How do I Reclaim a Field ?

[Buck]

Glenn,

The ditch is 65" wide. I'll try to get some photos today. Yes it is wider than necessary, but I dont see this as a disadvantage. I've put curves in it and smoothed the reclaimed area to look and function as if the ditch was a natural creek.

I plan on leaving the ditch this wide until next year to see what the effects of erosion will bring. If I don't get smooth sides, I will smooth the sides myself using FEL or tiller or scraper or combo.

If you were to use a backhoe, my guess is that this natural smoothing would occur as well and you might have to maintain the ditch more frequently than a wider one.

I moved the dirt into piles which I scraped over severely rutted areas and smoothed these areas with the scraper without tines.

Buck

 

[Buck]

Glenn,

Here is the view from the boxscraped ditch.

Buck

 

[Buck]

Glenn,

Here is another view.

Buck

 

[em14]

That's a nice way to do gentle drainage ... time and nature will weather it and smooth out the vertical sides of the ditch ... I also like the use of grass in the ditch ... nice job

 

[RMEADOWS]

E,
I have about 7 acres I started the same project on. Did you just chain saw down all the 3-4 inchers? Did you burn or haul off all the debries?

I cut trees like crazey but never seem to make headway. Did it seem like that to you then just "opened up?"

Thanks

 

[Egon]

My field did not have many trees above 3 inches on it except for several areas where they were up to 8/10 inches. I dug them all out roots and all and used the wood for evening fires.
My bigest problems were smaller bush patches which wer also dug up roots and all and then leveled out again.

Soon there may be some pictures.

Egon

 

[jtn]

I would agree with the disk approach.

First, use a brush hog to shred everything. Then get someone with a HEAVY disk to gove the area a good once over. You could do it yourself but it will take many, many passes with a 3pt disk and you will still need to dig up some of the smaller stumps.

I reccomend a heavy Rhino disk or a Rome clearing disk. I have used a Rhino pulled with a John Deere 4020 to reclaim some pretty bad areas.

JT

 

[ScottAR]

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.romeplow.com/productinfo.html>http://www.romeplow.com/productinfo.html</A>

Link to Rome plow. Give ya an idea of the type of equipment. Note the weight. Usually about 1,000lb per foot. Gets those blades in the soil.

 

[Gary]

Hi All,
First, thanks for all the advice you've givin me so far. It would seem the general opinion on the first step is to cut the brush with a rotary cutter. So, I've been on the hunt for a 5' or 6' rotary cutter. I haven't found much used (in opperating condition) in my part of the country, so I began looking for a reasonable new one. The best deal I've been quoted so far is on a 5' Woods Model 60 Brush Bull for $806. I've gotten other quotes in the area on the same one as high as $1100 so this seemed pretty good, is it ?
Thanks,
Gary

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue> It would seem the general opinion on the first step is to cut the brush with a rotary cutter. So, I've been on the hunt for a 5' or 6' rotary cutter. I haven't found much used (in opperating condition) in my part of the country, so I began looking for a reasonable new one.</font color=blue>

Hi Gary,

How about just renting one, unless you plan to use it for lots of other jobs? I just rented a landscape rake last weekend.. got it from Sat at 1pm until Mon morning at 8am, for $56. Plenty of time to get my work done without rushing. Just a thought..

Bob