Pasture reclamation advice?!

[jca57jd]

Hey guys,
I have a pasture reclamation job I'm pricing right now. This job is a 2.2 acre track that was loged 3-4 years ago (pretty flat for the most part). I believe that most of the trees were pines in the 18-20" range and most of the stumps seemed to have roted away for the most part. My customer is wanting me to price the land clearing, some grading done for his barn and shop, and replanting the field. He is wanting to turn this into a cow pasture for a few cows. The current condition of this track of land is small sweet gums and pines 3-6", and brush.

I am debating on how to go about doing this job and wanted to ask y'all for your opinions. I know that I can go through and mow this cutover no problem, for the most part, with my bobcat and mower. However my mower doesn't leave the trees completely mulched up like a mulcher does, and it doesn't mow the stumps of in the ground like a mulcher does. I'm thinking about subbing out and letting a mulcher mulch this track and then just Discing the ground with my tractor to plant the grass and grading out for the structures.

What is your opinion on how well I can disc the ground after its mulched?

Here are my options on doing this job.
1. Mow it with my mower on my bobcat, back dragging all the debre and pushing into a burn pile, grading for the structures, and then trying to disc it leaving the small stumps and planting grass.
2. Sub out to a mulcher, grading, then Discing and grassing.
3. Just bring in my 953 track loader and clearing it and pushing the debre into several piles for burning, grading, and Discing and grassing.

I just got my 953 and this would be a fun job but I don't want to have to deal with a major mess and erosion controle.

All in all I think I can have this project done with in a week, so I might be able to get by on the erosion controle if I did do it with the loader. What is your opinion on what you would do in this situation with these options?

Many thanks guys!!

 

[wcampbell47]

Tasked with this I am thinking mulch it and then run the disk over it to chop everything up even finer. No burn piles to deal with. But let me say I have no experience on this type job. A neighbor of mine used a large mulcher to clear a cow pasture. He did not disc it and with wet weather some of the scrub is coming back.

 

[jca57jd]

Thanks wcampbell47

 

[jca57jd]

Alright guys, I called and got a mulching price and figured my prices up on doing it with my loader.
That leaves me with the simple question for y'all.

Can land be diced up after it is mulched for planting grass?

 

[jca57jd]

Disced* up with a tractor and a disc harrow for replanting the field with forages for the cows?

 

[yellowdogsvc]

I don't see why not. I routinely mulch overgrown pastures and almost immediately turn cows out. If the ground is soft and your only dealing with the stumps from 8" trees, i think you can do it. In a few years with some mowing maintenance, you can probably finish pulling the stumps out. But with a big 953, why not just uproot everything then have the mulcher turn it into shreds and then disc everything back into the ground for erosion control and soil amendment? It's an extra step but you eliminate stumps, regrowth, etc and unless there is a lot of rock, the stumps won't be too bad to mulch up.

 

[Carykong]

Although I have never disc plowed a plot that was recently mulched with stumps near flush with the ground, I think you could prepare the ground for seeding by setting the disc at the least aggressive angle so the disc will ride over the stumps
and not get hooked on the stumps. You run higher risk bending your plow set at an aggressive angle. Good luck. post back.