Price Check JD 4x20 Series Pricing and Comments

[AKfish]

Seems like buying a new JD CUT in the Pacific Northwest and certainly Alaska --- 10% off list qualifies as a good deal!

You got that new tractor fitted with a real nice "wardrobe" to boot! Should make putting in those new pastures a breeze.

I just ordered the 77" Landpride scarifier. Planning to use it to establish new pastures from currently treed acreage.

I'm planning to use a 6' York landscape rake as an attachment on the rear of the scarifier to clean up small roots, etc. after making passes with the ripper teeth of the scarifier.

Guessing that it will take numerous passes starting at 3-4 inches and working my way deeper as the top soil, duff, organic layer breaks up and I can pull the thing without stalling my tractor to a short stop!

I could imagine that using a disc harrow to break up the root wads and clumps of grass would be a good thing after breaking things up with the scarifier.

Hope to have the snow cover and ice and frost from the ground up here in another 5-6 weeks...

Akfish

 

[Greyfields]

Down here they grow the hybrid poplar / cottonwoods for bio-mass. Brawny paper towels are made just across the river on the Oregon side. The biggest issue people have clearing the land after harvest are of course the roots. A ripper really won't remove them, so it has to be cat-work. But once the cat has been through (pushing everything to a chipper), they run over the fields with a really heavy offset discs. Then, leave it over winter, disc it again, then finally they get through to the soil. I think they could only rip it after the second pass.

I guess my point is I think tree roots might be beyond most tractors, but I of course don't know your situation. Going from trees to pasture, though, has gotta be tough for anyone's tractor.

By the way, have I mentioned I'm just about pissing myself with excitement? She comes mid/late next week. The only attachments I wanted but didn't get were a trash rake. The seeder / broadcast spreader and chain harrow I'll be buying with cash.

We named her Nigela, after Nigela Lawson, because the 4X20 series have really big, wide butts on them.

 

[AKfish]

Brawny paper towels.... whoa. How long does it take to have a harvestable stand of "paper towels"??

Trees up here have very shallow root systems --- generally all roots are within the upper 18" (maybe 24" in a more temperate part of the state) inches of the ground.

If you've ever been to Alaska or northern Canada a walk in the woods will illustrate that; trees that have been toppled by the wind and the exposed root wad extends outward like a pancake. No tap rooting or vertical root growth -- the root system is horizontal.

Clearing trees with a Cat is kinda like scraping off scabs.

But using a Cat also ends up costing you the shallow organic layer and can put you into the B and C soil zone real fast! Don't want that... it takes years and years to have any kind of organic litter layer up here.

So, I log by hand and burn the limbs and tops, leaving the remainder of the tree for fence posts, milling dimension lumber and firewood.
I've been digging up the stumps and larger roots with my backhoe. For the larger roots (nothing really bigger than the diameter of your arm, say) I've got a homemade single ripper tooth that has a cutting edge that I pull off the 3pt.

Then I'll hit it the scarifier a couple of times (4-5 likely) and then with the rake, rototill, them level it with the rear blade and then roll it with a heavy packer and plant.

AKfish