Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture

[My Gym]

I have not had good luck with a tree puller. The type of trees, root structure and ground conditions in my area just do not work. The ground and roots are stronger than the skid loader. If the tree cannot be pulled and the tree trunk breaks, it will leave a spike top that can damage tractor tires. They are great for pulling fence posts, but I can do that with a FEL and a chain.

 

[My Gym]

All in all, there is no single best solution. Number of trees, size of trees, type of trees, soil conditions, slope of land, cost, equipment availability, time, and speed will change what works best. You need to evaluate your situation, needs, and what is the usual practice in your area. How it is dealt with in your area is usually the best indicator. But sometimes thinking out-of-the-box can lead to great solutions. There was a contract in Nebraska to place rock along an irrigation canal banks. All the bidders assumed they would need to build axcess along the banks of the canal. A very labor intensive, costly process. The winning bid was a fraction of every other bid. The bidder placed a barge in the canal with a back hoe on the barge. The bidder would dump rock off a bridge onto the barge. The back hoe was propulsion as well as placing the rock. He made a lot of money on the bid. Have an open mind to ideas. I love the question "How can I best do this?"

 

[suburbanfarmer]

Do not use the forestry mulcher to clear land out. It will leave a bigger mess and twice as much time and effort to clean up. Learnt that the hard way.

 

[My Gym]

All in all, there is no single best solution. Number of trees, size of trees, type of trees, soil conditions, slope of land, cost, equipment availability, time, and speed will change what works best. You need to evaluate your situation, needs, and what is the usual practice in your area. How it is dealt with in your area is usually the best indicator. But sometimes thinking out-of-the-box can lead to great solutions. There was a contract in Nebraska to place rock along an irrigation canal banks. All the bidders assumed they would need to build axcess along the banks of the canal. A very labor intensive, costly process. The winning bid was a fraction of every other bid. The bidder placed a barge in the canal with a back hoe on the barge. The bidder would dump rock off a bridge onto the barge. The back hoe was propulsion as well as placing the rock. He made a lot of money on the bid. Have an open mind to ideas. I love the question "How can I best do this?"

 

[Ed27]

Do not use the forestry mulcher to clear land out. It will leave a bigger mess and twice as much time and effort to clean up. Learnt that the hard way.

Please tell me more about your forestry mulcher experience. An operator can buzz through a property quickly if the owner just wants to get the trees down and pay less. For sure this will leave lots of big tree chunks everywhere! It takes more time to get everything mulched well. What happened? How much acreage?

 

[Ed27]

Cool, a dunebuggy Bobcat!

 

[Jstpssng]

I would go with an excavator equipped with a good operator. 35 acres is a lot of land to clear with a farm tractor, and would be a full time job. I had an old field reclaimed about 10 years ago; first they went through and cut all of the trees, ran it through a chipper, and sold it for biomass power generation. Then they came in with an excavator, pulling all of the stumps and piling them. The top layer of my topsoil went with them though, which is where the nutrients are; so it took me a few years to build it back up. At some point I will go through the piles, run the rotten stumps across a screen and reclaim the soil.
Up here we pay $120/hour for a big excavator, it took him about 20 hours to clear 2 acres. He also raked the soil with the bucket teeth, and got a lot of rocks out along with the stumps.

 

[Xfaxman]

Cool, a dunebuggy Bobcat!

Yep, picture this on the sand dunes :

 

[searcyfarms]

ive used 2 different styles of tree pullers, slow, leave holes that have to be reworked, cant get dirt off roots to fill holes, very big time consumer, need a big machine to pull larger trees, ive never used a mulcher but my neighbor has and liked his results so not exactly sure about the clean up with one of those. I would think it would rot down and compost to some degree, be mowable with a batwing, he never mentioned anything in particular and sold the property.

 

[timbatrader]

My first Question would be why do you want to remove all the trees with 30 acres and only half a dozen horses can you not leave a lots of the trees standing the horse will appreciate the shelter I would be tempted to get a big old 2wd second hand tractor and a heavy duty bushhog you would be surprised how much it will clear mow around the bigger trees with a big old tractor more weight means much more grunt to pull over push over and pile up the bigger trees and typically a big old 2wd tractor has more ground clearance and is much tougher than a little home owner 4wd tractor to handle the knocks and bangs that will happen in a wooded area. every year clear more area as you stock up on firewood and maybe get a few neighbours to collect firewood you end up with a more attractive property and the horses will be better for the shelter