parisq
Member
Great forum. I'm a newbie to medium-heavy equipment and reading this forum has been a great education. Some questions for the experts. I'm a new farm owner with 150 acres in central New England and need to clear 5 to 10 acres of heavy field brush. The field is a hodge-podge of vegetation. Most is waist length soft weeds and plants but some are 7' tall, 10' round bushes and 2-4" saplings. There is also a couple acres or so of trees (4-8' dia and 20-40' tall) that I need to clear out.
The brush field is very rocky (rocks 2" to 12" plus with, I'm sure, some Yugo-sized buried boulders). My plan is to do the field clearing with a tracksteer (ASV 100hp) with either a brush cutter (Davco?) OR a mulcher (Magnum, Fecon or FAE). My preference is a mulcher as it can both clear the field and grind down some of the trees. My question has to do with the rocks in the field. I'm concerned about destroying or prematurely wearing the cutting blades on the mulcher in the field on rocks hidden by the brush. Is this a legitimate concern? If so, is there a technique to clearing rocky field with heavy brush that takes out the brush but doesn't ruin the cutting implement (whether rotary or drum)? Once the field is cut I plan to sift it with a rock rake to make future cutting less an issue. The field will be used primarily as pasture for horses. Thanks in advance.
The brush field is very rocky (rocks 2" to 12" plus with, I'm sure, some Yugo-sized buried boulders). My plan is to do the field clearing with a tracksteer (ASV 100hp) with either a brush cutter (Davco?) OR a mulcher (Magnum, Fecon or FAE). My preference is a mulcher as it can both clear the field and grind down some of the trees. My question has to do with the rocks in the field. I'm concerned about destroying or prematurely wearing the cutting blades on the mulcher in the field on rocks hidden by the brush. Is this a legitimate concern? If so, is there a technique to clearing rocky field with heavy brush that takes out the brush but doesn't ruin the cutting implement (whether rotary or drum)? Once the field is cut I plan to sift it with a rock rake to make future cutting less an issue. The field will be used primarily as pasture for horses. Thanks in advance.