Getting small stones out of top soil?

tomstractorsandtoys · Jul 25, 2022

I recently had several underground power lines installed across our farm as part of a solar project in the area. They have done a good job of regrading but have left a huge amount of small gravel in my top soil. Is there a machine we can run through to get this out? If I only grew corn and soybeans it would not be as much of a problem but we chop lots of hay and small grain silage and those little stones will end up mixed in with the hay windrows and are very hard on chopper knives. They are not great on combine sickles when cutting beans either. They have tried a stone rake with poor results. What do commercial landscapers use when putting in house yards or commercial building sites? Tom

DoubleO7 · Jul 25, 2022

They likely use screened dirt.

Are the stones native to your soil there?

If not they should not have contaminated the site with such.

The agreement that allows them to install what the did likely specifies the site to be restored to previous condition, etc. etc.

SkipperII · Jul 25, 2022

Landscapers usually use topsoil that has been run through a trommel, or screen deck that sift out any stones or debris.

Bruce from Can. · Jul 25, 2022

There is a fella that hires himself and his equipment doing just the job you are asking about here where I live. He has a machine that he pulls behind his 300hp tractor, and it grinds up stones/rocks as big as your head. The machines working width is equal to the width of his tractor. It goes across the field at less than 1mph. Much of his work is refurbishing ground where a fence row has been removed. Needless to say smaller stumps get ground up too. Large stumps must be dug out with an excavator, but typically leave behind a lot of roots. These roots are just chewed to nothing. While I have no idea what he charges per hour, I do know that he has done the 300 acres of land he crops. And apparently the crushed stone dust releases quite a few minerals and trace elements trapped in the stone, making them available to the crops. He farms absolutely zero tillage. Maybe Google or search YouTube for someone doing this. Who knows, there could be somebody near you doing this very thing as a custom operator

Sam Womer (PA) · Jul 25, 2022

You need a Rockhound that attaches to a skid steer. I includes a rotary rake that kicks the stones into the loader bucket and leaves the soil behind.
Any well-equipped rental should have one to attach to your skid steer or their rental unit. HTH Google RockhoundSRW

tomstractorsandtoys · Jul 25, 2022

Sam I think you have the machine. It looks like it does to 3/4 inch. I would prefer 1/2 but I am going to start seaching rental places for one. Thanks Tom

tomstractorsandtoys · Jul 25, 2022

Our top soil does not have stones but the subsoil does. They dug off the top soil and piled the rest on top the ground. The mess came from
when they tried removing the subsoil that was piled. In hindsight they should have pushed back the top soil and then did the line and then
regraded with the topsoil. The mess then would have been buried rather than on top. Or they should have hauled the subsoil away as they dug it
and then sorted it off site and hauled back what was needed. Tom

BarnyardEngineering · Jul 25, 2022

Rockhound only works the surface of the soil. Next time you till the ground it will bring up more gravel.

The reality is you will never get rid of it.

What kind of "small gravel" are we talking about here that is hard on sickle knives? We don't pick anything smaller than your fist, otherwise we would never stop picking. After seeding we run the cultimulcher with the tines retracted, or a heavy smooth roller across to pound the small stones back in.

coonie minnie · Jul 25, 2022

Have you talked to the contractor about it? Perhaps they can cover the rockhound?? As Barnyard Engineering mentioned, it will take a while to exhaust the plow layer if tilled. Other option is no-till once picked- saves me a tremendous amount of stone picking.

1948CaseVAI · Jul 25, 2022

It's not like the contractor hauled gravel to your field to pollute it. It would be completely unreasonable to expect the company that buried the line to remove material that was in your ground.

