Have a customer who has a project clearing 80 acres of small brush and trees. Trees from 6 inches on down to 1 inch. Farmer wants all roots removed. Any suggestions on small roots. Track skid steer with grapple rack maybe?? He has dozers, excavators.
For brush/trees 6” and down my choice is usually my dozer. My method is to go through making passes with the blade skimming right at ground level, but without digging in. Anything about 1” and smaller just bends over but thats ok, it gets cleaned up later with the bush hog. Anything larger that bends over or doesn’t want to come out I tilt the blade and use the corner to pop them out. I like to push in a pattern making windrows to later be burned. If you’re careful you can get very little dirt mixed in. While I’m clearing I also push out any rocks, small stumps, etc and do some rough leveling. After I’m done, one trip over with the bush hog set pretty low and the land is ready for whatever. If it’s just going to be pasture I’ll go over it with a heavy disc, then harrow, and seed. Sometimes I’ll make a pass with a root rake but around here you have to be careful you don’t bring too many rocks to the surface. The CTL with a grapple is good for sorting and piling, but I don’t like doing the actual clearing with it.
'all roots removed' is a deal breaker for me. I don't see how you're going to do that on the small brush efficiently.
It’s nigh on impossible to remove the roots from the small brush. If it’s land that is going to be farmed we clear it as I mentioned above then moldboard plow. A good high clearance plow will turn all those tiny stumps, roots and trash under to decompose. May have to come back with herbicide if anything tries to regrow. Turning land like that back into productive farm land is not a one and done deal, it’s going to take some time and money.
pasture is easier, grade it good enough to high mow it and the brush does not like that regular mowing action.
Indeed. Just finished a small job like that up yesterday, cleared all the small trees/brush with the dozer. Landowner bush hogged and broadcast some grass seed, will be fine pasture by next year for his sheep.
The neighbors have been doing the whole job like you want , a mix of tree sizes 1' plus down to brush . A hardwood tree thats not ground durable and will rot over a few years if in contact with the ground . First step for them was doze all the trees into heaps or windrows depending on the slope with the Million dollar D41. They then root raked it with the dozer below ground . Then came the wheel tractors and discs , not giant discs but standard cultivation discs followed by the fertilizer from trailed bin then the seed drill , very expensive operation . Windrows and the heaps are burnt when they dry . No stock grazing for a year as its time consuming type of job for them .Some of their ground has been fodder cropped with brassica . Through the fence on steeper ground with some tractor country I either use a gravity roller on the steeper area and the blade on the easy stuff , I made a point of keeping the trees on the ground where they grow and burn them there . These were smaller sized than the neighbors with most below 6 inches . Post burn follow up with seed and the need to spray gorse 3 yearly . Not so expensive and the stock never left the paddock . My land could not be cropped as the remains of the trees would spike any tire and ruin seed drills . I do other areas with bigger trees , some two foot through with the blade pushed into heaps to get the stems off the ground , followed by seed at the first sign of rain , cheaper and fast , compared to the neighbors
I don't believe there is any way to economically remove ALL roots from small trees and brush or any trees and brush for that matter from below ground level, rotting naturally would be the only way that could happen IMHO, But I'm going to watch this thread...If I've learned anything in my 68 years it's that I'm never going to be too old to learn.
You'll never get all the roots. Once it's been root raked, you can pick up most of the stragglers with a field cultivator with only a back row of shanks, that will leave it as clean as you'll get it without a lot of hand labor, or screening the whole thing.
Hum, if it helps and for the sake of sharing knowledge over In my planet, first one get rid of this brush or tree´s either my mowing them or riping them of the ground, blade or rake, then if its for cultivation one does a dozer ripping 80 to 100 cm deep. this ripping alone brings most of the roots to the surface. Then use a wheeled tractor and a cultivator to bring this roots in manageable piles, burn or bury depends on the choice, i personaly dont like to burn ... If the field is mean to pasture, after clearing or mowing we use disk harrow, heavy for first or second pass then seed over and cultivate with lighter disk harrow, once the pasture takes over the brush is no longer a problem .... of course if need a second seeding in the folowing years will help a lot.
Thanks MG84! I like your advise. We are lucky in the fact we do not have rocks in our soil where we are excavating. In the Shale pits or hills we tear down its 100% rock but breaks up easily and packs even better when we build roads in our ranch. We rip then strip then load then pack on roads. Pretty simple. Lasts a long time also about 8” thick. Thanks again! Honky Cat
Thanks for all the suggestions I have shared them with the customer.
We did ~40 acres and ~100 acres a few years back with excavator but just focused on the stumps after we logged it. The remaining stuff like grass, alders, etc the farmers handled. One 100 acre used a masticator on a big tracked Fecon. FX200 i think. they were turning it to cow pasture The other just plowed it under and let it set a year or two. It's a potato field now.
Clear as much as you can with a root rake after getting the tree's and heavier brush taken care off. Back in the day they'd use a breaking plow to dig everything up but a heavy disc will chop up any roots and other trash remaining. If there's rocks get a rock picker or rock windrower if lots of rocks. May need several passes with a heavy disc and might take a couple years to be rid of everything but many fields required extensive clearing to become productive farm land.