Rough/Bumpy Land smoothing

[powerscol]

Call some of you local construction folks and see if they have a land leveler. Here in Colorado I watched a large blade (motor grader) with automatics level a hay field (360 acres) in a few hours. They set the cross grade they wanted on the lazer and the equipment did the rest. It cut the high points to fill the low ( field had lots of irrigation ditches and they were converting to pivot). Once leveled they disked and harrowed, then used a seed drill to plant with a crossing pattern.

On edit, as you want to plant grass, I would kill everything there with herbicide like round-up before starting. once you seed, it will be a pain on what can be done. Your local COOP and USDA or local extension service can also advise you on ways to proceed.

 

[bswiv]

This is not a "tractor" reply but rather a point of consideration for when you do something with the land not set for building.

Look up silvopasture........IFAS......University of Fl.....is a good starting point. And consider longleaf as the stand tree with the grass being whatever you think works best for the animals you chose.

You get to keep the greenbelt and at some point, 15 years or less!, you'll have a few trees to thin hence some $.....and then you let the rest go long.

And, if you plant longleaf there are cost shares available. Call the county forester!

 

[MinnesotaEric]

After mowing first (so you can see what you're doing), hit up your local rental place and rent a tractor and a tiller and go to town.

 

[HurtPhoto]

This is not a "tractor" reply but rather a point of consideration for when you do something with the land not set for building.

Look up silvopasture........IFAS......University of Fl.....is a good starting point. And consider longleaf as the stand tree with the grass being whatever you think works best for the animals you chose.

You get to keep the greenbelt and at some point, 15 years or less!, you'll have a few trees to thin hence some $.....and then you let the rest go long.

And, if you plant longleaf there are cost shares available. Call the county forester!

That was a thought too. I know with greenbelt we would save on taxes plus like you said when it gets thinned we get a return then and in another 15 after that would be more return.

Thanks for the info I'll look more into. When I asked last year about this I needed to have a plan wrote up. Wasn't sure if that's something I could do or if I needed to have some one do it. Will look into more as I get free time. Hard part for me is this is my busy seasoN so finding time is ke .

On a side note, are there any other trees that would qualify for greenbelt? I am ok with longleaf but better half is not a big fan. I liked the idea of selling the straw for landscape, then like you said thinning for pulp wood, and then later long term for lumber. Another thought that was pitched was only farming everyother row so we didn't lose the privacy they created and replanted the rows that were harvested.