I have 15 acres of long leaf and I have some privet two small areas and a good many volunteer loblolly. I'm going to burn in late feb early march and can't decide whether to cut the trash down then burn or burn then cut the trash down. What do y'all think?

Eother way it is going to piss the privet off. Any way you can spray the stumps with herbicide as you cut?

If you cut before hand, the slash piles can stop your fire if it is still wet. But only being 15 acres you can add more fire in those areas to make sure you get a good burn. How big are the lobs?

I may cut a few weeks before the burn to let them dry out some. They are 5-12' right now.

I will probably wait till the privet starts to come back and spray but may just hack and squirt.

Either way, just get some herbicide on it or it will come back with a vengeance. If you wait til it sprouts back, 3-5 oz/gallon of glyphosate will kill it.

As mentioned, the privet will need some herbicide. I don't think fire alone will solve that problem. The question becomes whether you want the cut tops to burn or not. If so, cut them prior to burning and treat the stumps. You can buy Tordon RTU from keystone pest solutions. The trick is to treat the stump as soon as possible after cutting so that the roots take in the herbicide.

Privet is pretty easy to kill with hack n squirt. That's a lot less labor intensive than trying to cut them down. I'd H/S them now with some straight gly and then just burn in the spring like normal.