Tractor for land clearing and preparation

[olenjohn]

 

[just_Dave]

Can you share some photos? nice resolution would be cool.. I did see the one photo but not sure if that was it.
Honestly being in a different country changes most of our answers.
looking at the one photo I almost feel like fire would be the simplest if you can control it, also it looked like you had a lot of space between trees.
with your no till option in farming how big of a planter are you thinking of? Almost wonder if you could farm around trees and use a chain or cheap labor to clear out space.

 

[Bison]

1-2" diameter trees.
Mulcher hands down.

 

[Rob REECE]

Good day everybody,

I'm looking to buy a tractor which will be mainly used for land clearing and preparation in the beginning. Land is full of small 1-2 inch thick trees which need to be cleared.
Short story, I bought recently 300 acres of virgin land which needs to be cleared, leveled, prepared from scratch.
Initially I was thinking to start with an 80 hp tractor with a front and loader , grapple and leveler but afterwards I had second thoughts that it might be cheaper fuel wise to start with an 50-60 hp tractor which might reduce my costs for clearing the land but I will have to buy a bigger tractor afterwards for land preparation, tilling, planting.
Though these are just thoughts, I have no experience with tractors beside all the reading
I'm not living in USA , in case you are thinking of recommending some tractor models
To be honest, I'm stuck a bit and I would appreciate some advice

Thank you.

With all that land clearing you might want to consider a bulldozer. Tractors just aren’t really meant for that kind of work.

 

[SpiritFilled]

Good day everybody,

I'm looking to buy a tractor which will be mainly used for land clearing and preparation in the beginning. Land is full of small 1-2 inch thick trees which need to be cleared.
Short story, I bought recently 300 acres of virgin land which needs to be cleared, leveled, prepared from scratch.
Initially I was thinking to start with an 80 hp tractor with a front and loader , grapple and leveler but afterwards I had second thoughts that it might be cheaper fuel wise to start with an 50-60 hp tractor which might reduce my costs for clearing the land but I will have to buy a bigger tractor afterwards for land preparation, tilling, planting.
Though these are just thoughts, I have no experience with tractors beside all the reading
I'm not living in USA , in case you are thinking of recommending some tractor models
To be honest, I'm stuck a bit and I would appreciate some advice

Thank you.

I did the job manually on about 4 acres but was trying to be selective about which trees to get rid of. I bought a backhoe to remove larger stumps. That was effective but very slow. I had a friend bring a bush hog over and he made good time until he bent his blades by being too aggressive on a stump that was too big. I bought a tree puller (manual) suitable for up to 3" trees. I obviously am not suggesting this, but what I learned was: soil type, time of year (spring rains or bone dry) made a huge difference for me, as well as how some trees came out easily compared to others. So depending on how deep the roots go, a box blade with rippers would cover more ground pulling out roots after you cut the stems above ground. How much horsepower is required to do that, or if it would work, I don't know. Maybe someone else here has some experience doing that. If you put all the cut tops to burn in a pile and then all the roots on top of them it should burn quite well and fast. Good luck with your project.

 

[Mark_G]

Since you want to raise pigs, and your brush is only 1 to 2 inches, I would certainly try brush hogging an area to put up portable electric fence and turn some pigs into it. They do a heck of a job killing small stuff, fertilizing soil etc. You will want to still clear other areas, but the pigs themselves may do a bit of work for you! Put some goats in and they will eat and even debark a bit of the larger brush and kill it as well. Will then have some fed livestock right out the gate possibly doing a bit of the work for you. We only had a few of each for 4-H projects, but the areas we put in pigs and/or goats for a couple of years are nice fertile green open areas now several years later (kids grew up and out and we don't have livestock anymore).

 

[Papa T]

Good day everybody,

I'm looking to buy a tractor which will be mainly used for land clearing and preparation in the beginning. Land is full of small 1-2 inch thick trees which need to be cleared.
Short story, I bought recently 300 acres of virgin land which needs to be cleared, leveled, prepared from scratch.
Initially I was thinking to start with an 80 hp tractor with a front and loader , grapple and leveler but afterwards I had second thoughts that it might be cheaper fuel wise to start with an 50-60 hp tractor which might reduce my costs for clearing the land but I will have to buy a bigger tractor afterwards for land preparation, tilling, planting.
Though these are just thoughts, I have no experience with tractors beside all the reading
I'm not living in USA , in case you are thinking of recommending some tractor models
To be honest, I'm stuck a bit and I would appreciate some advice

Thank you.

Hire someone with a skid steer mulcher. They will have then entire area done in two weeks or ao and it will be very good.

 

[Omega Woods]

I didn't read the whole thread but 300 acres of land is an enormous amount of land to clear and maintain. I live on 17 acres and grew up on a hundred and can't imagine clearing 300 acres of land with any size tractor.

I wonder if you might consider selling off 50 acres to raise enough capital to buy the right equipment to clear and maintain the other 250? I'd rather have 250 in production with the right tools available that 300 with no good way to manage it.

 

[vicsrc]

I had !0 acres of land to clear and I rented a tractor to do it with then hired a man to clear and level it

 

[dgriff23@cox.net]

I don't totally agree with the quest for bigger. I had a skid steer, 80 hp backhoe, and 40 hp grading tractor with a Gannon box blade with no front loader. My weapon of choice would be the box blade, Not the junky little boxes - a box designed for industrial dirt work with ripper teeth. My box blade weighed over 1200 pounds with both push and pull blades. You can move tremendous volumes of dirt with a high back box. Really needs hydraulic top and tilt. I would think the rippers could bring up the saplings.
My 2 cents.