Tree clearing - what does it cost ?

[G McCall]

I have a medium size Farm tractor. ( not a dozier)

I have quite a few cedar trees that I would like to have cleared from 50 acres of land. Also many small mesquites.

What can I expect in cost/practice for hiring someone to clear cedar trees ?
I want stumps and all to be removed and discarded or pushed in a pile.

I have known of cedar tree cutters coming onto a track to remove cedars for making fence posts. Would I have to pay for that ?

 

[Megado]

I paid a dozer operator $70/hr last summer to clear approx 2 acres of cedars. He took out everything including the stumps and pushed it all into a pile and then went back and smoothed out what had been torn up. He did separate out the larger trees which I "donated" to a neighbor who had them hauled off to a local mill to create 1x's. Took him about 2 days to finish it all. He didn't charge me a "trip charge" since he was going to be doing alot of work about a mile away once he finished my small job.

I have no idea what the price tag would be these days, but I'm pretty certain it's gone up due to the price of diesel alone.

Jim H.

 

[john_bud]

Last I saw the price is still about $1000 an acre to clear. You probably will have to pay more to have the ground finished smooth. Larger tracts of land will allow the use of larger equipment. While it is more per hour, it is much more productive in each hour. You may expect a fuel sur-charge as it hits $4

Wood prices are down down down down down down down down so low an ameoba would need a ladder to look up. If you have a full semi load waiting, you might get something from it.

 

[EddieWalker]

When you say that you have a medium sized farm tractor, how big is it? Cedars are about the easiest tree there is to take out. Shallow roots and soft wood make the just about pop out without much effort at all compared to the hardwoods or certain types of pines.

For select harvesting, whis means just taking out cedars, I use my backhoe. I cut the roots on either side with a small, shallow trench, then either push it over with the side force of the boom, or change positions and push it over that way. I can do allot of trees in a day. Getting them on the ground is the easy part.

What are you going to do with them? If you are just burning them, then draging them to a burn pile is easy enough. Just wrap the trunk with a chain and pull it over to the burn pile. One of the added bonuses to draging trees is how nice of a job they do smoothing out your land. For roads, I love to drag them over the same route. For pasture and large areas, I go a different route each time.

When I get the cedar to my burn pile, I cut the limbs off and then the trunk into 8ft 6in lengths. These come in handy for all sorts of things. Fence posts, gazebo's, porches and when cut in half, they are awesome shelves!!!

If you hire a dozer, be sure it's big enough to actualy be productive. I know you can get a tree out with a small dozer, but teh amount of time it takes is silly compared to a bigger dozer. My dozer is 168 hp and can push over just about any cedar in one try. Some of the bigger ones might take a few pushes from differen tangles, but it's pretty quick.

The dozer tears up the ground, so I use my backhoe most of the time. One advantage to the dozer is it can push 20 or more trees to the burn pile at one time. If it's all stuff I want to burn, then that's the way to go.

A medium trackhoe would take them out better then a backho, but don't do so well at moving them to the burn pile if it's any distance away. Something over 100 hp should be able to do it pretty easily. More HP would mean faster removal and better productivity.

Eddie

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Depending on what area you are in might determine what you have to pay. I cleared some tree's for a guy which made enough for 2 log trucks. Now these were big doug firs and cedars. He got about $2000 per truck for his tree's. If you are in an area with logging outfits you can see if they will cut the tree's and pull the stumps for you. Around here in Seattle tree thieves will take cedars and maples. You need a permit to cut cedars in certain towns around here because of theft. If you call in loggers get a few bids and tell them that is what you are doing. It may help the cost. If the trees are good enough quality then it shouldn't cost you anything. If they aren't big enough or high quality then you can still offset your cost by selling the timber if you don't keep it. Like one guy said root balls might come out easy. Especially here in the spring when the ground is wet. I have seen some 80' to 100+ feet cedars though that are pretty old. They are standing because they have a good root structure.
Jim

 

[thunderworks]

I cleared approximately 6 acres of hedge, locust and cedar trees. Most of the hedge trees were 4 to 6" caliper trees. I hired a guy who had a Bobcat with a hydraulic driven 24" diameter rock saw. He made the saw itself. The saw was on the end of an eight foot, articulating arm and it was awesome. He limbed the trees, I followed with my tractor with a Bodozer grapple moving the brush tops to a burn pile, then he returned to cut the trees an inch or so below ground level. It was incredibly efficient. His total time (at $65 per hour) was around 15 or 16 hours (can't remember exactly) He was much faster making a mess than I was cleaning up the brush tops so he put a grapple on his machine and helped with that some of the time. I'm still cutting the downed trees for firewood, fence posts etc. so the project is not complete. My total out of pocket expense for getting 6 acres of trees on the ground was around $1000. Counting my own diesel fuel, and paying a high school kid to help finish the cleanup, I'll probably have another $500 total in the project.

 

[Willis Fecon Bushhogging]

I have a medium size Farm tractor. ( not a dozier)

I have quite a few cedar trees that I would like to have cleared from 50 acres of land. Also many small mesquites.

What can I expect in cost/practice for hiring someone to clear cedar trees ?
I want stumps and all to be removed and discarded or pushed in a pile.

I have known of cedar tree cutters coming onto a track to remove cedars for making fence posts. Would I have to pay for that ?

