Cowboy Billy
New member
I knew I had a problem with rocks on site 1 deer food plot. It was late but we wanted to combine the rye off the field first and see if our old early 60's Oliver combine would work. It wasn't real thick but we got 3/4 bag of rye off of it.
There were way too many rocks in it to be able to plow, disk or rotill it. So had to use a set of brillion spring tooth harrows on it. I'm surprised I didn't break them. It was bringing my 65 hp Massey tractor to a complicate stop and I was having to lift them move forward a few feet and drop them again.
Since I knew I wasn't going to pick them by hand I bought a 66" wildkat rock bucket with teeth for the skid steer. It has a vertical 3/8 steel plate every three inches so it collects the 3" and bigger rocks and lets the dirt fall out. One part I messed up on is that I should have worked up the ground a few times over a month or two. All the plant stems really plugged it up and wouldn't let the dirt fall out.
Technique wise I am still trying to figure out the best way. I found out real quick filling the bucket and trying to shake the dirt out doesn't work real well. The best way I have found so far it to push forward a foot or so until I have a pile of dirt and rocks at the end of the bucket and roll it back hard. The rocks will fly to the back of the bucket and most of the dirt will fall out. Also trying to get the bucket more than 1/3 full just takes way too much work. The dirt sits on top of the rocks and doesn't fall out very well. With the technique I have so far it definitely works better with a hydrostatic machine. It would be a whole lot more work if I had to clutch and shift. As well as a lot of wear and tear on a clutch.
I am really glad I got the teeth on the bucket. It really helps pry up the rocks. And it penetrates rocky piles better than my Case W14 wheel loader that weights 10000 lbs more that the skid steer.
Out of this little area.
I got this pile of rocks. It doesn't look too big but its a good 6' high.
Once I got the bigger area worked up. I found it was a lot faster to use the dump truck so I didn't have to travel as far with my 1/3 bucket load of rocks. All together I spend three long days working up the ground and picking the rocks. I got 7, 1/2 dump truck loads of of rock out of the bigger area and dumped them in the gravel pit. But forgot to take a picture of it. The old blue truck is so tall I couldn't dump the bucket when I got much more than a 1/2 load in the truck.
It was amazing to me the size of the rocks the spring tooth's pulled up.
But finally on the 14th I had all my brassicas in and waiting on rain. The only thing I didn't do was fertilize. I didn't want to try to mix it in and bring up more rocks. Hopefully I can be up just before a good rain so I can spread it and have the rain soak it in. But I think its looking pretty good.
And the reason for all the work?
Billy
There were way too many rocks in it to be able to plow, disk or rotill it. So had to use a set of brillion spring tooth harrows on it. I'm surprised I didn't break them. It was bringing my 65 hp Massey tractor to a complicate stop and I was having to lift them move forward a few feet and drop them again.
Since I knew I wasn't going to pick them by hand I bought a 66" wildkat rock bucket with teeth for the skid steer. It has a vertical 3/8 steel plate every three inches so it collects the 3" and bigger rocks and lets the dirt fall out. One part I messed up on is that I should have worked up the ground a few times over a month or two. All the plant stems really plugged it up and wouldn't let the dirt fall out.
Technique wise I am still trying to figure out the best way. I found out real quick filling the bucket and trying to shake the dirt out doesn't work real well. The best way I have found so far it to push forward a foot or so until I have a pile of dirt and rocks at the end of the bucket and roll it back hard. The rocks will fly to the back of the bucket and most of the dirt will fall out. Also trying to get the bucket more than 1/3 full just takes way too much work. The dirt sits on top of the rocks and doesn't fall out very well. With the technique I have so far it definitely works better with a hydrostatic machine. It would be a whole lot more work if I had to clutch and shift. As well as a lot of wear and tear on a clutch.
I am really glad I got the teeth on the bucket. It really helps pry up the rocks. And it penetrates rocky piles better than my Case W14 wheel loader that weights 10000 lbs more that the skid steer.
Out of this little area.
I got this pile of rocks. It doesn't look too big but its a good 6' high.
Once I got the bigger area worked up. I found it was a lot faster to use the dump truck so I didn't have to travel as far with my 1/3 bucket load of rocks. All together I spend three long days working up the ground and picking the rocks. I got 7, 1/2 dump truck loads of of rock out of the bigger area and dumped them in the gravel pit. But forgot to take a picture of it. The old blue truck is so tall I couldn't dump the bucket when I got much more than a 1/2 load in the truck.
It was amazing to me the size of the rocks the spring tooth's pulled up.
But finally on the 14th I had all my brassicas in and waiting on rain. The only thing I didn't do was fertilize. I didn't want to try to mix it in and bring up more rocks. Hopefully I can be up just before a good rain so I can spread it and have the rain soak it in. But I think its looking pretty good.
And the reason for all the work?
Billy
