The Northwoods of Minnesota is home to some of the most beautiful forests and lakes in the world. It’s also where the Lund family was raised and where it makes a living as the Trail Blazerz, a family-owned service business based in Bemidji, MN. Experienced in trail clearing, dirt and gravel work, snowplowing and other property improvements, the company’s primary focus is creating and maintaining trails for recreational activities such as hunting, horseback riding or off-road trail riding.
“On any given day, we might find ourselves mowing long grass on existing trails and pastures, plowing through dense hazel brush, cleaning up forest under- or over-growth, or knocking down and mulching hardwood and softwood trees ranging from oaks to aspen and pine,” Brenda Lund points out. Trail Blazerz also works with customers to create building sites and reclaim fields and pastures.
Projects as varied as these call for strong, versatile equipment that can clear acres of growth and produce reliable, quality results. Previously, the Trail Blazerz team used a power take-off (PTO) brush cutter towed behind a 1950s Allis-Chalmers tractor for trail creation and maintenance. While they were ultimately able to complete tasks, the process was slow, and they were limited as to the size of trees and the denseness of brush they could tackle and had to repeatedly get off the tractor and use a chainsaw to take down larger trees.
Upgrade Adds Productivity
The Lunds researched a number of different attachments for their Bobcat T66 compact track loader before selecting a Diamond Mowers 60-in. skid-steer rotary mower. Suited for large-scale brush clearing operations, the attachment is compatible with low- and high-flow machines and cuts trees and brush up to 10 in. in diameter.
With the compact track loader and rotary mower combination, productivity increased significantly, and the Lunds were able to perform larger-scale operations. Whether it’s an overgrown pasture with long grass and brush, cleaning up a forest or blazing a new trail through small- to mid-sized trees, the attachment gets the job done quickly and with virtually zero downtime.
As far as Diamond Mowers’ customer service goes, Lund said, “I’d love to tell you that it was great…but I can’t. I haven’t needed to place a call. Our local dealer has recommended a few spare parts to keep on hand in case we run into trouble, but we have yet to run into even a minor issue.”
