I have around 30 acres that are run over with briars, small saplings(1"to 2" dia), and small 3"to5" trees. There is also another 30 acres that have the same thing, but just around the edges. My initial plan was to rent a small 450/550 size dozer with a root rake, but no one rents one with a root rake. I have a 200ex hitachi excavator, and a 70hp 4x4 tractor with a loader. In my experience the loader bucket just breaks off the small stuff and leaves little tire harpoons, the excavator costs around $300 to move and is awesome on big stumps, but really isnt practical on little stuff like ive got. Time is a factor! I would like to be able to at least put out soybeans this year. Im thinking about trying the dozer with just the straight blade, but hate to push all that top soil off with the trash, what would you guys suggest?
- Thread starter G.Fields
- Start date
Bob Bancroft
Well-known Member
- Location
- Aurora NY
The best tool I have for that is my trenching bucket. I can usually sort of wrap the teeth around a stem a little bit and yank, getting minimum dirt. Certainly better than my dozer. Can you get any kind of thumb? Or build/fashion some shanks, or a root rake on the excavator?
When I bought my place, a good deal of it was over run by rose, blackberry, black locust and other junk. I bought a John Deere 709 rotary on rubber. It cost me a tire or two, but that rotary would eat just about anything smaller than 4" down to ground level. It would eat old fence posts and spit them out. There were times I wish it was a three point, but it was one tough mower. A lot of our pasture was cleared by it, and a lot of hedgerows also fell victim to it. You might want to try a good heavy duty mower on a lot of you problem. It will shatter the roots and crowns of most junk plants well enough that they will rot in just a few years.
You need a small bulldozer with 3 point and PTO. Biggest, heaviest rotary cutter you can find mounted on the dozer. Get one that's "rated" for cutting at least 4" stuff. The larger small trees will probably need to be cut w/chainsaw and stump dozed out with bulldozer. Run over the fields enough times with the rotary cutter so that the brush is all finely chopped. I'm recommending the dozer to save the tires on your tractor. You could save the investment on a dozer by using your tractor and accepting the fact that you'll probably need to buy a new set of tires after it's all over. After chopping? Burn? Disc? Rip? And then---planting soybeans. I recommend a No-Till drill like Great Plains, etc. Remember that the combiner is going to be looking at running the header low enough to do a good job. Stumps, rocks, brush, etc., will interfere with that. You could cut off some of the larger stumps flush with the ground and get them later.
Try skid steer with a brush cutter the root rake. should do the job better and less expansive then other options. Around here you can rent a brush cutter the size of a log skidder.
http://www.forconstructionpros.com/product/10077442/brown-bear-corporation-bc2855-brush-cutter
http://www.forconstructionpros.com/product/10077442/brown-bear-corporation-bc2855-brush-cutter
BushogPapa
Well-known Member
Any other way than using a good Heavy-Duty Bush Hog would take you for ever..
You have 2 tractors..use one on the Bush-Hog and the other with a chain, pulling the largest trees out..
Saplings like2" or less, it don't even notice..
3" Diameter and you had better NOT have anyone around within 50 to 75 Yards..it will throw 3' pieces that far..
I cleared a lot a couple years ago..used my JD 520 and 6' Bush-Hog...
The saplings were more than 4 feet above the top of my exhaust and I could see NOTHING ahead.!!
Not knowing the size or shape of the "clearing" and if there were any stumps was tough..
The rear axle-housing will tip the saplings over and the Bush-Hog will sound like a real Bad Boy, behind you.!
Be SURE to have the front of the Bush-Hog at least 3" to 4" Lower than the rear, so it can pitch the pieces out..
I have done the same thing with our JD "B" in similar stuff..
I use 1st Gear, for safety, if I cannot see ahead..!!
Once you make the 1st round, it is not as bad..
I prefer to run clock-wise around a Land, so the Left wheel is running on already cut.. the blades rotate retreating on the Rt side and attacking on the Left side..so, the Left side gets the cleanest cut..I always over-lap about one Foot, if I am clipping pasture, for a good clean job..
It is advisable to use Dull blades, to shatter the stems and not leave sharp ends..
Ron..
On a side note one time I cleared some blackberry bushes with my Super A. Went over them 3 times with the woods belly mower did a great job. Two years later replaced the front tires because I was tired of repairing the tubes as the thorns worked their way through the tires.
Use the dozer with the straight blade. Do it when it is dry. Push the trees over, then gather a small bunch. Push them about 20ft raising the blade at the same time and roll them over as you push. After they roll, back up and lower blade and roll again. Do this repeatedly untill you get them to the brush pile.Doing it this way will make all the dirt fall off roots and all leaving your top soil. Same as a root rake just a little slower. Take yor time and go slow. Smaller saplings can be cleaned with the teeth on the excavator bucket using them like a rake.
