Might have made a mistake

[cat fever]

I had several gofur mounds and such in my hay pasture. My neighbor was harrowing his fields and ask if I wanted mine done. I said yes. The field looks great except now I have many, many rocks that were pulled up. Looks like I'll be going around putting rocks in my tractor bucket for some time. My field is split in two. Upper section (20 acres) is where most the rocks are. The lower part (11 acres) looks great, barely any rocks.

Sure wish I had a rock bucket right now. :mur: I think I'll add that to my wish list. For those that have rock buckets, do they really work?

 

[johntom89]

no kids in the neighborhood to hire for 40 bucks to do so instead of you?

 

[cat fever]

There are kids, but why work when XBox or Playstation is so much more fun?

When I was younger I did anything to make a buck. Kids now are not the same. Mom/Dad will just give them the money.

 

[BertZegers]

no kids in the neighborhood to hire for 40 bucks to do so instead of you?

I used a cultivator ( setting it to deep?) and than diamond harrows, and it brought up a lot of field stones, on a 36 acre field. They became really visible after a rain! I did not want to run a planter with all the stones.
Me and my wife spend several days picking them up. We used our 4x8ft dump trailer. The tractor bucket would not hold much and I would be driving a lot to dump.
If your area has much field stones, you might be able to rent a "stone picker" machine.

 

[cat fever]

I'll have to look into that, thanks.

I'm in a bit of a time crunch, the field is a mature alfalfa field and already up a few inches. Not a lot of rental places around me. My bucket will hold quite a load of rocks.

 

[johntom89]

idk first hand, but from what i have heard, seen on here and read, your location is just as "bony" as it is here.

are you looking for a quick cheat to hurry up and clear the stones cheap as possible(i know foolish to ask as that is with us all) maybe google to find the cheapest attachment that'll actually work and hold up to real work for years. huge bonus is you will never have to cross this bridge again no matter what the circumstances

 

[cat fever]

The answer is yes, quick and cheap since the temps are warming and the field is growing.


The neighbor who harrowed it has a rock bucket he said I could use, mainly so I could see how well its works with a tractor and if I wanted to buy one. He said it works great on a skid steer because you can see better, not sure on a tractor. He also has a 18' roller that you fill with water and smash all the rocks down. (about 20 tons if full) I'm going to do both and see how it works out. Hopefully I can beat the storm coming in tomorrow.

I'll try and get some pictures if I remember.

Over the years I hope I can get the top of my field as good as the bottom. I doubt I could fill my bucket with rocks from the bottom field. But I'm sure I could fill a dump truck from the top field.

 

[LouNY]

The usability of a rock bucket depends a lot on the soil conditions.
I have this rock bucket / grapple; Titan Attachments 82" Rock Bucket Grapple Skeleton Loader w/ Teeth Skid Steer And even with the 4" spacing between the tines it can be difficult to get the rocks to separate from the dirt, that was in a clody chisel plowed field. A dried sandier soil would have been much better. I can see where a skid steer would be nicer for the visibility of the tine ends. I also had difficulty getting the rocks into the bucket while trying to keep the bucket from digging into the ground. On a hard packed feed lot with round cobble stones that had worked up on top of the ground we had decent luck rowing the stones with a back blade or the box blade the running down the row and using the other blade as a back stop to load the rock bucket.
I don't know what size you are thinking of picking down to, when we drill in a new seeding after tillage is done we go in and pick the larger stone 4-6 inch in diameter sometimes closer to 6-8 and up and then roll the others down with a heavy culti-packer, then we use a no-till drill and stop and pick up the ones that didn't roll in while drilling the field.

Of course for lots of money this is the way to go, we have looked at and watched a few of these in operation they will leave a field in great shape;
Rocks: don’t pick them, pulverize them | The Western Producer

I grew up picking rocks every spring it took longer to pick stone then to plow, harrow and plant. That was using mouldboard plows and spring tooth harrows, chisel plows and discs along with no-till planters have drastically reduced that job, fortunately.

 

[cat fever]

Thanks for the info, the field is firm with grapefruit/football sized rocks sitting right on top.

 

[LouNY]

That size would be rough on a haybine, I don't know what type you are using sickle bar or discbine, that size rock is rough on a discbine.
Good luck with any way you go.
Possible one of the side delivery style rock rakes would help to gather the rocks without digging into the sod much.