Clearing land for pasture

[Bmitchell0027]

I am currently in the process of trying to cleanup a farm I purchased 4 years ago that has partially overgrown with brush, small trees, etc. I started a few years ago by hiring a dozer to clean off a few fields but was left with a mess of brush piles, loss of topsoil and a lot of exposed rocks. I am in central ky which is somewhat rocky and mostly consists of cedar trees. In my area there is a market for cedar trees for the purpose of chipping them for animal bedding. i do not have the time to cut them myself, and after contacting numerous loggers and all of them being no shows I am giving up on that idea as well. I have been considering hiring / renting a tree mulcher for a skid steer. Locally I have found the attachment and skid steer to rent for $650 a day. Has anyone used a tree mulcher before? Had any luck with one? And how much land can you clear In a day? Also any other suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Brandon

 

[hillbilly beef man]

I have never used one myself but I have watched one being used and I am impressed with them. No brush to burn and no topsoil lost. The only downside I see is that you are not going to get much grass for a couple of years till the mulch rots. I would try it for a day and see how it goes. $650 a day is not a bad price.

 

[tom4018]

There is a guy here that has the big mulcher and a skid steer one, don't remember how many acres per day but at his rates it was over a $1000 an acre.

We cleared about 5 acres last year and had a dozer do it. Depending on how big your trees are I would think the stumps rotting out years down the road would make for a constant battle in a pasture. It is bad enough with a dozer as they miss a few, they just get cut off.

 

[lovehammer]

I hired a guy to clear a fence line 1/2 a mile long with a skidsteer with a mulcher attachment. It was the biggest Bobcat they make and had high flow hydraulics, etc. The previous owner let hackberry and mesquite trees, along with the occasional massive prickly pear, overgrow the fence line. There were a few hackberries that were over 30ft tall and 3ft or so acrossed at the base. I did remove the old posts and wire. Also, I did top the larger trees myself and leave 5ft or so of stump. I was going to rent a bulldozer but had trouble locating one. The guy I hired charged me $800 and it took roughly 9hrs for him to clear the entire fence line. He did shear the trees first and then grind all of the stumps. Most of these trees were in the 8 to 10in diameter range. The end result was awesome. Hope that gives you an idea of how much you can clear in a day. It's going to vary based upon tree size, type, etc.

 

[skyhightree1]

I have used them before but if you are not great on a bobcat you won't get your moneys worth nor will you if you use a regular bobcat without high flow hydraulics as was said. The earlier statement about mulch rotting is true I had all my land and grandmother's property cut around perimeter and its been about 3.5 years mulch still there just starting to break down. I would suggest if you are able buy a dozer use it for what you need then sell it.

 

[Bigfoot]

I haven't seen the place you are talking about obviously, but I bought a place once that hadn't been bush hogged in about 12 or 15 years. I bush hogged everything I could possibly ride over with a tractor. I had to drive around some of the bigger stuff. I hired a kid to follow me on a 4 wheeler to hook, and unhook my chain. I was able to pull most of the trees up with a tractor that I couldn't bushhog down. Not getting on and off the tractor actually made the job go pretty fast. I frost seeded fescue on it a couple years in a row, and it actually looks really good now.

 

[Brute 23]

I am currently in the process of trying to cleanup a farm I purchased 4 years ago that has partially overgrown with brush, small trees, etc. I started a few years ago by hiring a dozer to clean off a few fields but was left with a mess of brush piles, loss of topsoil and a lot of exposed rocks.

How did you lose topsoil? Why not burn the brush piles?


This is just my opinion but I do not like mulchers because they leave all the wood chips and they do not rot as fast as I would like. We have gotten away from dozers at work for pipelines and right aways because the mulchers are so much faster. From what I have seen in thick brush areas the mulch chokes the grass as much as the brush did.

The shears on the skidsteers are awesome. Just had a guy clear fence rows to build new fence. He sheared some huge trees and stacked all the brush. I think he said he could cut trees up to 20".... maybe more... I can't remember. The down side is you have to just spray the stumps and just let them rot.

