restoring pasture-clearing cedars

the fields were cropped until several years ago. Then they grew up in cedars, some 2-3 inch diameter. They were mowed over the summer, at about 6 inches high. Now the neighbor is interested in haying the fields. Any ideas on clearing those stumps other than by hand?

Something like this?
Like this

Fastest, most effective way would be to hire a crawler loader to go in, pop them out, fill in the hole, backdrag the roots out, stack them on a pile and burn them.

If you can find someone who has a shear on a skid loader they can be sheared off at ground level. The people I harvest with cash rent some land that had been in CRP and the cedars had come up in it pretty bad. The landowner took it out of CRP when the contract was up and wanted it farmed. The farm manager had someone come in with a skid loader with a shear and he did a good job. To save a little money the landowner said he'd cut the cedars in one corner of the field. He hacked them off at six inches or so. The land is in a conservation plan and can only be no-tilled so soybeans were no-tilled. That fall (2010) the floating cutterbar hit a stump and it bent the cutterbar to the point where they had to replace it after the season was over. It's too bad your cedars couldn't have been sheared off right off the bat while they can be seen because cutter bars and hidden tree stumps don't get along together very well. The cutterbar on a haying machine is probably tougher than the flex bar on a beanhead bit it's still a bad combination, and Cedars don't rot away very fast. Jim

Who ever mower them off needs to be on the log chain hooking to each one and pulling it out. Mowing off trees in ground that maybe farmed is a big pain. If your hay guy has a sickle type hay mower then he will go nuts replacing sections. You will never get all the stumps. So any you miss will knock out sections.

In the future pull all larger trees before mowing them off. I pull anything bigger than one inch. Just makes life much easier.

Cedars can't stand smoke. Build some fires in and around them and it will kill them dead. I live in a wooded area, in fact its called Cedar Grove Road. I have to be careful where I burn debris to keep from killing the cedar trees I wish to keep. I can't burn within 40' of a cedar tree without risk of seriously damaging or killing it.

I would rip those trees out roots and all. I have pasture full of those things. Makes me wish I had a small dozer. Bewteen them and those locust trees with the nice thorns on them.. Those old Osage orange trees do make SOLID fence posts that will last till the earths last days!!!

If you have a sub soiler for your tractor the easiest way to remove small stumps is to hook them out. Just drop the sub soiler, pull forward as you raise the 3 point hitch. Small cedar trees have no root system to speak of. Ellis

Rent a decent sized mini-excavator with a thumb for a day or two. You can pop them out, shake the dirt off, and windrow them, as you make passes down and back. Excavators are easy to run, so you can be moving quickly in very short order. Then your neighbor can push the windrows up into piles and burn them.

(quoted from post at 12:01:11 01/01/12) If you have a sub soiler for your tractor the easiest way to remove small stumps is to hook them out. Just drop the sub soiler, pull forward as you raise the 3 point hitch. Small cedar trees have no root system to speak of. Ellis

Click to expand...

I don't have cedar but I got other brush that I want out. Plus I have a sub soiler for my 8N, going to have to give that a try in the spring!!!!!

Rick

Maybe rent someting like this little bobcat.
Click here

Raised Xmas trees in the past here...

Some were dug out live and many many were cut off..

I would recommend having someone come in with a Field Cultivator or a Chisel Plow and rip the field up..
Then, pick up every loose stump you see and Plow the field, work it good and pick up as much as you can.
Maybe he could "Rake" them into a pile with the field cultivator..
We Plowed our Xmas tree stumps out with a 4x16 Plow and it was a PITA...!!!
Besides the Pine tree stumps (every 6 feet) and the Grape and Poison Ivy vines, cleaning the plugged plow was a continual Job..!!!
That 2 1/2 acres had around 2,500 Pine trees in it..
That is my advice to you..BTDT..!
Ron.

Crawler loader,s are a thing of the past. Ypu can take a small mini excvator with a thumb, get NO dirt and be twice as fast. Even having a 4 and 1 bucket the crawler loaders are just going by the wayside.

2-3" cedars are nothing, Bush hog the hay for the first year or 2, with a 205 or 305 5' bush hog, with no left side on it, and you'll be rid of the stumps. I was bush hogging, with the ASV, today, and the one 4" cedar I came across, came out the easiest, of anything I mowed, today!
ASV Brush cutter

chuck, If you have a big tractor & shredder with 100HP gearboxes then set the skids on the ground and run slow @ high full throttle and the shredder will rip them out of the ground or cut them off at ground level.
How big are the grass fields and what kind infestation #s did you have before the clearing job was done.
A bobcat and a Tree-shear would have done the job right the first time with out having to go back and Do-Over the job a second time. If you have other areas to do in the future.
The Biggest "Tree Terminator" brand Tree-shear will cut the Mesquites 15 to 20in in diameter. I have cut bigger ones, but it takes 2 or 3 bites, from different angles. When you drive away a Cadillac can drive over it!
Anyway a big tractor and shredder will be the cheapest way out if you have it. If Not then go rent a Bobcat and a tree-shear I think it will do what you need with the least amount of soil disturbance. If you can"t get a Shear then a Sepi-Unit ( Rotary Drum) on a Bobcat will be the next best option IMO!! Hope this helps!
Later,
John A.

This is what I do almost daily clearing land. Small dozer with a root rake. Wind row them and burn. Faster than a mini excavator with a thumb wich would be my second choice.

That example didn't leave much of a hole.

I have an over abundance of very large cedar trees. I have a 30HP MFWD with a front end loader and a 5 foot medium duty brush hog. Cedar trees up to 4 inches I brush hog. On hilly pastures I do not have plans for cultivation, I chain saw the cedars at ground level and leave the stump to rot. In three to four years the stump will decay. On level fields in need immediate cultivation, I remove the entire cedar tree. I have been digging under the roots from the trees drip line to the trunk with the FEL. The tractor stops and the tires start to dig in when I hits the cedar trunk. I then push over the trees with the FEL, shake the tree to remove soil from the root ball and back blade the soil into the hole and tire ruts. The entire tree root balls and all is dragged off to the burn pile. On really large cedar trees, trunks in excess of 12 inches of which I have many, I have to excavate completely around the tree and then push from all directions with the FEL several feet off the ground to topple the tree. This procedure is time consuming and hard on my equipment. <br>The new plan is to first sub soil completely around the tree and then push the cedar tree to expose the root ball and then dig under the root ball with the FEL. In order to get close enough to the tree to hit the roots with the Sub-soiler, I anticipate that I will have to de-limb the bottom six feet of the trunk. Not really a problem because cedars in excess of 12 inches have commercial value and needed to be delimbed for market. I will let you know how the sub-soiler method works out.

Skid steer with a stump bucket. Dig, push, lift 'em out with stump bucket, back drag dirt into hole and move to next stump. Gather, carry and pile stumps with a root grapple.
stump bucket