To get soil free of gravel sounds like a garden-sized project, not a crop field.

showcrop · Jul 25, 2022

Harley Rake

tomstractorsandtoys · Jul 25, 2022

My topsoil was totally free from rock before they started so I do not think wanting top soil back without rock is unreasonable. I talked with
the contractor before they started and told him what I expected and was told no problem they would do it. Tom

rrlund · Jul 25, 2022

Plow it slow and deep. Going slow, those small stones should slide off to the bottom of the furrow and get buried.

tomstractorsandtoys · Jul 25, 2022

I think the rock is just on top. They dumped the dirt on top the ground as they dug it out. They used about 2 ft of compacted fines around their line. Most of the mess was made when the tried to clean up what they did not use. I will have to do some tillage and deep rip this fall for soil compaction but after that we will do a fair amount of notill. I am planning on contacting Mid States and see if they a Rock Hound to rent. I am working with a foreman that does not seem to care but I left his boss a message this morning. I hope to get this fixed without going further. Tom

fixerupper · Jul 25, 2022

Tom, I am with you on this. The contractor should have returned the topsoil to the surface where it came from. Your crop will not do as well forever over that trench if the gravel is on the top.

coonie minnie · Jul 25, 2022

We had a gas pipeline cross our place 19 years ago. I'll share from experience being friendly to the contractors got us a lot further than those who were not. In the meantime, working with them is never fun ;(

caterpillar guy · Jul 25, 2022

I don't worry about stones smaller than your fist or even a softball or I would never get done. I found 30 years ago if hay is not raked after mowing for chopping I didn't have stones going in the chopper knives. We raked some one time and that was the end of that. You could hear those little stones going through. the knives looked like you just sat and hit them with a chisel all over the edges.

tomstractorsandtoys · Jul 25, 2022

I talked to 2 different people this morning and it looks like we are going to get a Rock Hound for a few days. They have 2 landscapers coming to look this afternoon but I would prefer if they did it while I worked with them. Most likely go through it one time then I will chisel plow and they will make a second pass. Just need to get this cleaned up so I can seed it and then they are going to mulch and add straw rolls for erosion control. It looks like the fellow I dealt with first is out of the picture and these other two seem workable. I even offered to pay the machine rent if they would put it on their skidloader and their driver. I am waiting for a phone call back with the final plans. Most of these guys seem reasonable to get along with. Tom

tractornate · Jul 25, 2022

Id say it would be completely unreasonable to not put it back in the
condition it started in. If it didnt have rocks in the topsoil before, it
shouldnt have them now.

ss55 · Jul 25, 2022

Would it work to roll the area any time the ground if torn up for new seeding? A wide roller like is used to roll soybeans after planting to press the rocks and stones below the surface.

Absent Minded Farmer · Jul 25, 2022

Stone burier rototiller.

<iframe width=560 height=315 src=https://www.youtube.com/embed/A5D0NcCALNg title=YouTube video player frameborder=0 allow=accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture allowfullscreen></iframe>

They do make them for smaller tractors, like my BCS.

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Mike

coonie minnie · Jul 25, 2022

Sounds like you got it. They are hired to get the job done, and it gets done quicker if everyone is happy. Smiles go a long way. With the gas line project we had some special requests, but they got it done, and went above and beyond. In the end we got a bunch of scrap pipe- can't say I've had to buy a culvert since...

RLA · Jul 26, 2022

Where I live I wouldn;t know what it would be like to farm without stones? If we picked all the sones we'd have lake bed . Any field that
it planted for hay crops we use a John deere culipacker, gets rolled befor it;s planted & once after. Each year tons of stone/rocks are
picked off & put into the farm roads. In NW Pa. it's never ending job.

calf · Jul 29, 2022

Sounds like you may have a solution, but in case you do not.

There are machines similar to potato harvesters/diggers that get the rocks out of the soil. Not sure how small a stone they will pick up. See link below. Also, if the problem does not get fixed or will take a few years, can you farm so the strip where the pipeline was put in can be harvested differently?

Also, I don't think I would want to just bury the stones, they will probably come back up.

Anyway, good luck and please report back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjT6dSQS0ZA

This post was edited by calf on 07/28/2022 at 11:16 pm.

Getting small stones out of top soil?

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