Land clearing

[Craig Miller]

Who has turned woods or clear cut into pasture land? Tell me about it. Cost, time, equipment?

 

[JSCATTLE]

I thought I could save money buying timber and turning it into pasture. Luckily 70 acres was pasture at one point and had 10 year old pines growing on it . I was able to get the loggers to shear the pines close to the ground and grind the whole tree for chips. The Bahia grass came back fairly quickly . 40 acres had 25 to 30 year plantation on it . I sold the trees and pushed the limbs and brush into windrows to burn . 3 years later i was able to grind the stumps and brush with a fecon mulcher. I've fed Bahia hay unrolled on that ground for 4 years. It needs lime and I'm going to spray it again this year but it has a good stand of Bahia .i haven't tried to disc this land yet probably won't for a few years. I still have 90 acres to clear . It's been cut for 8 years but the hard wood stumps are still solid. We use this as our deer lease . Ill probably hire someone with a mulcher to do 10 acres at a time . But first im going to get my "pasture " in to shape before tackling more . If I had to do it over again I'd just buy pasture . Ill end up spending more money making pasture plus the loss of revenue by running fewer cows in the process trying to get the grass where it needs to be .

 

[Jogeephus]

I've done it several times but the cost depends on how clean you want it. For grazing pasture I would expect to spend about $300/acre not including seed, lime or fertilizer. If converting to hay field it would cost $900/acre unless you work with nature rather than strong arming it. My most recent hayfield addition cost around $300/acre but I was patient and worked with nature by overseeding annuals and harrowing with an offset harrow between plantings till I had found and removed all the problems stumps. Was cutting hay in four years. Friend was impatient and he went another route and it cost him over $2000/acre and he still wasn't pleased and to this day its still a sore subject with him. I think he learned that Masonic bond is great but when it comes to business its best left at the lodge.

 

[JSCATTLE]

Size of the property you are clearing will determine your price per acre . 40k for a dozer or track hoe . Will add a lot to your price. Around here is 600 a acre to push and pile it . That's still a long way to finished pasture . I agree with the wait and see approach if you just have to clear land . That's what I have done for the most part . But I'm 8 years in and still running 1/3 the cows I could be on 200 acres of good pasture . If I did it again I'd buy a 35000 lb or bigger track hoe to clear it with .

 

[fenceman]

I've cleared many a acre of cedars with a chainsaw and a small tractor. I've used Skidsteers with tree shears. I've hired Skidsteer with forestry attachment. I 've hired dozers. I'm convinced the best way is the biggest dam dozer you can get your hands on.

 

[houstoncutter]

Big dozer with a root rake and someone who knows how to use it.

 

[greybeard]

Who has turned woods or clear cut into pasture land? Tell me about it. Cost, time, equipment?

I did. It's nothing but work and $$$$$. If I had it to do over, I would have left the logging part out, hired a heck of a big dozer to knock it all down, windrow everything, burn it, rake and burn it again and spread the ashes out and level it. No stumps, no holes, not nearly as much time wasted, and no mess. Even if you have the stumps ground to just below ground level, there will eventually be hole everywhere when the below ground part rots out. BTW, taking the land from the forest is the easy part. Keeping the forest from taking it back is the hard part.

 

[ddd75]

some great advice in here.


really to me.. it would depend on how big the trees are.. if you are talking a full on hardwood woods.. you're talking money to clear.. I have a 40 acre tract next to me i'm going to try to buy this fall. it was already cleared in the late 90's but the new owner is just letting it all grow back. (read: lazy) cattle graze it so its still pretty open.. but a lot of 5 - 15' tall cedars and locusts are growing everywhere. They'd be pretty simple to doze out. that'd be about the extent of what i'd be willing to clear.

 

[Lucky_P]

Have no idea, at this point, what it cost me.
Had about a 15-acre plot of 35-40 yr old planted pines and mixed hardwood that were decimated by an ice storm in '94. Had it clearcut, and hired a local guy, husband of one of my coworkers to clear it. He'd initially given me an estimate of $2500... but presented me with a bill for $8500 when he was done. I paid it, but he'll never work for me again, and I'll never recommend him to anyone. Wouldn't p*** down his throat if his guts were on fire.
Dozer piles were so full of dirt that I ended up having to hire someone else, a few years down the road to tear 'em up, repile 'em so they'd burn, and respread the dirt.
It's still pretty rough ground, as stump holes have continued to sink over the years... but it's pasture, not a hayfield.

Would I do it again? Probably. But, in hindsight, I'd do it differently.

 

[highgrit]

Burn the land off and sling some tif-9 bahia grass seed out every year. Spray all the stumps and brush with diesel and Garlon. Killing the stumps is the key, unless you bring in a big piece of equipment. Once the roots are dead I dig them up with my backhoe. A live root holds on to the dirt, time is your friend.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Big excavators up here are the norm. Tear everything out, shake, pile and burn. Dozers work too, are fairly quick at it, but leave more work since there is more dirt to contend with. 7

1000 an acre would be pretty typical. I plan on doing some more soon, but will likely have the bio mass guys in first. They cut everything down that they can grind into fuel, and will even pay a small amount for it. So it will leave me with less to deal with.

I'd even consider buying/renting the hoe myself if I had the time and money, and bought a good machine - pray it doesn't get hurt, and then re sell.

