Clear 60 Acres For Farm land

[hookdrvr]

I'd agree with Gary Fowler, I had several loggers want to "clear" my 60 acres, but after looking at their previous work, its comparable to a 2000 lb bomb going off. I started with a 955H Cat and now have a Dresser 175C track loader that I've been using to clear my 60 acres. The loader can reach up high enough to push most of the trees down to include stubborn hickory. I use the teeth on the loader bucket as a root rake, saving the top soil. I "wind row" my brush piles and have minimal dirt in them and burn them fairly quickly. An excavator would be nice and they work well, but the loader was a much cheaper way for me to go. A lot of people are going away from track loaders making them more attractive for farm use.

 

[mkreitler]

You are going at it the rite way and when you get the clearing done USE an OFFSET ROME DISK BEHIND THE 175 to take out any ROOTS that will be left behind from the trees REMENBER to DISK IT BOTH WAYS (NORTH & SOUTH) (EAST & WEST) THEN gather up the roots with a rake or if time permits and you have a tribe of children or all your friends and do it by hand. My dad an I did 100 ACRES this way WE used a D8 for clearing D6 for disking. After that TWO 7700 FORD TRACTORS, one PULLING a 16' DISK the other GRAIN DRILL. Talk about a nice piece of land for pasture & hay also two nice ponds for water for the COWS,FISHING for ME!!!

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Clearing is not a cheap way to get farmland for sure but it can be done over a few years of time. Just cleared an acre of new woods that was in crop land 40-50 years ago with the old JD 310B backhoe. The largest trees were about 15" but most ran 6"-12". Since it is for a parking lot we will not have to address all of the roots but to put it on grade I may wind up breaking it the best I can with an old set of 3 bottom 14" plow set. Some dirt made it to the burn pile that was like 80' long with two different pilings to finish all the burning.

If one has the time mkreitler's approach can work even without removing the stumps. Get it worked up enough to seed it and pasture it for about 5 years. The roots will rot for the most part and stumps without much dirt will knock right out. I thought I was through clearing ground 40 years ago and now I am doing it again for free.