I just broke about 5 acres of new ground this spring. Most of it had 12 to 14" red pine stumps on it from being logged before I bought the property. I rented a stump grinder and ground out 400 stumps from my land and trails. I ground the stumps to about 6" below the ground surface. 3 day job.
Then I tried a few different ways to prep the land for planting in the next month or so.
1. I brush hogged the "buck brush" and left the trash where it lays. Then I put down roundup. Then I used a ripper and made successive 3 foot passes....then followed that with a disc and finally a tiller....and finally a drag harrow. Some of the woody trash still needs to be cleaned up....but all in all this worked out pretty well. BUT a LOT of work.
2. Most of my land I brush hogged very close to the ground to shred all the woody material possible. Followed with a round up application as the weeds were starting to grow. Then I hooked up my trusty 5' King Kutter Tiller and tilled the ground in low range 2nd gear (sometimes 3rd). I think I got a nicer job doing this than number 1 above......and a whole lot less trips. Of course my ground is sandy loam.....and all bets are off on other types of soils.
3. Some of my land has too many stumps and rocks.....so I again brush hogged then set my 3 point disc to a pretty aggressive setting and disc'ed the land about two or three passes and followed with our drag pulled by a four wheeler.
Doing it again.....I would immediately go to method number 2 above...if rocks are not a problem. Hope this helps.
