Making pasture from forest - leaving stumps

[farmboyhull]

Looking for some ideas:

I'd like to make some new pasture. We've got about 6 acres of oak that was recently thinned - slash and stumps are still there. I'm thinking about doing more thinning, leaving a few trees, and burning all the slash. I do not want to take out stumps due to cost and loss of topsoil (soil is pretty poor already). I would graze lambs and goats in there, and could put pigs in as well. I'd put beef in there, but I read about rotten stumps leaving potential hazards for legs/feet.

I LOVE being able to get in my pastures with a mower, and this would be a first where I don't have that ability.

Anyone have luck doing this? Horror stories?

Thanks.

David

 

[tonyoz]

David, there better ways of dealing with this. (1) stumps can be ground down to a level that's best for you,ie, to below cultivation depth or 4"s for growing grass. (2) By mulching the rest of the vegetation you will end up with better soils for growing what you want. I know it's more expensive at the start of your project but at the end of the day it will be justified.
Just my:2cents: worth

 

[bucktaker]

rent the biggest stump grinder you can find for a weekend you will be suprised how much you can get done in 48 hrs

 

[Carl_NH]

David,

I have done both stumping and grinding and we live in a rock/ledge area. I can say with stumping you will have a mess to clean up (roots, rocks and more roots) and disturbing the ground will not help the remaining trees, plus you will lose the topsoil that is there.

Grinding on the other hand leaves the ground pretty much as it was, we have some 10 YO stumps (pine) that were ground and they decay so slowly they dont leave holes. Maybe in 20+ years a slight depression I would imagine.

On the other hand where I dug stumps and backfilled, over 15 years, the grade has settled leaving more dips and depressions.

So yes, grinding is the best option but the chips take a lot of nitrogen from the soil but with sheep and goats you should have some manure to amend the soil.

Grinding 6 Ac of stumps - you might have over a 100 stumps 10-30" size? What about rocks? Rocks and stump grinders dont like each other so plan to spend 10 minutes per stump to clear away the soil and rocks around them.

A good operator with a 75-100HP grinder can do 3-4 stumps an hour 24" size or if you rent a 30-40 HP unit 2 an hour.

I would probably rent a chipper and get rid of the slash or pile and burn it, then rent a 50-75HP grinder for a week. Then use a york rake to gather all the chips up and then disc the area to loosen the soil and seed some grass.

 

[RJJR]

Curious as to how you get a good stand of fescue if you leave all the tree roots? Do you try and disc through roots and all or no till the fescue???
Thanks

 

[SPYDERLK]

Hire a big mulcher. Sounds like about a couple days work.
larry

 

[tonyoz]

Gee,you must have realy different trees over there. Down under the nitrogen leaches out of the mulch into the ground.
Stupid me the nitrogen is going in the same direction.:laughing:

 

[tonyoz]

Farmboy I suggest you read MossflowerWoods threads in the landclearing forum on this site. There is heaps of good info :thumbsup:

 

[slowzuki]

Traditionally here the slash was burned and cattle/sheep/pigs run on the ground until the stumps rotted away. Grasses naturally established under grazing.

 

[IronHog]

Looking for some ideas:

I'd like to make some new pasture. We've got about 6 acres of oak that was recently thinned - slash and stumps are still there. I'm thinking about doing more thinning, leaving a few trees, and burning all the slash. I do not want to take out stumps due to cost and loss of topsoil (soil is pretty poor already). I would graze lambs and goats in there, and could put pigs in as well. I'd put beef in there, but I read about rotten stumps leaving potential hazards for legs/feet.

I LOVE being able to get in my pastures with a mower, and this would be a first where I don't have that ability.

Anyone have luck doing this? Horror stories?

Thanks.

David

I'd guess most pasture in the US was done by clear cutting and burning and letting the stumps rot out.......... cows will clean a place up.

 

[cowski]

take a chain saw and cut them off ground level. then just bush hog over them.

 

[Johnp33]

We had a local guy years ago that had a D6 cat with a rototiller, grinder, beater, set up that would take raw ground and pulverise it you could plant anything on it and it grew great because of the moisture retained from the rotting material and the natural fertiliser.
I saw it do a field with 8 inch hardwoods and 4 inch softwoods, I do not know about big stumps. I never saw it tackle that.

 

[JakeBrake]

Another problem with leaving the stumps is that grass and weeds will grow, hiding the stumps. You can't depend on livestock to mow your grass in a newly cleared field. They will eat the good stuff and leave the noxious weeds to spread rapidly. Colliding with a large hidden stump can do serious damage to your tractor and/or bush hog.

 

[Carl_NH]

Curious as to how you get a good stand of fescue if you leave all the tree roots? Do you try and disc through roots and all or no till the fescue???
Thanks

RJJR,

Roots are underground - grinding stumps (here anyway) takes the stump 1-6" below ground and a 24" stump 1' foot above ground will generally grind a 48" area to grind out the main trunk base roots low enough to plant over.

This leaves the soil around the roots in the ground and then one can disc and get enough organic matter to grow grass.

 

[Carl_NH]

Gee,you must have realy different trees over there. Down under the nitrogen leaches out of the mulch into the ground.
Stupid me the nitrogen is going in the same direction.:laughing:

Tony,

Chips can be cow chips - they have tons of nitrogen and are great. Wood chips on the other hand are carbon based and "steal nitrogen" from the soil until they decompose. This process usually takes 2-3 years.

It depends on what you are mulching - if its old growth forest with a good layer of existing "compost" then mulching in the chips is no problem. The original poster stated "very little topsoil" so his ground is depleted - wood chips will need tons of fertilizer for the first two years until they break down.

 

[RJJR]

RJJR,

Roots are underground - grinding stumps (here anyway) takes the stump 1-6" below ground and a 24" stump 1' foot above ground will generally grind a 48" area to grind out the main trunk base roots low enough to plant over.

This leaves the soil around the roots in the ground and then one can disc and get enough organic matter to grow grass.

Now I get it. What would you do if the land consisted of thousands of volunteer loblolly pines that are about 15 tall but no more than 4 inches in diameter? It's essentially large underbrush. I was going to mow them with a large Hydro ax but not sure what to do wit the roots since I wanted to plant grass.
Thanks.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Farmboy I suggest you read MossflowerWoods threads in the landclearing forum on this site. There is heaps of good info :thumbsup:

I was just going to say that...



David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Looking for some ideas:

I'd like to make some new pasture. We've got about 6 acres of oak that was recently thinned - slash and stumps are still there.

Anyone have luck doing this? Horror stories?

Thanks.

David

David,

As you know we David's are the smartest an best looking of all men...



I'm working my 5 acres of clear cut into pasture for horses as I type....

Please look over my threads, there are many... Especially the ones in land clearing. "Mosnter Mulcher" is a good one.

You can also PM me for specifics as needed.

I would love to be helpful, so many have helped me... :thumbsup:

David

 

[schmism]

Id go with a large comercial mulcher to mulch the stumps and the tops.

Then a light discing and sead with pasture mix and go.

 

[Johnp33]

I googled clearing land with a rototiller, and on the second page was an attachment for a skid steer, rock saw land clearer.
There is a video of it clearing trees and brush to a depth of about 10 inches