Clearing Pine Tree stumps

[leonz]

I've just had 5 acres cleared of basically pulpwood pine trees. The logger cut the trees about 3 to 6" above the ground, and left the stumps in place. The stumps range from 3" up to 9" in diameter. I'm wanting to grub up the stumps, and disc out the pasture for horses, but have been unable to find a ripper plow small enough to pull behind my JD 4010, 85hp diesel besides a single blade attachment. The tractor is in excellent shape, but all the rippers I've seen are like 5 to 7 row plows, that would require a much larger tractor to pull. Anybody got any ideas on where I might look?

About your slash leftovers,

You will need to rent a small dozer with a
six way blade to peel the stumps out.

 

[Ed of all trades]

If you are not in a hurry just push the brush in piles and burn. keep it bush hogged for a few years, cutting over the stumps. Then after the stumps rot lower the bush hog and take the stumps out. I did this on about four ac. and it worked well.

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you are not in a hurry just push the brush in piles and burn. keep it bush hogged for a few years, cutting over the stumps. Then after the stumps rot lower the bush hog and take the stumps out. I did this on about four ac. and it worked well.

Some times they rot quick, especially hardwoods, however I had one pine stump that I cut off 3 years ago and it was still solid as a rock. Had to dig it up with the backhoe to get rid of it.

 

[Gary Fowler]

About your slash leftovers,

You will need to rent a small dozer with a
six way blade to peel the stumps out.

I wouldn't even think of using a dozer to get out stumps, you would end up with hundreds of holes and stumps piles full of dirt that wont burn. If you were to rent a machine, get an excavator in 20-30,000 pound size with thumb and front mounted blade and uproot them with on swipe of the hoe, pick up the stump, shake off the dirt and stack them and fill in the holes. We had a dozer clear our fence line, taking out the underbrush and most of the trees and ended up with more dirt than wood. Ended up about 18 month later, getting another dozer to roll all the wood out and move it further from the fence line where we could then burn it and luckily the dozer owner was able to leave the dozer for a week or so and we had him spread out the dirt and ashes after ward which was full of barbed wire, steel fence post, rocks and tin from an old shed that was pushed out also. Dozers are good for moving dirt but not so great for digging stumps, although the size stumps that you mentioned it would likely do a fine job of getting them out of the ground, but for the same money an excavator can do it faster and neater.
I think a 3/8" chain and your tractor will be able to get them with ease, just going to take some time. If you have a back blade or box blade, you could fill in the dirt after pulling the stumps.

 

[creekbend]

Some times they rot quick, especially hardwoods, however I had one pine stump that I cut off 3 years ago and it was still solid as a rock. Had to dig it up with the backhoe to get rid of it.

When I cleared the way for our Driveway, I had to cut a huge Yellow Locust at ground level. BTW, this was the only large tree that I had to cut down. I left the other trees. That Yellow Locust stump is still not completely rotted and that was 14 years ago.

 

[UncleBuck1]

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you; I want to clean up about 25 acres of pine clear-cut and I just purchased a JD 4020. After spending a fair amount of time researching this I came to the realization that this is not a job for a tractor... not even a big ol' honking 4010 or 4020.

What I would suggest is that look into having have someone shear and rake your property. Average cost is about $350 an acre (although it may be a little more for just 5 acres).

Here's a couple of links that describes what I'm talking about: RFC online - Site Preparation

http://txforestservice.tamu.edu/uploadedFiles/Landowners/Mechanical Site Preparation.pdf

http://www.forestry.alabama.gov/PDFs/ResourceSheets/Timber/Site Prep/Mechanical_Site_Preparation.pdf

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

It can be done. I've used an older JD855, 24hp, hydro to grub up to 9" stumps
I use a sub soil tool and chain over a car tire rim to gain pulling leverage.
It may not be a done in one weekend project, but it don't cost much.
Good luck
--------

 

[LouieJunior]

Have you considered grinding them? You have plenty of HP to run a PTO stump grinder and this approach would be faster than pulling them out individually.

 

[Beltzington]

Worked for me for <6" pines. Single root pines typically pull out easily and my tractor is much smaller than yours. Two people speed up the process unless you are looking for a cardio workout.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Have gave any thought to renting a mini Ex. Around us a 9-10K machine rents for about $800 a week and would do a GREAT job with pine stumps. Plus you can stack them or put them on trailer for removal... Just a thought

It will be a lot of trailer loads. I've been digging pine stumps from a row of pines planted along the road on a new farm we picked up and a 7'x14' dump trailer fills up fast and that is with me trying to stack them like a puzzle to maximize space. Ideally if you can pull them up and knock most of the dirt off them then push them into a pile and light it up. I burn what I can but can't burn under the utility lines along the road so I have to haul my stumps out.

Also, if using a mini ex to dig stumps be careful. It is real easy to damage a hydraulic line/cylinder if a stump rolls back. I had to replace the thumb ram because a stump rolled and sheared the fitting off the cylinder.