I do this for a living and I cant do this for $1000 a acre as some has stated. I could take the mulching machine and do a acre, if it was no larger than 4", but that leaves the stump, just under ground. I dont know what size the trees are, but I would think you need at least a Cat D5 dozer. A lot of options, if you were in my area (NC) use excavator and dozer, working together. clear different sections (about 1/2acre) and stock pile the debris. Separate the larger trees, put them to the side (for sale, freebe, reuse, etc) dig a hole and put debris in it and take the dirt (if its a good dirt)and spread it around, building up the land, or stock pile it and sell it. If this is not an option, burn the debris or have it turned to mulch. In our area, the rate is around $2500 up an acre and it depends on how many trees is on the lot.
Use at least a 200 series excavator (Cat 320, Komastu PC200, etc) and D5 dozer. anything smaller, is just too slow, an less productive and you need power/speed to clear this many acres

 

[DrRick]

In texas the NRCS estimates that the cost of cutting cedar and not stacking is about 300 per acre. I have been using my JD 450c dozer to clear, gather and push into piles the cedars on my ranch. I can clear and stack about half an acre per hour. I have a large track hoe that I use in areas of BIG cedars. I also use a backhoe for some, but the dozer is the fastest by far. The cedars seem to come out best after a little rain. Mesquite is a different story, The ball on the root about 6 inches under the ground MUST be dug up or the mesquite wil regrow with a vengence. I root grubber on a trackhoe or backhoe is the best on these . One can also spray the trees at the time of uprooting withsome REMEDY/RECLAIM mix herbicide.
rick

 

[G McCall]

Isn't there a market to sell the cedars ?

My land is near Lake Whitney, Texas and I was thinking someone would purchase the cedars for fence posts. The cedar trees that I have to cut range from 2 to 6 -8 inches at the most and may be 10-15 feet tall.

Any cost saving means helps.

 

[radman1]

What do you plan to do with the land? Farm it, pasture, clear it for esthetics etc. How big are the trunks in diameter? Is it a forest of cedars or just trees scattered around?

 

[G McCall]

What do you plan to do with the land? Farm it, pasture, clear it for esthetics etc. How big are the trunks in diameter? Is it a forest of cedars or just trees scattered around?

We plan to use the land for recreation for the most part, but will do what is necessary to keep my "ag exemtion". May plant costal bermuda etc. in the open areas. lease for a few cows etc.

The cedars are scattered and some or mixed in with other trees. Trunk size varies small to maybe 6-8 " in diameter. I was thinking about hiring someone to remove the cedars by any means necessary and practical.

 

[radman1]

We plan to use the land for recreation for the most part, but will do what is necessary to keep my "ag exemtion". May plant costal bermuda etc. in the open areas. lease for a few cows etc.

The cedars are scattered and some or mixed in with other trees. Trunk size varies small to maybe 6-8 " in diameter. I was thinking about hiring someone to remove the cedars by any means necessary and practical.

From what you describe, it seems like removing the stump/roots are not an issue. I have about 120 acres of pasture and do work for others. In my area, we use a tree shear. I have a dymax ranch ax tree shear mounted on a bobcat. I bought the shear last year. I just recently started on my pasture. IMHO, dymax makes the cadillac of shears. It is a 1600# tank and I sometimes use it like a bulldozer or grapple. It will cut 14" cedars with no problems and 10" hardwoods. Larger trees require 2 cuts at 90 degree angles. It will cut them flush at the ground so you can mow later. If the cedars are cut with no remaining branches, the tree dies and will not grow back. I spray the hardwoods trunks with Pathway or Toradon and they will not grow back. A 2 gallon tank is mounted on the shear and a electric pump sprays the stump after I cut off the tree. The trees than can't be reached with skid steer are cut off with chain saw. Depending on terrain and tree density, I can do about shear 50 acres in about 2 days. If you want the trees in piles to burn later, the skid steer can stack them in several piles after cutting or you can drag or haul them into a pile. It can take as long or longer to stack them. If you have a tractor and FEL with grapple, you can easily do it yourself. Or you can drag the big ones with the tractor and haul little ones in a trailer and pile them. Cedars are relatively light for their size. Any remaining or new, small cedars can be later mowed with brush hog type mower.
Most skid steer operators charge by the day/hour rather than the job. I am sure there are guys that do that in your area. Mulching has the advantage of not have to dispose of the tree later. However, mulching requires expensive heads, big skid steers and slower. Cost for mulching is much higher.

I would not use a bulldozer. It tears up the ground too much in a pasture, slow and still requires getting rid of the trees. Back hoes are way to slow. You can pull them out with a 100 hp tractor and chain but also a slow process for lots of trees and some of the larger ones will be difficult to pull. Bulldozer and backhoe/excavator will remove the roots/stump but in your case, that is probably not necessary.

IMHO, trees shears were designed for cedar removal in pastures. Call your local skid steer dealers or ask others who have pasture. Usually someone knows a tree shear operator.

 

[radman1]

Had one more thought. Sometimes, the NRD will pay in our area, to stack the sheared trees into piles and leave them for habitat. No need to burn.

 

[rgood]

I think a lot of the price depends what part of the country you are in - One thing you can be sure of is the cost is not going to get cheaper, The price of diesel is not going to come down - Last year I had land cleared at $600 - I'd go a per acre route rather than a per hour route - So you know what it will cost you - And if they break down or whatever, it's not on your dime.