Tractor for land clearing and preparation

[paulsharvey]

So, I'm guessing the terrain is pretty similar to mesquite kinda stuff. I think a combination of pulling, with a cable, good disc, grapple, and hand labor will go a very long way for you. A 3 shank subsoiler might be a good addition to break up clays and roots.

Congratulations on your purchase. I hope it works out very well for you.

One minor thing is if others around aren't doing a No-till kind of operation; it might be just old school, or it might be due to the soil nature of your area.

If labor is cheap, like you said, take advantage of that.

I still recommend making a good 24"x36" aerial map, and laying out a plan on it. Probably a phased plan; year 1, clear this 40+ acres; drill well; ect; year 2; this 80 acres, ect. Might be good to leave some wind breaks to minimize erosion. Also, I would recommend sending some soil samples off (even if it has to go international) to see what you need for lime, fertilizer, micro nuturians, ect.

Edit: depending on market conditions; peanuts might be a good thing to plant, with warm climate, sandy soil, ect. Guys don't much bale peanut hay much anymore, but if there is a cattle hay demand, that's an additional seller. It wears balers a lot from what I understand, from the sand, but it used to be more common in SE US in peanut fields.

 

[jeff9366]

Tanzania, Romania, Paraguay, Morocco.......

Those of us posting here for years do not find your conditions too unusual. I was in the wine business. I visited vineyards in sixty countries during my 37 gears involved with wine grapes.

Three Point Hitch tractors all work 94% the same.

You would have better tailored responses had you posted your location in your T-B-N PROFILE so it showed with every post you make.

Good luck from me too. Fortune favors the bold.

 

[cathy liebchen]

Every time we used a tractor to do land clearing it breaks a hydraulic pipe underneath. Just not the right tool

 

[2manyrocks]

Rough on any tractor.

 

[Williy]

DEUTZ 5080D

willy

 

[mboncalo]

So, I'm guessing the terrain is pretty similar to mesquite kinda stuff. I think a combination of pulling, with a cable, good disc, grapple, and hand labor will go a very long way for you. A 3 shank subsoiler might be a good addition to break up clays and roots.

Congratulations on your purchase. I hope it works out very well for you.

One minor thing is if others around aren't doing a No-till kind of operation; it might be just old school, or it might be due to the soil nature of your area.

If labor is cheap, like you said, take advantage of that.

I still recommend making a good 24"x36" aerial map, and laying out a plan on it. Probably a phased plan; year 1, clear this 40+ acres; drill well; ect; year 2; this 80 acres, ect. Might be good to leave some wind breaks to minimize erosion. Also, I would recommend sending some soil samples off (even if it has to go international) to see what you need for lime, fertilizer, micro nuturians, ect.

Edit: depending on market conditions; peanuts might be a good thing to plant, with warm climate, sandy soil, ect. Guys don't much bale peanut hay much anymore, but if there is a cattle hay demand, that's an additional seller. It wears balers a lot from what I understand, from the sand, but it used to be more common in SE US in peanut fields.

Already in the planned, I need to paint the beacons with a something that I can see from the sky and take photos with my drone
I will do soil analysis here, it costs 85$ . The main issue I will have here, is getting good quality seeds. I already brought some from home but, obviously, not enough
Nobody here knows what no-till means. I'm planning to do it on a part of the farm but I have to DIY the implements since there are no such things like no-till tractor implements here.
Planning to clear over 100 acres this year. More farm land = more income so I can speed things up
Indeed, I was thinking soil erosion will be an issue due to the type of soil I have. That's why I need to continuously do crop and no-till rotation.

There is no such thing like cattle hay here as we don't have a winter season. Only a dry season when the cows are on a fasting mode They still struggle to get enough water for all of them.

 

[tradosaurus]

Long term, mostly maize and soybeans in rotation with some hybrid rye and alfa alfa. These are supposed to be used as food for a future pig farm

Is there much turmoil in Tanzania? I can rarely trust the fake news here in the US.

 

[Egon]

Good explanation of the circumstances under which you must work.

Any of my previous comments are irrelevant now.

Teeth on a loader bucket may work to clear the small stuff. ( dig out and pile )

 

[mboncalo]

DEUTZ 5080D

willy

Already too expensive for me and not in the market, which would add over 10% extra costs to an already expensive product

Is there much turmoil in Tanzania? I can rarely trust the fake news here in the US.

Nope, I've seen USA travel warnings to Tanzania. I have been here for 2 years already, haven't seen or heard about anything like that.

 

[paulsharvey]

With my limited knowledge; I would lean towards the Massey Ferguson. Although in North America, they really weren't that popular through 90s and early 2000s, India and Pakistan, they are wide spread, as well as Latin America. So, probably more parts sustainable. Not know much about Deutz, but you don't want a situation where on bad political move, and you can't import parts.

 

[mboncalo]

With my limited knowledge; I would lean towards the Massey Ferguson. Although in North America, they really weren't that popular through 90s and early 2000s, India and Pakistan, they are wide spread, as well as Latin America. So, probably more parts sustainable. Not know much about Deutz, but you don't want a situation where on bad political move, and you can't import parts.

