PTO Mulcher Considerations and Reviews

[Hay Dude]

So I'm ordering the 7060 after much debate whether I wanted a hydrostatic (large) compact tractor like the MX600.

Then I contacted my dealer the other day to see if I can change; well the MX6000 on their lot I was looking at has sold and those those are backordered to July AND Kubota just jacked up the price of their MX line by $2K (probably because there's so much demand for them). The value proposition is a bit eroded when compared to either larger utility tractors like the 7060 or the more luxurious (but similarly sized) Grand L60, in my opinion at least. For me the MX ship has sailed and I've double-downed on the larger M7060.

"Creeper" is essentially a super-low gear range that you can get as an add-on. It allows you to really crawl. I can't imagine a reason for hydrostatics to have such an option.

As far as Current Use my property is actually NOT in current use so I want to take advantage of the flexibility while I have as I do want to put the property back in the program. Don't want to be paying $6K in property taxes just for a wood lot for more than 1 or 2 years (I'd be looking at about 1/10th that amount in Current Use).

Back to stumps... Yes, I've been looking at those PTO stump grinders too. But it just looks too tedious and time-consuming in my opinion. That's really how I got to the idea of a PTO mulcher. If you're tractor is large enough I figured it's basically a 5' wide stump grinder. I think this may be wishful thinking though so I've soured on the idea and I think I'll just hire it out, only about 5-6 of the acres.

For reference here's the PTO Mulcher I've been considering. My local John Deere dealer sells the "Seppi Miniforst 150" for just under $22k and should fit a 7060 nicely. MINIFORST small forestry mulcher 60-100 HP | SEPPI M.

Anyway, since the pine trees were all planted in a plantation (more or less in straight rows) I figure I should be able to drive through and brush hog in between the rows of stumps (once i clean up some of the deadwood and other debris). I'll plan on doing this in the area i'm not getting mulched for this summer and see how that works. At the very least it should make hiring out mulching easier (and cheaper) next summer (2022) if I decide to go that route again. But perhaps it will work well enough and I can just continue keeping it open once a year until the stops rot out.

You made some great decisions. I would agree with all of them. Although it’s satisfying to do all your property work, sometimes it’s better to hire a pro and you can still do a lot yourself. You can maintain what was cleared for years to come
When I got to the clearing job I did last week, the 2 workers with a small Kubota with a bush hog had cleared maybe 2 acres since the fall. I cleared 15+ in a week.

 

[nybirdman]

I am in Northern NY so similar terrain;on my over-grown 100 acres I purchased two tractors ,two bush-hogs,hired two different 100 HP tractors/bush-hogs and finally smartened up and hired a SS with a FECON head.
That machine did more in four days than I had in ten years;so hire it done and use your machine(with a bush-hog) to "maintain".
I would go with the hydrostatic and a heavy duty BH to maintain.

 

[Maplechuck]

I am in Northern NY so similar terrain;on my over-grown 100 acres I purchased two tractors ,two bush-hogs,hired two different 100 HP tractors/bush-hogs and finally smartened up and hired a SS with a FECON head.
That machine did more in four days than I had in ten years;so hire it done and use your machine(with a bush-hog) to "maintain".
I would go with the hydrostatic and a heavy duty BH to maintain.

Thanks, yeah that's kind of where I'm at. I looked at hydros (in particular the MX6000), and I do prefer them, but ultimately went for a 74hp utility gear-drive ag tractor. For Kubota the larger sized compacts (50-60hp) have been in high-demand and low supply, and after the one I was looking at the dealer got sold, the dealer said ordering a new MX6000 would be more than $2K more than I was originally quoted and wouldn't be available until late June or July. So now I'm all-in on the 7060, which is only about $6K more (for the 12-speed) and I know I'll LOVE the better hydraulics and lift capacity. But the lack of hydrostatic options on larger utility tractors (70-80hp range) is a bit of a buzz kill. I know I'll just be riding the clutch all day in 1st gear--not really what the transmission was designed for.

The larger tractor provides A LOT more versatility and performance in terms of grapple work. My plan is to get a burly root rake-style grapple (that EA "Wicked 66" looks sweet, but they've got a brutal backlog too) and go to town with that, working around the stumps for now (this may also be wishful thinking) to at least clear up in areas I may be able to. If i'm able to keep the brambles down in 15-20 acres, then hire out mulching for another 5-8 acres or so I'll be very happy.

I'm still considering buying a PTO mulcher by the end of the summer. I'm going to see how much I can handle with bush hogging and the root grapple, as well as see how the contractor does with his equipment (he's obviously a lot more skilled an operator than I will be too) and see how it goes from there. While the PTO mulchers run $20K+, they do seem to hold their value extremely well. I'm not too concerned about buying it and then deciding to sell in a year or two if it doesn't work. The used ones I've seen (5-10 years old, rusty and with dull teeth) are barely any cheaper than new.

It's nice to have these clear cuts, but they'll become a useless mess providing me with basically zero timber value (i'm trying to grow softwoods and sugar maples on most of the 224) for 60-70 years if I don't get 'em cleaned up while I still can.

 

[Jack Yuan]

Thanks for the reply. I meant to add some pics (they were on my phone). The pics below show the maine clear cut (about 12 acres) that was a red pine plantation. It was cut around 2017; the stumps aren’t starting to rot yet, but they seam a big looser, drier and more forgiving than if they were 1 year old or less. There are a couple other clear cuts (native red spruce/balsam fir, rather than plantation pine) that Im also thinking of slowly improving and keeping open (say another 15-20 acres in total over the next 5-7 years). The hardwoods (sugar maple dominated, ~120 acres) weren’t logged as heavily and I want to manage that part of the wood lot for sugaring.

There’s still about 2’ of snow in the field (finally starting to melt, as it’s south-facing) but I did get a few pics in December before I bought the property.

My understanding is the logger took a huge feller-bunch and then sent the trees through a delimber, and chipped the slash which he either left at the log landing or sold to the local biomass plant. So there’s little mess in the way of slash—nothing that can’t be taken care of over a long weekend with my root grapple. What’s left (besides the stumps) is mostly deadwood. Here in Vermont brambles and hardwood saplings sprout like spring wheat, so the recent undergrowth itself is much of the clean up job (and likely necessitates mulching). The stumps will be the main headache.

A combination of rotary cutter/flail mower, chain saw, wood chipper, stump grider is a much cheaper solution, and the forest mulcher cann't break the stump as deep underground as stump grinder. But this combination cost much more time than forest mulcher.