What To Do With All of These Rocks?

[Haneyrm]

Howdy,

One of my fields is covered with softball sized rocks. I have no idea where they came from but they are destroying my bush hog. I have tried to corral them with my landscape rake with mediocre results. Is there a better way to deal with these rocks? The field is approximately 20 acres and has a pretty aggressive slope to it. I will not drive sideways across it on my tractor. I have read that a Harley Rake will do the trick. What is a Harley Rake? Sounds like a basic landscape rake with way too many chrome trinkets hanging off of it and is way overpriced! Probably vibrate you to death as well. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

[thatguy]

Well you could have the First Annual Water Valley Rock Pickin' & Outdoor Festival.. Get some hay bales for sittin', a porta-potti or two, and a concession stand.. Charge a small admission fee and as a suvenier let each person carry all the rocks they can in their arms to their car.. LOL

good luck. Im sure someone can give you a real answer soon..

Brian

 

[Coyote]

Here's what I did...rebuilt an old chimney and built a short wall around the area...whenever it rains I get more rocks! I think they breed undergound on moonless nights! Photo is attached

 

[jdbower]

I have a feeling this is the Harley Rake mentioned (leather jacket not required!):
Harley

I've also heard mention of a Rock Hound, but they're pricey and I've never used one myself:
RockHound Attachments

I usually just manually pick them up and put them in little piles that I can see, but I don't have nearly as much cleared land to deal with. Perhaps you can rent a skid steer with a rockhound for a weekend?

 

[JerryG]

A few teenage boys and a trailer will take care of you field of rocks in a day.

 

[rickmacheske]

There are rock rakes:
- Harley Rake
- Rock Hound

Rock Buckets:
- Silver Bullet
- Virnig

and rock pickers.

The rakes work well to make an area that does not have much semi-imbedded rock into a seed bed. I haven't seen them do a good job when you have a bunch of imbedded rock. They tend to just clear off the top down to maybe 1/2". The rock buckets work well but are slow. You can get under the surface a little and scoop them up. This is a slow process but it works. I've seen rock pickers advertized on different web sites. These appear to be more of an industrial product.

Here's what I do, very slowly.....

Till as deep as I can while clinching my teeth. Use a landscape rake to seperate the rock from the dirt. This only works on dry ground and seems to work alot better now that I have a top link where I can curl the rake toward the tractor some. I then move the rocks to a breeding pen (or at least an area where they don't bother me so much). I figure I can finish my 10 acres in about 80 years....

 

[jbrumberg]

Here's what I did...rebuilt an old chimney and built a short wall around the area...whenever it rains I get more rocks! I think they breed undergound on moonless nights! Photo is attached

They also do not hibernate . They mate all winter long in NE !- Jay

 

[Farmwithjunk]

A few teenage boys and a trailer will take care of you field of rocks in a day.

That's my method. Several years ago, we cleaned up a rocky pasture by giving my son and some of his school buddies $2 a 5-gallon bucket full of rocks. For $350 I got the pasture cleaned up AND got enough rock to fill in a couple sink holes.

 

[VistanTN]

Mike!
I can't believe that you are so unappreciative of the great state of Tennessee's free gifts. They are (as previously mentioned) fireplaces, walls, benches, gate posts, etc. They come unassembled with no instructions (kinda like "batteries not included").
Seriously, a Harley does a pretty good job of getting the ones that will clobber your rotary cutter. Our co-op rents em since no one wants to buy one to use 4-5 days a year.

 

[BarryinMN]

Howdy,

One of my fields is covered with softball sized rocks. I have no idea where they came from but they are destroying my bush hog. I have tried to corral them with my landscape rake with mediocre results. Is there a better way to deal with these rocks? The field is approximately 20 acres and has a pretty aggressive slope to it. I will not drive sideways across it on my tractor. I have read that a Harley Rake will do the trick. What is a Harley Rake? Sounds like a basic landscape rake with way too many chrome trinkets hanging off of it and is way overpriced! Probably vibrate you to death as well. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Mike

I just bought a rock windrower. (A 9' harley rake type with 6" teeth.)

Since your rocks are smaller sized - how about renting a massive roller & pressing them back into the ground - easiest! This will leave the field smooth as well.

A Haybuster 106 is a combination windrower, ferris wheel picker - cleaner, and a dump wagon on the rear. $15K new but works. Pull it behind your tractor and dump the box when full. Leaves the dirt behind.

Rock buckets will pick up dirt with the rocks and if you have sod, it will pick up a lot of it.

The rock hound works until smaller rocks jam the rake tines and you need to stop & reverse clear it.

A rock picker bucket type is good for larger rocks that are not easily windrowed. Has the same problem as a rock bucket with dirt & sod. Rotating rake style picker is better but has rockhound jamming problems priced at $6K and up...

My rock tools range from a dozer to this little thing I just put in the barn - 28 HP and can easily can see the front pickup edge. The rock picker attachment is a modified manure bucket still under construction.

 

[DrainPondDesign]

It sounds like you have a lot of hard work ahead but for the heck of it check the rocks to see if they have any value. Some round rocks could be geodes or "thunder eggs" & rock hounds pay to dig them up. Flat stones are stacked on pallets & trucked all over creation to be sold for landscaping.

The bad news is that if your ground freezes very deep during winter the freeze/thaw cycle drives burried ones to the surface so you may eventually get to pick up a new crop.

 

[professor]

Haneyrm,

I assume the Water Valley you mentioned is in western Maury county on or near Leipers Creek. I grew up in the area as our farm was a mile south of W.V. My grandad owned the store on one side of the creek and my uncle owned the one on the other side. As for the rocks, if you removed all the rocks in the area you would have a 53 acre lake. Going over them with a landscape rake only compounds the problem since you pull up more. If you have pasture just clip higher and keep the cutter out of the rocks. My mother-in-law has a 60 acre farm on snow creek and it is extremely rocky. I clip pasture high and hardly ever hit a rock. I used to cut about five acres of bermuda/orchard grass with a disc mower and that was an experience with rocks being thrown by the mower. Even with the rocks you have some good land. I live on four acres of land in west TN which is rock free. Do I miss the rocks?-------HECK NO!!!!!!

 

[MossRoad]

Howdy,

One of my fields is covered with softball sized rocks. I have no idea where they came from ...

Darned glaciers moved into the area and dumped them there and didn't take them with them when they left.