A dozer with a root plow is still the most effetive and gives you the fastest results IMO. Its the most expensive also.

Each application has its pro and cons.

 

[Kingfisher]

Unless they are really big cedars just yank them out with a chain and a truck, tractor or backhow. Chainsaw the posts out and burn the rest of it. I read an article a few weeks ago that talked about turning cedar into sheep/goat feed. Suppose to have adequate nutritional value but I'm not sure I wholly believe that.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Fire is your friend.

 

[Bmitchell0027]

Thanks for the responses, I have a logger that is supposed to show up some time this week to start cutting the bigger trees. After that I may try the shears on a skid steer and burn the brush left over. The mulcher was a thought but the more I talk to people who have used them the mulch left over is gonna keep grass from growing for a while.

 

[tnwalkingred]

I'm in the same boat. I'm actually thinking about buying a mini excavator to pull up the cedar trees. Then I will cut the posts out of them and use the bucket and thumb to pile the brush for burning. I figure I can buy a nice one for 20-30 thousand, use it for a few years, and then a big part of my money back. Sure beats paying 1000 plus an acre.

Kyle

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/sho ... set-harrow

 

[Caustic Burno]

I'm in the same boat. I'm actually thinking about buying a mini excavator to pull up the cedar trees. Then I will cut the posts out of them and use the bucket and thumb to pile the brush for burning. I figure I can buy a nice one for 20-30 thousand, use it for a few years, and then a big part of my money back. Sure beats paying 1000 plus an acre.

Kyle

I built these for after the dozer was gone.
It the tractor will run over it, out the ground it comes.
I have no clue how many acres these have cleared as every neighbor around has borrowed it at one time or another.
Pull up brush, small trees the trash left when the teeth get full pick it up and back up it will self clean.
It levels as well when you get enough puled up bunch it together for a fire pile.

 

[skyhightree1]

They look good which do you think works best ?

 

[Caustic Burno]

I like the bottom one for pulling bigger stuff out of tough ground.
I like the top one better for cleaning up smaller messes due to it is just easier to hook up.
If I had to do it over I would have just modified the bottom one.
The top one got built as a project teaching my grandson how to use a tape measure, square, cutting torch and welding rig.
That is his favorite. He layed it out and put it together.

 

[skyhightree1]

thats nice work. I would have probably guessed the top one was the best. If you added teeth extension like the bottom unit onto the top do you think that could be the best all round device?

 

[Caustic Burno]

thats nice work. I would have probably guessed the top one was the best. If you added teeth extension like the bottom unit onto the top do you think that could be the best all round device?

I have the extensions cut out for it in the shop.
I am waiting on the grandson to weld them on.
Time will tell after that but I could see it easily becoming my favorite to clean out berry thickets and down trees.

 

[skyhightree1]

Looks good I like it your idea has given me an idea If I had the time to fool with it I could take my old kmc cultivator and make something like that and I bet it would be pretty effective. The only thing is its 14' long and unless you brace the heck out of it would probably be bent up in a day.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Looks good I like it your idea has given me an idea If I had the time to fool with it I could take my old kmc cultivator and make something like that and I bet it would be pretty effective. The only thing is its 14' long and unless you brace the heck out of it would probably be bent up in a day.

It has to be stud horse stout, the first one I built years ago got waded up pretty bad.
Got to be stout enough to stand the push and pull of the tractor.
I have pushed some huge logs onto the burn piles with it.

 

[skyhightree1]

Looks good I like it your idea has given me an idea If I had the time to fool with it I could take my old kmc cultivator and make something like that and I bet it would be pretty effective. The only thing is its 14' long and unless you brace the heck out of it would probably be bent up in a day.

It has to be stud horse stout, the first one I built years ago got waded up pretty bad.
Got to be stout enough to stand the push and pull of the tractor.
I have pushed some huge logs onto the burn piles with it.

The metal on the beam is around 3/8" I think and that definately IMO isnt strong enough for all that seeing as how the cultivator was just built to break up dirt with no obstacles but weeds. I bet if you had a rail beam though it wouldn't bend the teeth would probably break first.