thinking of turning rough land into farmland

[lduren]

My land has been allowed to grow however it wants for a long while. I am working on uploading the pictures that I took today of the land. There are trees on this part of the property, most of the pine trees are around 4 or 5 inch diameter, though there are some about 12-14" diameter. There are also oak trees on the land, though I did not pay attention to them since they would only be firewood unless they are big enough, then I will probably keep them.

* I would like to harvest the pine trees and make a little money off of them in the process.

The part of the land that I want to clear is about 800 feet by about 1500 feet. the pictures are at the entrance of it. There is a wide part cut through the middle of it. This is what is in the pictures. Other than the wide part, hte rest is freely grown bushes, oaks and pines.

I am thinking of clearing up my land and turning it inot farmland to grow possibly hay. I have been thinking of ways to clear it up. One would be to use a 55 engine horse tractor, and a root grubber to pull up each small tree and brush, roots and all. I would not be able to pull up the bigger trees though. I calculated that if I was able to clear up 20 square feet in a minute, then it would take 120 8 hour days to clear up what I want to clear up. Then I would presumably have most or all of the roots pulled up.

another possible way to clear it up would be to use an attachment on the front end loader that has metal fingers that extend into the soil, and rip up the roots this way. This would be faster.

another possible way would be to use a root grapple on the front end loader. This does not look as strong as the metal finger attachment described above. This is the kind that is able to pick up piles with two "grabbers" on the attachment.

yet another way t clear it up would be to get a bulldozer, attach some kind of metal fingers to the blade and go at it that way.

 

[lduren]

Here are the pictures

 

[sweettractors]

Here are the pictures

Here is the least expensive alternative. A disc plow will cut the roots into short pieces so the can decompose quicker. If the root is too big for the plow to cut, it simply rolls over it. $695 + Cheap Shipping. Ken Sweet

 

[teg]

I would just brush hog / shred anything below 2" in diameter. No need to dig up everything. You should be able to push over some of the larger trees with 55hp tractor...

 

[lduren]

Hey Ken, I checked out your website, that is interesting.

 

[lduren]

I forgot to say that I would like to harvest some of the volunteer pine trees if possible. I will edit the original post.

 

[General Lee]

Get yourself a tooth bar for your tractor bucket. Bush hog what you can and push over what you can with the tractor. That tooth bar will really help pluck out the rootball on most manageable trees. You'll be surprised what that 55hp tractor will do, that is assuming you haven't tried doing this type of work with it.

 

[lduren]

Get yourself a tooth bar for your tractor bucket. Bush hog what you can and push over what you can with the tractor. That tooth bar will really help pluck out the rootball on most manageable trees. You'll be surprised what that 55hp tractor will do, that is assuming you haven't tried doing this type of work with it.

Yes, but I want to harvest the pine trees if possible, so I might be left with stumps flat to the ground.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have cleared a lot of land like what you described. What I have found is that on trees up to 8" I can fairly easily knock them over with my TN65 which is a 52 horse tractor. If the tree doesn't want to go over I start digging witht he bucket at the base into the roots. It will then push over easier. Any tree that is too big to get pushed over will need an excavator to dig it out or you will want to leave it stand and farm around it. If you cut it off and leave the stump you will most likely find it with something you shouldn't. As for the small brush, I brush chopped it all down then plow it under with a 3 bottom, 14 inch plow. It will pull up the roots and the first two years are a hassle but what I do is as I plow, disc and cultimulch I keep stopping and picking up the larger root stumps. I plant the field into corn the first couple years as it allows me to keep working the ground and kill off the weeds and such with a couple years of good weed control on the corn ground. Around the third year almost all the roots are gone and the ground is smoothed out, weed free and the soil is in better shape as I do soil tests each year the first few years on any new field to build it up properly (then every other year after that). The third year I will plant it into a small grain unless I feel the need to plant it to hay right away. Planting it to a small grain allows me to use a different weed spray on it that helps eliminate any weeds that the spray program I use on corn ground may not have been as effective with. There isn't usually too much weed issue but it does help. Then after harvest I notill in the hay seed into the grain stubble unless there is an issue with the field where it needed to be plowed again.

It is a very fun project reclaiming farm ground. I have reclaimed around 75 acres over the last 10 years using my TN65 for most of it and a John Deere 450G dozer for a month to clear the heavily overgrown vineyards. One month with that dozer cleared a lot of ground and I only used it after work and on the weekends. I just dropped the blade at the end of the row and pushed all the posts, vines and wire in to the middle of the field and made huge piles and set them all on fire. The wires were the biggest challenge because of the tracks but its just a case where you have to pay attention. I could have done it all with my tractor but the dozer was a friends and didn't cost me a dime to use. I have since cleared 3 acres of vineyard with my tractor and that was more labor intensive as I had to pull the wire first, pop each post seperately with the loader then get everything off the ground so I can brush chop the vines before plowing. Its in its second year of corn now and the field is smoothing out nicely.

If you have a lot of large trees though I would look at renting a large excavator for a day or two as they can remove the biggest trees quickly and then you can take your time on the rest of the ground with your own equipment. I am almost done clearing land now though and only have to clear up the edges on a few of my existing fields to push back the woods that have been encroaching for a lot of years. Once their done this spring I will be sad as I will not have anymore to reclaim I really do love it

 

[Egon]

Look into a dozer with a root rake for after the Pine lumber trees are harvested. :thumbsup:

Or look into more horsepower and a heavy disk.:thumbsup: