Equipment Advice for Clearing Land for Pasture

[Casimir]

Todd:

I am down the road from you in Caroline County. We just went through the same thing, having only about 6 or 7 acres cleared. The place had been selectively logged (highgraded) just before we bought it, with the loggers leaving a lot of slash and standing trees that were not high quality.

I got a couple of quotes in the same price range as you did, so that is not out of line for this area. I finally found a guy who didn't live too far away that said he would do it for $1500 per acre or $70 per hour if we let him work it in between his other jobs. That sounded like a better deal, so we went with that. However -- a lot of these hardwood stumps have large root systems and deep tap roots. We would have been better off accepting the $1500 per acre in the final outcome, but the operator would have lost money. He told me when he was nearly done that he had never seen so many stumps per acre.

The pine in your picture could be handled quite easily with a rotary brush cutter, but you would have a heck of a time working around all the stumps and larger downed limbs and trees. So-- I am with the others who recommended hiring it done. It would have taken me years to do with even a large ag tractor or backhoe. This guy brought in a Case track loader, and had to dig out a lot of the stumps individually. It still cost us more than $1500 per acre when all was said and done. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Hope you have better luck and the stumps pop out easily. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Old_Hickory]

If you are going to clear all of that,you have your work cut out for you.You are talking about a lot of work and money and time to clear/ reseed it and have mowable pastures on the whole tract of land. How many horses are you going to keep? Would you need to put the whole place in pasture all at the same time or would you do it in different stages ?The big hardwoods/tress are usually on the property lines and that is probably why they were not timbered to start with. The 7' tall pines would not be a problem for a dozer,the stumps are usually the hardest things to push out depending how big they are and how rotten the roots are roots are. I have seen a 450 dozer do a lot of work to get a stump out of the ground that had good roots and was about 18" across. Your land can be cleared and turned to pastures but it is dependent on how much money/time and work you are willing to invest.

Lots of luck

 

[tawilson]

I still say get a good used 4wd tractor with a loader and a brushhog and start clearing yourself. Maybe when you get things opened up, you'll get a better idea what you're into. You can work around stumps for a while. You should be able to push a lot of the smaller trees over with the loader, stumps and all. I'm amazed how much land clearing I can do with mine. I do have an unfair advantage when it comes to pushing over trees. I usually have about a foot of soil then it's bedrock.
Course only you know how much money you want to sink into the project and how fast you need it all done. I just figure you are going to want a tractor eventually.

 

[Henro]

I guess my "city boy" side is about to show...

But while I agree that farming out the clearing of 40+ acres to a pro with some heavy equipment is the way to go for most of us, I this morning I could not help but wonder about all those farms that existed a century [or more] ago, in wooded areas to boot!

I guess they were cleared by people with horses and hand tools...If so, bet they would have loved to have tractor to help with the work!

If you have the time, clearing your land may turn out to be more than work. Most of the fun can be getting there, so to speak... I only have a couple acres I started clearing myself, and while it is "work," it is rewarding as well.

If you do it yourself with a small tractor/loader/backhoe it will take longer than you expect...if it were me it would probably take 10 years to change 45 acres of forrest into nice pasture land.

Of course, I am an optomist... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Can those horses wait for you to get the job done?

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I guess they were cleared by people with horses and hand tools )</font>

And maybe a little dynamite????

 

[bebster]

The problem with it taking 10 years is that you have to buy more land then or else you run out of fun!

If you try it yourself, and it's too slow you can always hire it out. If you hire it out, you'll never know how much fun you could have had. So my suggestion is to give it a go and see what it feels like. You'll need the tractor for maintenance anyway.

I find that clearing the land myself gives me a good knowledge of what is there and what I might want to do with that part of it. But one small suggestion is to get a toothbar for the FEL -- after a rain it's amazing what you can dig up that way.

 

[riptides]

Hey,
That is a nice spot. How did you come into it?

Todd, TIME is your friend. We have our place that was logged just before our house was built. The stumps left are huge. BUT today, I can kick them over. Now if I had brush-cut around them 15 years ago, I would NOT be calling in equipment to clear the land..... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

So, how much TIME do you have?

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Todd_Kihnley]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

To answer some of the questions concerning amount to be cleared I only need a road, bridge, 7 acres + the homesite (10+- acres) of area to start and a bridge over the creek to get to the back area which is where most of the land is located. I have attached a plat of the land for you to see with some short notes.

Thanks again and I have been looking at dozers to buy or I might do what Beverage Tractor recommended. Rent a dozer for the weekends at 275 a day and only be charged for the weekends as long as I place an order for one of their tractors.

 

[Todd_Kihnley]

Thanks Mike. A land buyer bought about 1200 acres from a logging company back in july and created a tract with about 25 lots of 20-80 acres each and mine that I just bought was the last one. I'm just north of Lake Anna state park off of routes 601 and 721.

To answer your question about time, I'm not in any MAJOR hurry but I would like to have the 10+- acres done and the home/barn built at the latest by next summer.

 

[Old_Hickory]

For 10 acres,you would be ahead to hire a dozer operator.

1. A professional operator will run the dozer a lot more efficently than you as a novice.
2.The hired cost of the dozer operator pays for everything.

Where I live renting a dozer costs not much less per hour than me hiring a dozer operator to bring his own dozer.
If I rent a dozer I pay for the fuel in addition to the rental fee of the dozer not to mention my low experience of operating a dozer,I would spend several hours or maybe days to get proficient at operating the dozer.
Then there could be breakdowns where the hired dozer and operator would be responsible for that.I am not sure how breakdowns are covered under a rental dozer.
If you hire a dozer operator and his dozer,if you are like me you will want to be there the whole time he is operating his dozer,because he will have questions/you will have questions and it is fun to watch him work and you can still stay busy lighting of a brush pile or 2 while he continues running a dozer.
If you want a small road or 2 put in or your land a good dozer operator will make one and ditch it properly etc...