Land clearing...what to do next

[Bailey Bradshaw]

Just stumbled onto this site and thought some of you might be able to help me make a few desicions.

I just had approximately 60 acres clearcut in East Texas. Primarily pine with oak and gum stands in lower areas. The soil is sandy with red clay base. The logging crew did a good job of keeping the limb/tops piles contained, so I don't have a great deal of large tops or limbs scatered. I want to make 10 acres of it into pasture for my horses, and will replant the rest with pine for managed harvest in the future.

I have been looking at buying a dozer with brush rake to do cleanup, but have also been looking at the Fecon shredders. I would rent the latter, but sur elike the idea of not haveing to burn all of the piles and mulching the stumps to ground level, especially in the pasture area. Will these machines perform as advertised? Would I be better off just useing the dozer and burning?

Not sure which direction to move first. Thanks for any help

 

[joesawer]

If you are talking about the masticators for clearing stumps and logging debris, forget it, stick with the dozer.

 

[HUSKYMAN]

Dozers are good with smaller stumps, but you need a big dozer to take out stumps over 14-16". I used a backhoe on the roots and then the dozer finishes the job.

No one machine will do everything you want. Dozers are nice but they suck some serious fuel and cost a lot to maintain. I like a full size backhoe (I have a 580 Case) for one machine, but they are useless in loose ground and mud.
4WD helps some. Also when the land is cleared you will find a lot more uses for a backhoe than a dozer.

 

[Frank Boyer]

A back hoe /loader is much better than a dozer for a property tractor. How big are the stumps? How steep is the ground? Do you need a crawler? You may consider a stump grinder or an excavator if you have a lot of large stumps.

 

[Bailey Bradshaw]

I don't plan on keeping the dozer. Just use it to push up the piles and some leveling, then sell it. My father in law has a backhoe that I can use to gid out the larger stumps. I am only concerned abouthte stumps where I will have pasture, and it's only about 10 acres. That is why the Fecon bull hogs peaked my interest. If I can go in and grind the stumps down to level or a couple of inches below, I would rather do that than dig them out. I just want them out of the way so I can mow later on. Thats is really the the focus of my question is whether the bull hogs work as well as they say.

Thanks for the replys

 

[frankyslog]

do fecon bull hogs really work

yes they really do work (very well in fact) providing your matching your stump size to your machines cutterhead horse power configuration.so does a hydra stumper from raco industries. they will do acres of smaller stumps in a day as well. get ahold of your texas fecon rep and have them demo one for you. at your site. you can lease/rent them as well depending on tour needs.good luck with what ever route you choose.

 

[ArtB]

Size matters

Usually just lurk here, but do have 'hobby' experience in land clearing and replanting.

Even if only 10 acres, your are talking serious track hoe mounted brush hog to do anything worthwhile - serious $$ to even rent.

A small backhoe would be a LOT of work compared to a bigger dozer, unless you are talking a big trackhoe (Linkbelt 3400 or bigger).

If only renting a dozer get something at least over 25,000 pounds or you will spend a lot of time spinning your tracks.

Have an old JD440 (10,000# with winch and weights) with brush rake at my cabin (32 ac near St Helens) and it takes over a day to root out just balckberries and slamon berries over an acre for re-planting, and that's leaving all stumps in place.

Have a Ford 4500 backhoe and a JD 450 track loader at my 4 ac backyard at home, and would not attempt to clear 10 acres stumps and all for pasture in anything less than a month of solid work.

I'm in seattle area, the big developers here, when they clear and grade just ten acres, typically use up to 5-10 machines including as big as a D10 and 3 or 4 of the big linkbelt trackhoes for a couple of weeks, which includes logging the 2nd growth.

Have fun.

 

[clearance]

Art B is right, big hoe with a thumb, works great.

 

[cantcutter]

Art B is right, big hoe with a thumb, works great.

I second that.....one can be rented for a week for a grand, it leaves the top soil and you can pile everything up in managable piles. I would just stack it up on the area that you are going to replant with trees and let it rot down.

 

[BC_Logger]

I side with clearnce on this one I would never give up my deere 2554 road builder for a dozer

 

[Gologit]

In any clearing job preservation of the soil base is a given. To keep from disturbing the ground any more than possible you need a machine that will accomplish your goal in as few moves as possible. An excavator with a thumb will probably do the best job for you. With wide tracks and an operator that takes care not to scar the ground any more than necessary you should be alright.
You didn't mention it but are erosion and stream siltation a problem? If you don't have run-off into any kind of waterway consider yourself a lucky man...it's a whole different ball game then.

 

[Totally Stumped]

Hire a dozer guy for a week and burn it. There are hundreds of contractors in East Texas running dozers who could push the stuff up into burn piles for you.

That Fecon attached to a hi-flow skid steer is going to run you $1000/day, beat you to death and might just clear one acre/day. It will NOT grind several inches into the ground-you need to remove the stumps or use a stump grinder on them.

I assume your horses want to eat good grass. Just removing the slash and pulling the stumps is only half the story. You still have to disc it , prepare a seed bed, put seed down, fertilize, etc.

Out of all the equipment mentioned, not one of them will do you a bit of good 6 months from now except a tractor. My vote is for a 60+ horsepower tractor with a pto driven stump grinder on the back and a grapple on the front. You can run an offset disc, batwing mower, fertilizer spreader, etc.

...or just buy 5-10 D10's and and a couple large Linkbelt trackhoes.