 

[JSCATTLE]

Big excavators up here are the norm. Tear everything out, shake, pile and burn. Dozers work too, are fairly quick at it, but leave more work since there is more dirt to contend with. 7

1000 an acre would be pretty typical. I plan on doing some more soon, but will likely have the bio mass guys in first. They cut everything down that they can grind into fuel, and will even pay a small amount for it. So it will leave me with less to deal with.

I'd even consider buying/renting the hoe myself if I had the time and money, and bought a good machine - pray it doesn't get hurt, and then re sell.

8 years ago they paid me 2 dollars a ton for the fuel chips . I made 6800 dollars off of that part.

 

[TexasBred]

Last I had clearned was about 7 years ago and ended up costing around $400 an acre. No really large timber but a lot fo 6-8 inch post oaks and large cedar. Man had a D-7 with a blade on it doing the pushing and a D-6 with a rake type blade on it doing the piling. Cleared and piled...waited about 30-45 days and set piles on fire. The burn was great as the piles had almost no dirt in them. He then ran both dozers back and forth using the big root blows on the rear. Had mexican boys come along and pick up and big chunks that were ripped out of the ground and burned them.....then ran dozer over the entire place with a huge disc on in cutting it as deep as he could. Planted coastal about 2 weeks later and it started raining while they were sprigging. Got a great stand.

 

[Craig Miller]

Ok thanks for all the advice. I am looking at a piece of land that is clear cut already. The stumps are groung level. Probably 100 acres needs cleaned up. Could you clean it with a tractor and front end loader? Im willing to put in the work if it can be done in a couple years.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

I did 4 acres of 16-30 inch poplars a few years ago. It had been a field years ago, so most of them were peeler grade. With low these low quality trees and paying two guys to help me log I made enough to pay $3,500 for the 14,000 lb 3pt winch I used to log it with. After we logged it I let people cut firewood to cut down on brush. Then the track hoe guy ended up costing $500 an acre to pile what brush was left. I then sowed grass around the stumps and sprayed it with crossbow every year. It has been a lot of work, but I beleive I could not have gotten by any cheaper. If I ever get to do the other 45 acres on that farm I would want to go ahead and buy a 16-20k trackhoe and do the brush myself.

 

[tom4018]

We did about 5 acres a few years back. It had some decent timber on it, cut everything that was worth anything. Hired a guy with a D9 for a really cheap rate ($130 an hour), he pushed all the stumps out and piled everything. Overall not bad, got a couple dozer piles left. Ran a bog over the ground a couple times, put a little winter wheat on it the first year just for a cover crop. When it came time to feed hay I just kept feeding all over it. Fed on half of it pretty heavy then the next fall ran a bog over it again and got it in fair shape to seed. Put a temporary fence around it, then did the same to the other half the next fall. It has turned out fair, not the smoothest ground but none of mine is. I have gotten a decent stand of grass with good clover on it. Overall I think I had it figured up to be about a $1,000 and acre to clear plus me bogging, picking up small stuff, running a disc over it and seeding it.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I am looking at a piece of land that is clear cut already. The stumps are ground level. Could you clean it with a tractor and front end loader?

A hoe for the big stuff. A front wheel assist tractor with a FEL, or a tracked skid steer, works well for the smaller stuff. More spinning with 2 wheel drive.

We have acid soil with a lot of rocks... I usually use a 3 year approach:
1) hoe and bale graze
2) FEL er clean up, lime, no till an annual mix where you can
3) pick, lime, chisel, pick, disc, pick, plant, pick

 

[skyhightree1]

Who has turned woods or clear cut into pasture land? Tell me about it. Cost, time, equipment?

majority of my business is clearing land... I use dozers/track loaders mostly but other pieces of equipment as well. The land I clear is typically for houses. I have cleared some land and turned it into pasture for myself but not very much. Cost depends on a lot of variables. I own my equipment so basically all I have into clearing land for myself is time and fuel/maint costs. I hope whatever land you are wanting to clear doesn't have many good sized gum trees those are the worse.

 

[Dave]

If it is just for pasture and pasture only you can clear off the brush and just leave the stumps. There use to be a lot of places around here referred to a stump ranches. But those big old fir and cedar stumps took a huge effort to remove. I still have a couple of 6 foot tall old growth fir stumps on my place. Those trees were cut over a 100 years ago. Cows will graze around stumps just fine. It doesn't look the prettiest but it is certainly functional.

 

[bball]

Opened up 20 acres or so this winter. Was heavily wooded. Neighbor has a tile and excavation business. Told me to figure on 2000 an acre to get it ready for crops. I opted for cleared and stumps out, cost almost 1200 ac for that. Two very large track hoes, couple dozers, one with root rake, and a few loads of stone to get in and out. They had everything burned down and rough finished in about one months time, working off and on at it. Me and the family went I and picked up any excess debris and loose roots, drug it with a chain harrow and had to disc a few real rough spots. Now, it needs lime and fertilizer, but was too late in the year to get the lime on so I broadcast spread some Ky31 and perennial rye grass to try to anchor something on it. Weeds have exploded, grass so so. .needs sprayed, but weather hasn't cooperated for that at all. One final thought, this guy has some huge heavy machine that busts the stumps out in very large pieces so they don't dig them out. They just cut the trees off, he comes in and busts the stumps out, leaves much smaller hole and stump is gone, smoothed out with dozer. Very satisfied with results. Having said all this, still have 40ac of some wooded group d to work through. Will do this a bit at a time each year myself, leaving stumps to rot or pay him to comeback down the road. Broadcast some clovers and pasture mix. Has worked well in other woods to pasture we have converted. Only spent the money on this as an investment for the kids, if they want to build a home or what not.