David:
I have had personal experience with your situation and I have a few thoughts.
First, you must weigh time versus money. If you need this done as soon as possible, your only option is to hire a professional to get the results you want. If you can take time, and here I mean 2-3 years, you can do it all yourself.
We had 75 acres of mixed hardwoods and pines logged on our property in 2004. In 2005, I planned a budget of $5000 to remove stumps and burn tops to open a 5 acre field that we could use as pasture, row crops, or whatever. This was in an area that was clear cut, with select cut areas north and south of the field. I hired a guy with a track hoe to dig stumps, and he ate up $3500 of my budget in a couple of weeks, cleared about 1.5 acres, and left 3 piles of stumps in the middle of my field. I then hired a guy with a dozer and root rake that piled and burned slash on about 1 additional acre of the field and was able to completely burn one of the three piles of stumps. The dozer work costs me about $800 for one day's work. This netted me about 1 acre on the east side of the field and a little more than an acre on the west side of the field, and approximately 3 acres in the middle that remained a mess. I used my Kubota L185 and a 4' disc harrow to plow the open areas of the field and let the area between the two cleaned parts grow up in weeds, sweet gum trees, tallow trees, and a few young pine trees, because the skidder ruts in this area were too deep and too scary to tackle with my small tractor. I plowed the open areas twice yearly, and made small forays into the edges of the center area with the disc and bush hog, and decided to try to get the center area cleared up this summer.
With the help of a couple of neighbors with small tractors we were able to get the center part bush hogged this summer and had started to disc it when a crew moved into an adjacent area that had just been clear cut and was being prepped for replanting. I was able to get them to bring a dozer with a V blade in for 3 hours at a cost of $300 and they leveled the entire field, and pushed through my two remaining stump piles and leveled those areas out for me. I was amazed that the stumps in the two brush piles had rotted down to almost nothing. We had a pile of debris after the dozer work that would barely fill a pickup truck bed.
I am confident that with time, you can clean up your field with your tractor and save some money. Just use your FEL to make a pile of the dried slash, spray on a little diesel, and set it alight. Plow around the pile to a distance you are comfortable with, wait for a day with no wind, start the fire when the area is damp, and you should be OK.
A couple of other points; the forestry service may come out and do the burning for you; I know that they offer that service in Louisiana, but it may have been contingent upon you reforesting the area. You might also check with the state agriculture agency, as they may be able to offer you assistance with burning the slash if you plan to convert the area to pasture. Also, we found that the piles of ashes remained hot and could have been a fire danger as much as a week after we had the slash pile burned. It was mostly branches, and tops from young pine trees, and while the area was covered by soil and ash, I was still a little apprehensive about fire getting out for a few days after we burned the slash pile.
Good luck with your project, and remember that if you want to use the whole area now; hiring a professional to do the cleanup is your best option.
I have had personal experience with your situation and I have a few thoughts.
First, you must weigh time versus money. If you need this done as soon as possible, your only option is to hire a professional to get the results you want. If you can take time, and here I mean 2-3 years, you can do it all yourself.
We had 75 acres of mixed hardwoods and pines logged on our property in 2004. In 2005, I planned a budget of $5000 to remove stumps and burn tops to open a 5 acre field that we could use as pasture, row crops, or whatever. This was in an area that was clear cut, with select cut areas north and south of the field. I hired a guy with a track hoe to dig stumps, and he ate up $3500 of my budget in a couple of weeks, cleared about 1.5 acres, and left 3 piles of stumps in the middle of my field. I then hired a guy with a dozer and root rake that piled and burned slash on about 1 additional acre of the field and was able to completely burn one of the three piles of stumps. The dozer work costs me about $800 for one day's work. This netted me about 1 acre on the east side of the field and a little more than an acre on the west side of the field, and approximately 3 acres in the middle that remained a mess. I used my Kubota L185 and a 4' disc harrow to plow the open areas of the field and let the area between the two cleaned parts grow up in weeds, sweet gum trees, tallow trees, and a few young pine trees, because the skidder ruts in this area were too deep and too scary to tackle with my small tractor. I plowed the open areas twice yearly, and made small forays into the edges of the center area with the disc and bush hog, and decided to try to get the center area cleared up this summer.
With the help of a couple of neighbors with small tractors we were able to get the center part bush hogged this summer and had started to disc it when a crew moved into an adjacent area that had just been clear cut and was being prepped for replanting. I was able to get them to bring a dozer with a V blade in for 3 hours at a cost of $300 and they leveled the entire field, and pushed through my two remaining stump piles and leveled those areas out for me. I was amazed that the stumps in the two brush piles had rotted down to almost nothing. We had a pile of debris after the dozer work that would barely fill a pickup truck bed.
I am confident that with time, you can clean up your field with your tractor and save some money. Just use your FEL to make a pile of the dried slash, spray on a little diesel, and set it alight. Plow around the pile to a distance you are comfortable with, wait for a day with no wind, start the fire when the area is damp, and you should be OK.
A couple of other points; the forestry service may come out and do the burning for you; I know that they offer that service in Louisiana, but it may have been contingent upon you reforesting the area. You might also check with the state agriculture agency, as they may be able to offer you assistance with burning the slash if you plan to convert the area to pasture. Also, we found that the piles of ashes remained hot and could have been a fire danger as much as a week after we had the slash pile burned. It was mostly branches, and tops from young pine trees, and while the area was covered by soil and ash, I was still a little apprehensive about fire getting out for a few days after we burned the slash pile.
Good luck with your project, and remember that if you want to use the whole area now; hiring a professional to do the cleanup is your best option.
