sure to avoid volcano mulching, the process of allowing mulch to contact a tree’s bark above the root crown, which can result in fungal diseases and other preventable infections.

5. Mulching can be eco-friendly and highly cost-effective

Mulching with what you’ve cut down is inherently eco-friendly, as you’re just returning to the soil what the species above it have taken from the ecosystem in the first place - you’re not adding anything new.

Also, since you aren’t adding anything to the soil, you almost certainly won’t need any permits or special dispensation to do it.

And, since you won’t be buying mulch, mulching what you’ve cut down is highly cost-effective and surprisingly affordable and sustainable.

6. If you mulch what you clear, there’s no clean-up

Let’s also not forget the cost of clean-up. Yes, there is the investment in a skid steer mulcher attachment (and its operation) to consider, but all in all, there’s less here than if you had to chip and haul away the debris, or even burn it.

Which itself means the process can result in procedural efficiencies for you and your crew, and save you money, time and effort.

Spartan Equipment Skid Steer Mulchers: American Grit and Ingenuity

We sell both disc and drum mulchers that are the industry’s toughest and will Never Surrender.

Our disc-style skid steer mulchers (available in 52” and 82” configurations) feature tough, 1” thick mulching discs that are outfitted with concave, 4-point quad square teeth that are replaceable (bolt-on style).

They are hardworking and powered by a high-torque piston motor and bearing housing, and the attachments feature an extremely durable deck made of ⅜” thick steel with reinforced sides.

These disc mulchers are covered by a 1-year warranty that does not cover the teeth, hoses or couplers.

We also carry drum mulchers (which are also available in two sizes, 60” and 72”) that are specifically designed for high-flow skid steers.

They feature a light, strong, low-profile design with a front-mounted hydraulic deflector door, adjustable push bar and hydraulic pressure gauge.

If your machine’s cooling system is inadequate, we also offer optional hydraulic oil coolers for these skid steer attachments.

They also feature fixed hammers with double-sided, reversible cutting teeth that can be field-swapped along with extremely heavy-duty drums and alloy-steel drive shafts. They also feature adjustable skid plates and push bars.

These drum mulchers are also powered by variable displacement Rexroth brand motors that can be dialed in to just about any high flow skid steer or track loader. Best of all, these attachments are powerful enough to mulch hardwood material up to 8” thick.

Both styles of skid steer mulcher attachments are made with pride in the United States of America using top-quality American steel. We never use cheap, low-grade, poorly tempered Chinese steel of specious metallurgical composition.

They are the industry’s most reliable attachments and will Never Surrender. Contact us if you have questions at 1-888-888-1085.