Cleaning up 5 acres after logging in east Texas

[Billrog]

If there's only 100 or so trees on 5 acres that's not a lot of trees. A case Bh should be able to dig a stump every 10 mins. and knock most the dirt out of it. I've cleared a few 5 acre parcels with a lot more than 100 trees in a couple of days with leveling and piling included.
One thing you can count on there will be a lot of roots to deal with but it can be minimized but digging 10 to 15' away from the stump to start with. There's always a fare amount of hand work or some kind of rake behind a tractor for the finishing.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

You could grind those stumps pretty quick. Maybe rent a Bobcat with a stump grinder. I could do 100 in a few days if you just had to get them below grade. Might even go faster. Getting to them while they are still fairly green will make it go quicker if you grind them.

Unless you have to dig them out for a particular reason, I wouldn't go that route and create a bigger problem to deal with.

 

[patricku421]

You could grind those stumps pretty quick. Maybe rent a Bobcat with a stump grinder. I could do 100 in a few days if you just had to get them below grade. Might even go faster. Getting to them while they are still fairly green will make it go quicker if you grind them.

Unless you have to dig them out for a particular reason, I wouldn't go that route and create a bigger problem to deal with.

That was my original plan, but I seem to be having trouble finding a rental company that rents a Bobcat with a stump grinder.

 

[fishfactor]

That was my original plan, but I seem to be having trouble finding a rental company that rents a Bobcat with a stump grinder.

Go directly to a Bobcat dealer. At least around here, rental is a good portion of their business, and we have rented stump grinding attachments on several occasions.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Why not just ask the logging co to cut so low as they can, might even take them some lunch or something. After they are done get a frost hook for your hoe and work around the stumps with that, loosing roots and pulling as many as you can. Then go back with a bucket and dig what you need to. I believe that you will get most of them with the hook and you can leave the ones that are low enough for next year.

 

[milligjg]

We had our 6 acres logged in March of 14. We are slowly but surely cutting up the tops and burning for our primary source of heat. It is a slow process. I tried to give the wood away (all oak) to anyone that wanted to come cut and haul. My neighbor is the only one utilizing the offer. It's easy cutting, I would of thought all of these guys that sell firewood would have jumped on down tree tops. I'm burning the brush piles over some of the stumps to get them below grade.

 

[Bigfoot62]

Billrog and Ed,
The OP has southern pine trees, up to 24" in diameter. They will have a tap root, almost as large as the trunk, that will extend 15-20 feet or more into the ground. You may not be digging up one of these at all with a normal TLB, much less one every 10 minutes. I've had a Case 580 Super E, and I've dug a lot of stumps. Green pine tree stumps, that large, are a slow go, if at all.

Milligjg,
Again, these are pine trees. Nobody wants the tops.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Thanks Bigfoot some of the pine tree we have here in Va are like that but most are not.

 

[rustyshakelford]

Get a weed burner to light the tops. They will light the same day cut if needed. No need to let thm sit for weeks. Use the backhoe to dig stumps. It'll take a while but 100 trees isn't much.

Brett

 

[tonyoz]

You could grind those stumps pretty quick. Maybe rent a Bobcat with a stump grinder. I could do 100 in a few days if you just had to get them below grade. Might even go faster. Getting to them while they are still fairly green will make it go quicker if you grind them.

Unless you have to dig them out for a particular reason, I wouldn't go that route and create a bigger problem to deal with.

PLUS 1. The mess of digging stumps out verses grinding is huge and rehabilitation costs are factored in is digging stumps worth it? Just because a job has "always been done like that don't make it right". 100 stumps cut close to the ground is only a few hours work for a reasonable sized grinder. Stumps that size is only about an hours for my C140. One job I did I ground 1000 stumps in 10 hrs. Try doing that with a excavator, dozer or any dam thing with a bucket or blade and my job was a finished job:2cents: