Tractor for land clearing and preparation

[Bob Gibson]

Hire someone with a big excavator that has a thumb attachment, that can clean and stack all the slash quickly! Dry and burn what you don't process, then buy a tractor for farming!

 

[Ed27]

Another on land clearing:

Now I need to get me two D8 dozers and some anchor chain!

 

[HenryIV]

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 would not buy a tractor to do initial clearing work. It is possible but slow and even a big stump jumper is not able to do everything, and I have done about 8000 sq. feet of heavy clearing in N. Georgia hardwood forest so I know 1st hand. I used a chainsaw and a bushhog with 40 PTO HP and it's hard on the implement IMO and slow going. Better would be to RENT this

and do the clearing, then come back with a tractor with the bucket or subsoiler blade and do your grading at your leisure. Bobcats do this work so fast, doing in two days what took me weeks. These can be rented or just pay to have it done and the money you save in implements, wear and tear, and time can be invested into a tractor that will help you with the post-clearing work (large tree dragging, gravel drive maintenance, bucket work, garden tilling, cutting) Good luck and be safe.

 

[coast40]

OP- "TELL YOUR READERS WHERE YOU ARE LOCATED." If we only had a location and a picture or two.

 

[paulsharvey]

OP- "TELL YOUR READERS WHERE YOU ARE LOCATED." If we only had a location and a picture or two.

He's in Tanzania. He did put a picture or two in. It frankly looks a lot like mesquite kinda brush, and red-orange sand/clay type soils. He has to import internationally to get equipment, and labor is dirt cheap; so hired manual labor is factoring into his plan.

 

[paulsharvey]

Hello all,

I appreciate all the replies, thank you very much. Sorry for the late response, it's hard to gather strength after working day long to complete this project.

Everyone thought this through based on your environment, in USA most of you probably, which is light years away from the place I am now.

Short story, I'm from Romania, Europe , I was traveling for a while, being able to work remotely, and I made a mistake..or not...to stop here, in Tanzania , where I would be able to build a farm as i always wanted. Obviously, even in Romania, I can't touch the prices for farm land since it got very expensive, for me at least

So..I saw this opportunity and took action, so I got myself with 300 acres of cheap virgin land.
First of all, you are thinking from a position with a different incomes, budgets, etc. I can get a loan of maximum 25000$ with ~9-10% interest which is a huge difference from the banking environment in USA for example

I learned that everything here is very different from the world I know
Regarding tractors, implements, agriculture, beside the operational part where you can't compare any amount of reading with experience, I found out that I more knowledgeable than any farmer I talked with. Maybe because I haven't talked with the right people.. I spoke with consultants..I don't want to seem arrogant but here nobody has real knowledge about modern technologies. They only use disc plough , richer ones have a disc harrow and the big guys have planters, that's all.. I can't even find all the implements I want, everything is gonna be imported, disc plough, harrow, land scraper, planter, sickle mower, FEL, grapple, fork lift attachments

About land clearing, here, you don't have many options ... I checked dozer prices for land clearing, there's also the option for a big loader which is more expensive probably but standard way of clearing land here is by hand.
Clearing land by hand together with roots equals with ~35$ per acre + food provided, clearing with a dozer is 45$ per acre , one liter of diesel fuel is ~1.05$ , with other extra expenses, one uncleared acre final price costed me about 150$..
I already planned to clear 20 acres of land , which will cost me ~650$ , and probably I will hire more teams from different parts of the country to be able to clear faster.
I know this look like very tiny numbers for you, but I'm left with a very small amount of money as a reserve which I don't want to touch and I have to rely on my monthly income. And as everyone knows, land clearing is not the only cost, I have to build a house, barn, storage building, infrastructure before importing the tractor, drip line irrigation for 20 acres, drilling rig, etc Yes, I can't even reach the prices to buy drip tape here for example, I have to import from manufacturers that are kind enough to supply a small orders, which are multiple times cheaper

Possibly, like some of you said, I might be over my head, but it's not my first rodeo
I've designed and implemented irrigation systems, build buildings, houses from first brick to the end ,smart home systems, dealt with imports, designed and build fully automated hydroponic greenhouse from with some many sensors that I don't remember all of them anymore (hobby size ), small scale agriculture. Now I'm tapping into the mechanics area which is still new to me.

I hope this won't start other side subjects, I wanted to give you all the details(almost) since all the discussion was based on assumptions but very very helpful for me.

To be honest, I never thought I will be able to clear all the land just with a tractor , even though the idea was there. Probably I'll use it to speed up the clearing with the help of people which, for me, seems to be the obvious choice.
When I started all of this, the initial plan was to get 80 hp tractor for this job plus the farming tasks afterwards but had second thoughts afterwards that maybe it would be cheaper to use a small tractor but I agree, a smaller tractor is limited, lightweight and it's gonna take damage much faster.

After all my market research I narrowed the options down to two 4WD 80/85 HP models: Deutzh Fahr Agrolux 80 and Massey Ferguson MF 385. I already had talks with the exporter for Massey Ferguson and I have to see with Deutz Fahr now. Depending on the negotiations, I would say I prefer the Deutz Fahr tractor, based on my analysis, it's seems to be better quality wise, works with bio fuel, better fuel consumption ( I estimate from my research), higher ground clearance. The most important parameter used to choose the tractor, the weight, is the same for both of them, ~6600 lb, MF has higher torque due to slightly larger engine , Deutz Fahr has creeper speed which seems to be like a nice option to have and it's also more expensive than MF. Both are naturally aspirated which seems to be a logical choice for me, a beginner who wants to learn and do it's own maintenance
But anyway, the tractor choice is another discussion and for those ones that said I need a bigger tractor 100-150 HP, I agree, but the price jumps too much for me and the same second hand tractor here is more expensive than the new one that I want to import...one of many things that don't make sense here

And I forgot, the soil is completely RED, sandy, which makes it easier for land clearing. Attached a picture, no picture with the actual land though

Thank you all again for all the help!

See the additional details above.

 

[paulsharvey]

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.

Selling 50 acres would only net him $7500. I think over a 5 or 10 year period, he is far ahead to have the 50 acres, then the $7500.

 

[SonomaCountyGentleman]

I think you need a dozer for 300 acres.

 

[edgarrian]

Do not use a dozer as people are suggestiong unless you want to remove all your precoius topsoil and push it into a pile with the brush.

Its that or use an excavator. Dozer is your best option here. He doesn't want a bunch of stumps left. You can get a dozer with a blade made for land clearing

 

[davideubanks]

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 used to do land clearing and logging. You can do it but you will have to have a special "rake" (not a root rake) to clean the brush up. We used frontend loaders with such a rake. It will uproot most trees up to about a 3 inch diam pretty easy. I operated a special rake like we used on the loaders on a CAT D6 and it worked very well. The tractor you will need must be at least 80 hp. and it will have to have the rake and arms custom made to the tractor, also you will need to be going only straight as you could bend the long arms for the rake. Sorry, if I was closer I could show you exactly what you need, as I will build one for our 80 hp tractor. A tractor does not tear up the ground like a set of tracks does, especially if you have someone that does not know how to slip the clutch/brakes on the tracks. Good luck.