Fritz Maurer
Well-known Member
You're not going to rent anything but a Terra-Mite for 300.00, why not use what you got? Take down the 3-5" stuff with the Hitachi, push it around with the loader. Mow the rest of it. Besides, you can bury stuff with the Hitachi. Dig a hole for the trees and gather up all the junk laying around your yard and throw that down there too. If that is just not workable and you have to rent something, as lumpie says, a track loader with long teeth. I would not be concerned with a 4-in-1 bucket,unless you were going to load a dump truck. A G.P. bucket will work fine. 30 acres? A 955L would not be too much. I would mow it first, it'll be easier to get the overall picture, and make it easier to choose your method of attack. I don't think soy beans is a good first crop. Even with a first-class moldboard job, as soon as the rain washes the dirt down through the roots, they'll start standing up in front of the cutterbar for the first year, until they get crispy enough to get plowed down for good the second year. I would suggest corn for no other reason than the combine will take in less foreign material.
Ken Macfarlane
Well-known Member
Brush mulcher guys will pulverize it all to 3-4" below the surface for some money. They reclaim farm fields pretty quickly since the rocks are gone. For less money here you get escavator w thumb for the 2"+ stuff and bushhog / 1 way disc the rest.
Your tractor with a mounted field cultivator pulled just on top of ground will pull out those briar thickets and drag them to a burn pile. A stump bucket on a skid steer would remove any saplings/small trees very easily and quickly. Use your excavator only on anything big that is left.
stump bucket and grapples
stump bucket and grapples
Over two summers I cleared 20 acres of rock, brush, willows, trees, etc. I have a manure fork with grapple on the skidloader- great for ripping out rooted clumps. Teeth are about 6 inches apart. Backhoe was also good for ripping out small trees, clumps. Then ripping everything with a chisel plow to loosen up rocks, roots, whatever else was in the way. Dozing small stuff is difficult unless you have a root rake- just end up pushing a lot of dirt with any kind of blade or bucket.
My family did dozing and we farmed. Lots of newer equipment now than what we had. We had D6 & D8 with root rake and disk plows. We mowed everything we could ride over. Disk plowed a few years. Run harrowgators to drag off roots to small for anything else. Also a lot of walking and picking up roots. I wouldn't think about soybeans for a few years unless you like working on sycles.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
For $300 to $500 an HOUR!
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
See if you can rent a brush rake for your excavator. It will do the best job and be able to stack a lot easier while removing the least amount of dirt. You can pick stuff up and shake additional dirt off as well. I bush hog will be destroyed if you have 5" diameter tree's. When they were putting out hot spots after a big forest fire that went through my property and cleaning up, they used track hoes with thumbs and the best operators left it looking better than before the fire.
hoosierhog
Member
I had the same problem only on 3 acres and i borrowed a case 580 k backhoe for stumps and saplings and used my heavy duty woods bush hog for briars and weeds and small saplings. And used the loader on the 580 to pile up the brush then burned it all off. now i see the value of a backhoe and im saving up for my one of my own.
Dean Olson
Well-known Member
See If you can rent or hire one of these. I shredded every thing I could then hired a guy with this machine. It turned everything it touched into mulch. Grinds stumps down in a couple minutes. Great for reclaiming land for pasture maybe not so much if you want row crop.
BigMarv1085
Member
Bush hog as much as possible. Take the track hoe and dig or rake accross the larger sapplings. Take your tractor with front end loader and push the downed sapplings into piles and burn. Go over the entire area with a chisel plow or all purpose plow to dig out the roots.
Eldon (WA)
Well-known Member
I've impressed a lot of customers with this JD MX8 mower by reclaiming their back field or mountainside. In the tall stuff I back into it with the mower up and then slowly drop the mower. It shreds stuff up so well you wonder where it all went. This one is for sale...I use my mowers 4 years and then buy new.
For the bigger stuff I use this guy, it will rip out a sizeable tree and bunch up brush in a hurry.
I tear up the roots with this rig.
For the bigger stuff I use this guy, it will rip out a sizeable tree and bunch up brush in a hurry.
I tear up the roots with this rig.
I think youll have about the same effect with a straight blade dozer as an excavator. Spend more time chasin things around burning time and money than getin much done. I have a tracked loader that has teeth on the bucket we use. Works real good. You do sometimes make a hole but its easily covered back up. We also have used our skid steer loader that has a graple and teeth at the botom with good luck as well.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Those machines work excellent but are very pricey to hire out. I imagine his 30 acres would cost thousands to have cleared.
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