Rake reclaiming pasture

[J9s]

I have a side-hill pasture that had extensive terracing work done last fall. Retaining walls built from boulders and ditches that have subdued the snow-melt runoff--it's terrific. Mulch hay was spread last fall & this spring it will need to be harrowed. But this ain't your garden. Rocks, tree roots (stumps are gone), churned up blackberry canes. Part of the plan is to expose all the junk so it can be picked up. I need advice on what best sort of attachment to use. My 'tractor' by the way, is a smallish ATV. Thanks...

 

[IslandTractor]

Pictures would help. How wide are the terraces? I'm thinking a landscape rake might be useful for collecting the debris. How will you mow it with an ATV? There are tow behind gas engine powered "bush hogs" that would probably do the trick.

 

[J9s]

Pictures? hmmm. see what I can find & see if I can figure out how to upload them. The terraced areas are quite wide; mini-pastures, almost. Some areas just need to be stirred up & reseeded. I'll mow it with 2 horses.

 

[IslandTractor]

If you are just looking to scrape up debris then I'd go with a landscape rake. I've seen small 4-5ft versions designed for ATVs but don't have any experience using them. If you are not familiar with this type of rake google York rake or just check out the major manufacturers like Woods, Landpride, Rhino, Bush Hog, King Kutter etc as they all make them for tractors with 3pt hitches. You would need a tow behind model and I cannot recall who makes those but a search on tow behind landscape rake should turn up some hits.

Here is what I am talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiyFsQUSuBQ

 

[J9s]

Well. If the picture uploaded, you can get an idea of what I've got. In the foreground, an easy area--some rocks but no roots. It used to be soupy wet until August. Uphill of the skidder, you can make out the second retaining wall. Behind that used to be rotten stumps, rocks and dense brush. In between the two walls is mostly weedy wasteland. Part of it was used hard last fall while the woodlot to the left was harvested. We're still mostly under snow by the way.

 

[J9s]

Nifty thing, that rake. Looks like it could be much more effective than a drag. Will look into it further.

 

[IslandTractor]

On rereading your original post it seems like except for the rocks everything else will rot with time so long as you just mow it or the horse's mow it for you. If there are stumps left you might want them removed as horses can hurt themselves falling into rotted stump holes in the future.

 

[J9s]

the stumps are gone and so are all the bigger rocks...you should see the back wall! The blackberries are more likely to take root than rot. And everything needs to be smoothed out.

 

[IslandTractor]

I doubt you can pull out the blackberry bushes roots effectively. Best way to handle them is to mow regularly. If the horses don't eat them then mow them once a month or so until they die out. Roundup might be another solution.