True, I have to get parts from Kenya for Deutz , which would take one day as I've heard, but it's Africa, everything is delayed, nobody cares
On the positive side, I've heard about someone owning the same Deutz model for 9 years without any serious repairs
Massey Ferguson is indeed more popular than Deutz Fahr here and more spare parts available

 

[Chuck Brannaka]

Good day everybody,

I'm looking to buy a tractor which will be mainly used for land clearing and preparation in the beginning. Land is full of small 1-2 inch thick trees which need to be cleared.
Short story, I bought recently 300 acres of virgin land which needs to be cleared, leveled, prepared from scratch.
Initially I was thinking to start with an 80 hp tractor with a front and loader , grapple and leveler but afterwards I had second thoughts that it might be cheaper fuel wise to start with an 50-60 hp tractor which might reduce my costs for clearing the land but I will have to buy a bigger tractor afterwards for land preparation, tilling, planting.
Though these are just thoughts, I have no experience with tractors beside all the reading
I'm not living in USA , in case you are thinking of recommending some tractor models
To be honest, I'm stuck a bit and I would appreciate some advice

Thank you.

I would suggest a skid steer to start off with and then after you get it cleared then purchase the tractor. Tractors are not so good at clearing land. I have both a skid steer and a tractor. Then you would not need to purchase a big tractor which are very expensive. I have many attachments for the skid steer that would work later on with a tractor if you get the front end loader with the tractor (as long as it is not a John Deere, their loaders do not have the standard industry hook up). I have a root cutter attachment that I can cut the roots all the way around the tree and then push it over. Also I have a tool, I am sorry I forgot the name, but it has pinchers on the front that grabs little trees, under 6 inches, and I can put the trees out by the roots and carry them over and put them on a pile to burn. I have cleared lots of land with the skid steer and it is amazing. Buy one used, they go for some much less money and are perfect for this application.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

If it's all saplings, you *could* just cut it all off with a good-sized rotary cutter, then start tilling...but that'll take many passes to get it really tilled up for crops.
I'm in agreement with those who suggest a dozer with a root-rake. Do it, be done with it, sell the dozer and then start over with a tractor capable of tilling the land.
Also, on a parcel as large as 300 acres, you'll never regret going bigger; you'll likely regret going too small.

 

[OzzyDaveO]

how about a heavy duty loader with rippers (articulated type)? That and a D8 was successful in downing a lot of mallee on my old mans back block when I was a kid. Heavy duty chain & 3T ballast stopped it riding up.

What you cant rip out you can dig out. It would have heavier duty tyres than your average tractor tyre
That was followed by disc ploughing at a depth of about 15" (not off sets - they clog up with stumps) - Just lots of stumps came up with a few iterations (across the area in different directions). Took a few years to get it cleaned up for grain cropping.
The old payloader was cheap, and rough but did the job better than any 60HP tractor (which was big back then)

 

[Westtrekker]

Good day everybody,

I'm looking to buy a tractor which will be mainly used for land clearing and preparation in the beginning. Land is full of small 1-2 inch thick trees which need to be cleared.
Short story, I bought recently 300 acres of virgin land which needs to be cleared, leveled, prepared from scratch.
Initially I was thinking to start with an 80 hp tractor with a front and loader , grapple and leveler but afterwards I had second thoughts that it might be cheaper fuel wise to start with an 50-60 hp tractor which might reduce my costs for clearing the land but I will have to buy a bigger tractor afterwards for land preparation, tilling, planting.
Though these are just thoughts, I have no experience with tractors beside all the reading
I'm not living in USA , in case you are thinking of recommending some tractor models
To be honest, I'm stuck a bit and I would appreciate some advice

Thank you.

WHY would want to tear up 300 Ac of land??
I live where the land has been in Production since around 1820. Mother Nature has been trying to reclaim her domain around the edges over the past 70 years that it has not been tended to. I am giving giving it a bit of a trim with a de-foresting machine, but not bulldozing it.
I would suggest you live on it awhile before turning it into a parking lot.

 

[sdef]

300 acres. You need a dozer. Tractor will take to long.

+1 on the dozer. A few years ago I needed to clear a spot in virgin timber for a home site, driveway, yard, garden and workshop. Long story short, after digging out a few stumps of large, old oak trees with my 45 HP tractor and stump bucket, I gave up as it was FAR too tedious and I was putting too much strain on the tractor that is not designed for these types of things.

In the end, I cut the trees and processed them, then had a dozer remove the stumps I left ~ 2' high for removal purposes. And this was only for ~ 2 acres of clearing.

For 300 acres, I would have it logged and then deal with whatever is leftover.

 

[Doz]

Rent a machine with a forestry head on it make sure it has enough horsepower to get the job done fastest and easiest way to get it done then start dealing with that’s left in the ground

 

[Jrasband]

Do not use a dozer as people are suggestiong unless you want to remove all your precoius topsoil and push it into a pile with the brush.

 

[Hodado]

Call in an excavator

 

[paulsharvey]

Gentlemen, the OP responded later on down the thread, he doesn't have a rental market, or a contractor available in his part of the world. The answer to why, is he's growing corn and soybeans. Labor is very cheap, but equipment has to be imported.