clearing logged land

[Red Bull Breeder]

The D5 you are using, which one is it year model and letter series, reason i am asking is there is a lot of diffrence in D5,s there is D5 94 and 96j series D5B D5C D5H, If you have the D5 94 or 96J D5B or D5H you can get them out but it will be slow with 5c you wasting your time and killing a little dozer. Rent or hire some one with a big excavator fastest way i no of to do the job. You can dig the stumps out with a backhoe but it will be slow.

 

[mnmtranching]

I have a 80 acre piece that was logged off 10 years ago. Aspen and pine. Fenced it, put cattle in it. Didn't do a thing to it. Native grasses came in on their own. Stumps are rotting and adding nutrients. Cows killed of the brush in a couple years. I would call this very good pasture. Things must be different up in this country, but wooded land logged off and put to pasture will have tremendous production without fertilizer.

 

[dun]

I have a 80 acre piece that was logged off 10 years ago. Aspen and pine. Fenced it, put cattle in it. Didn't do a thing to it. Native grasses came in on their own. Stumps are rotting and adding nutrients. Cows killed of the brush in a couple years. I would call this very good pasture. Things must be different up in this country, but wooded land logged off and put to pasture will have tremendous production without fertilizer.

There is probably a big difference in the ph of the soils. If his land in AR is anything like around here, cleared timber land will grow up in scrub brush/trees and very little grass. We have on small pasture, 6-7 acres that the previous owners cleared, fetilized and seeded, no lime. Until we limed it thre wasn;t anything worth doing with it since the grass was very spotty and and sparse. We limed it and the next year you couldn;t find your way through the OG, now it's settled down to a godd OG and fescue pasture with tons of clover. But it needs lime again since the ph has fallen back down to 5.2, it was 4.6 when we limed it.

 

[tommy&april]

yea dunn
its growing some grass, what you can see of it from all the scrub brush and small saplings and thicket

 

[dun]

A possible problem with brush hogging it is the staubs that will be left. Can be hard on cow feet but they can be even harder on tires. Generally the very expensive tires. A good man with a cat can do wonders. If you leave the dozer files and there is a lot of dirt in them after they;ve been burned, calves love to play king of the mountain on them.

 

[bigbull338]

told me to rent a backhole an digg the trees an bushes up.said was alot cheaper an faster than hiring a dozer.around here dozers want $900 to $1000 a day to run.an thats a full days work 8 to 9 hrs.a days work is also the minum charge.

:shock: Surely you misunderstood him as there is no way a backhoe can clear as much land in a day as a D8. Price per hour may be more expensive but price per cleared acre of land is a lot cheaper than a backhoe.

i dont think i missunderstood him at all.he said he could dig up a tree an cover the hole in less than 15 minutes.but if i decide to go the D8 rout i can get him to run the dozer.he said the backhole would burn less fuel in a day than the dozer.but 1 thing is he is madd at the guy that owns the dozer.because the guy isnt working him this year.

 

[TexasBred]

We had some acreage cleared 2 years ago. Guy used a D-7..larger trees were just sheared off a little below ground level. All were piled and allowed to sit for about 4 months then burned...contained very little dirt. He then came back, droped those big rippers down on the back of the dozer and ripped the place to shreds. The disked it twice with a commercial size disc. We picked up chunks, piled and burned them off and one for a few weeks and then planted it in grass. Rained on the grass the night it was planted and got an awesome stand of coastal. Had cows on it in another 60 days.

 

[tommy&april]

my acreage dont hardly have any trees, it was logged a few yrs back, it has a few trees but not many, just a ton of stumps and super thick brush and small saplings (about 5-10 feet high) and alot of deadfall, it also has 3 small branches that run thru it (maily run off from the mountain) alot of rocks also under the soil. (rememeber im in arkansas)

 

[backhoeboogie]

The "dirt doctor" Howard Garrett has some solutions. Just google dirt doctor and you'll get his websites. It seems he uses molasses and something on stumps and they are gone within a year. All natural and good for the ground. The molasses brings in some type of something that eats it away.

I have and cat and the hoe to rid my trees and stumps. I use the dirt doctor for other things. He has a lot of good info and solutions for just about anything.

 

[dyates]

If you can contain them, pile in the goats. They'll do a pretty good job of wiping out anything living. Then, go back with machinery and windrow the deadfall/tops and burn them. I wouldn't personally worry about the stumps, but if you are, an excavator with a stump crusher attachment would be best.

 

[tommy&april]

goats is something i thought about to just would have to do lot of fencing

 

[alabama]

www.kershawusa.com/brushcut.php
Kershaw bakes a thing that is like a bushhog on steroides. It will grind everthing even stumps. If you can aford to have one of those things clear the land all you will need to do is seed it and put cows on it.

 

[Jogeephus]

i dont think i missunderstood him at all.he said he could dig up a tree an cover the hole in less than 15 minutes.but if i decide to go the D8 rout i can get him to run the dozer.he said the backhole would burn less fuel in a day than the dozer.but 1 thing is he is madd at the guy that owns the dozer.because the guy isnt working him this year.

It sounds he is trying to get some work for his backhoe. Just put a pencil to it. If he can dig a stump every 15 minutes then that 4 per hour. Lets be generous and give him 5. Lets assume he is charging $50 per hour. That's $10 per stump. With the average cleacut contains some 100 stems this works out to $1000 per acre or 25 hours per acre. Then you got to move the stumps and pile them so you still got the cost of a dozer on top of that.

If he maintains that he can do it cheaper than a D8 and he is wanting work from you - I suggest you make him put his money where his mouth is. I'd ask him how much it would cost him to stump and pile the land on a per acre basis. Since he says he can do it cheaper than a D8, it should be less than $220 - $250 per acre. If he quotes you less than that, tell him the job is his and you will pay him that amount per acre WHEN THE JOB IS COMPLETE. But I bet you a cold beer he will only want to do it by the hour and he will want payment every Friday about noon so he can make it to the bank before it closes.

Bottom line, don't get hung up on the cost per hour. What is important is the cost per cleared acre. If you must pull the stumps I'd highly recommend a track hoe/excavator. This will still be more expensive than a shear but the stumps will be gone.

 

[Jogeephus]

i have read about a co or someone that will come take the stumps out for some reason...seemed like they would dig em and take em but you had to finish off the field...think..think..think....

I sell my lighter stumps to Hercules out of Brunswick. $6/ton. Used to get more but they bought out the competition and they are the only one on the block. They refine the stumps for the chemicals in them. Make all kinds of stuff out of it from dynamite to makeup.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I don,t think you can get an D8 to run that cheap anymore at least around here. He might find someone to shear them down where he is. A D8 will burn at least 100 to 125 gallons of fuel a day plus wear and tear. Takes a big chunk out of your payday.

 

[Jogeephus]

I don,t think you can get an D8 to run that cheap anymore at least around here. He might find someone to shear them down where he is. A D8 will burn at least 100 to 125 gallons of fuel a day plus wear and tear. Takes a big chunk out of your payday.

May not. Don't know your market. I clear anywhere from 1500 - 2000 acres each year. I agree the price of everything has gone up but even the most expensive vendor here is charging $275/acre. My cost this year for logged land is $220/acre up $30/acre from last year. One machine will clear at least 10 acres per day which costs me $2200 per day or about $13000 a week. The point I'm trying to make is there is no way a rubber tired backhoe can clear this much land. If it could, I assure you I'd be doing it already. If there is anyone who can clear this more land than a D8 for the cost of a backhoe needs to contact me if they want I job. I'll keep him busy.