Flattening ground

[Fourth]

I have a 5ac hazelnut orchard just recently planted out on land that previously ran pasture. Hazelnut are typically picked up off the ground after they fall, so the harvesters generally require flat ground. This is the first 5 acres of 20 planned.

In your opinion, whats the most appropriate way to flatten ground without tearing the existing grass apart? I'm tending away from wholessale earthmoving due to combination of erosion and cost. I have six years to sort the problem out. The ground is undulating and all on hillsides. The steepest would be about 5deg.

I have a new Polaris Hawkeye 400(455cc) ATVavailable. If a tractor only can do this job then I would have to hire one in. I have considered buying a chain harrow and just harrowing each time I mow. Slowly over time the claws on the chain harrow will smooth the soil out I guess... or should I just hire someone in to do it, and maybe replace the annual grasses with something that might make harvesting easier too. Perhaps find a local golf course and find out what they are using? If not a chain harrow then what tool would be appropriate?

Is this folly?

 

[DT86]

How does one flatten ground with out tearing the grass apart?

 

[Byrdnyrd]

Look at it from directly above?

 

[kneedeep]

Need a tractor with equipment to level ground. Grass will suffer from your efforts!!

 

[ksluy]

I use to be a member of a RC airplane club we use to roll it. This will not move any dirt but it will flatten what you have. You would be able to pull it with your atv or truck. Hope this helps you. I don't know any way to change your grade with out a tractor or dozer.

 

[DJ54]

If you have somewhere to borrow enough dirt to fill the rolling areas, it can be added in thin layers of a couple inches or less, and the grass will grow up through it. Mow the grass a little high, and don't compact the dirt. Doubt little will wash away with the taller grass, and rain should wash it down around the grass.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

In order to flatten ground, you have to move dirt from high spots to low spots. Moving dirt from high spots to low spots will necessarily mean that grass will be torn up and displaced in the high spots, and covered up in the low spots.

You can do it with a drag harrow of some sort if you have the time and patience but it will take a long time. And you will spend a LOT of time pulling the grass out of the harrow because it will pull up most of the grass before it really starts moving any dirt. In short, you will need the patience of Job.

 

[dusty3030]

Look at it from directly above?

I laughed / choked / lost my breath there for a moment.

 

[Fourth]

Kind thanks all. I have a tendency towards long posts so I tried to stop doing that, and ended up not providing enough information. 

When I first started I had some neighbours who are civil contractors suggest that they could come in with their full sized grader and reshape the land. To be honest the idea scared me a bit as I only have about 20cm of topsoil over clay filled stone. On this sodic soil if I lose that topsoil nothing tends to grow in the exposed clay.

Another neighbour just sprayed and reseeded his pasture so I guess it's possible.

My existing pasture apparently is the pride of the district, an ideal mix of local and foreign annuals that always responds to rain faster than anyone else. However, for my orchard I really just don't need the best grazing land, I really just need ground flat enough so that a street sweeper can round up the nuts.

This is what the harvester looks like (not my image or machine) : http://www.hazelnut-growers.org.nz/_gallery/4-14.jpg

My land was a moonscape of basalt fieldstone when I arrived and I cleared the acres by hand, leaving potholes everywhere. Further to this cows have left trails crisscrossing the whole area. Lastly the area was not exactly smooth to start with. Small depression say 6inch deep and 3 sq yards are all over the place.

I'm not extremely worried about the grass to be honest, it's just that if I were to strip it back to dry dirt, then a whole lot of topsoil will be ending up inside my dam which is already well silted up.

I deep cross ripped the hillside when I arrived. I had to hire a guy with a big massey with a GPS, he charges about 800/day. This has reduced topsoil loss and helped retain water higher on the slope (I had a lot of surface runoff previously).

This was vacant land. I'm building building myself (fieldstone and heavy timber) but as of yet have nowhere to store tractors, etc as I don't live there. Hence a quad that I take up there on a trailer.

I can get an ATV harrow here : REDBACK ATV Grass Harrows - Farm Machinery Equipment - Chain, Spiked, Pasture Yes, the price will make my American friends have a heart attack. I really don't know what will happen if I drag it around on grass. Will it tear up the grass and move a bit of soil in to the holes?, or just gum up with grass and then float across the top. I have heard that some people drag around objects like box blades however I'm yet to find one here, and I still don't know if that would be useful or not. remember I only want to move around topsoil.

Underlying geology of the area is sandstone, however my hill is capped with basalt from an ancient laval flow. So my whole property is covered above and below ground with red\brown stones and boulders. Most stones are small, but the guy who did the ripping managed to unearth stone the size of double door fridges. the land is rich and fertile but painful to work with (pitch a tent and you have a dozen bent pegs every time)

I do have a trailer, and a big pile of topsoil, and with a driveway still to be cut in I'll have a whole lot more too. I can fill them all in slowly this way, though even an acre per year would be painfully slow.

What do you guys normally do? Rip and disk?

 

[rd_macgregor]

The orchard is planted already, right? So, any earth moving that you do, you have to work around the young plants. Given this constraint, I'd be tempted to try a heavy roller (repeatedly) when the ground is soft, supplemented with strategic filling of holes and low spots. If you can get a large track hoe somewhere, you might be able to salvage sediment from your pond to use as fill (reclaim your topsoil and enhance the pond at the same time!).
Bob

 

[jeff9366]

A Harley Rake mounted on the Three Point Hitch of a Utility Tractor would be the optimum tool. In suburban U.S. markets Harley Rakes are usually available for rental, along with tractors.

I am a "get the right tool" guy. Explore availability near you.

LINK: Harley Rake, Tractor PTO, T-6 Series 6' Power Box Rake

 

[DT86]

I wonder if Sunbelt delivers to Australia?

 

[Fourth]

Still looking in to this. The bigger holes\bumps will be filled off the back of a box trailer. That will help fill in all the holes from removing field stone, and the old cow trails. For the rest I get the feeling I need something akin to a giant cheese grater. when I found out that many Australia farms don't bother buying chain harrows I was curious as to what they did. It seems that they often just chain together some old tyres and put in on a section of chainlink fence. Clearly that wont work for me as it'll not penetrate the ground. But it got me thinking. What I need is something heavy enough to press in to the ground, but light enough to be dragged.

What about a few railway sleepers with bolts or short sections of rebar hammered in? Then chain a few together, and drag that around. The rebar will cut up the ground, and the following sleepers will act like a grader on the soil... or this is a terrible idea

Oregon State have published some recommendations.
http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/43812/em9079.pdf

They say:

Preparing the Ground for Mechanical*Harvesting

Try to get the orchard floor as smooth as possible at least 1 year before the first commercial harvest.
Dragging and floating the orchard floor lowers the high spots, but the loose soil that is pushed into the
dips needs time to settle and become firm.

But I don't know what dragging or floating actually is, though it sounds similar to harrowing.

BTW, I've learnt my lesson. The next 1000 trees will have the ground prepared prior to planting

 

[DT86]

Dragging probably means using a drag harrow.

 

[jeff9366]

ATVs do not have a Three Point Hitch, therefore traction is limited and about all they can pull is a chain/drag harrow, which skims the surface.

You need a tractor with a Three Point Hitch. The design of the Three Point Hitch transfers mounted implement weight to the tractor tires dramatically increasing tractor traction so ground penetrating implements are practical. Power Take Off (PTO) is a standard part of every factory Three Point Hitch.