Hi All, I just joined and wanted your advise, suggesting on a problem I have. I have property, about 200 acres, most of which is woods and hills. My problem is this. I want to clear the land and make pasture and hay fields for cows/horses. I plan on letting a company cut the trees which will leave the stumps, branches, etc. I want to ask what piece of equipment would be best to buy to clear the stumps, refill the holes. Other potential uses, help clear space for a house, make a small dam for power generation on a creek, make a pond. Any suggestions is welcome. My boss (wife) suggests just hiring a bull dozer to do the job... Thanks
I live an hour north of you and know the territory well. It would be far cheaper to SELL your 200 acres and buy a similar lot already cleared for agriculture. This type of land is much better kept as forest. I bought my property off a developer who went under trying to put in roads and sell building lots at 40k per 1/2 acre lot. We cleared a quarter acre to build a shop on and we burned stumps for over a year, plus the 20 cords of wood harvested in the same little area, and drainage...we put in over 1,000 feet of underground drainage. Some of the root balls were 12 feet across and took a medium dozer and a large Cat backhoe tractor to dig out. It took the two pieces of equipment almost a month to complete the grubbing and level a building site. Best of luck... Howard
Howard told it like it is. The only other reasonable option to do what you want is GOATS, and you'll have the fences PERFECT by the time they're done with their work.
I'd listen to your boss
No need for goats, since there is plenty of deer. All the goats will do is eat the underbrush the deer haven't already eaten, but not touch the poplar, oaks, maples, beech, birch and cucumber trees... I can only imagine the pioneers who cleared this land many years ago using only an axe, pick, shovel and mules...just to grow enough garden to eat. Howard
Yair . . . BradR. Obviously I have no knowledge of your area but, as hetkind mentions any notion of making heavily timbered country into "pasture and hayfields" on the small scale of just two hundred acres is often a lost cause. Costs can often be thousands of dollars per acre just to get it on the ground and cleared and burnt. If it is hilly, it may well need drainage and/or some erosion control earth works . . . and then comes the ongoing stick and root picking after every working. Depending on the type of vegetation regrowth and suckers may need brush hogging or chemical treatment for several years. Sorry to sound so negative but that's just the way it is. Most of the viable agricultural land in developed areas has already been cleared . . . it's a bit like drilling oil wells, the sweet spots are drilled first and all the other places have diminishing returns. Cheers.
For those who don't know Asheville, it is a resort area, with big money starting to come in...new hotels, shopping complexes and BREWERIES are being built. Between Sierra Nevada and New Belgium, there is half a billion dollars of Breweries completed in the last few years. The locals are being priced out of their homes. This being said, the land a MUCH more valuable left forested and developed into small to medium lots with vacation and retirement homes built for spec in the $250k to $400k price point. Then the 20k need to clear a lot can be easily absorbed. Underground utilities are a different story. Oh yea, the 200 acre piece is probably worth a cool million, depending on exact location! Howard
Check out Letsdig18 channel on you tube. He does a lot of land clearing and other stuff like you described, and he is very good at it, and should be somewhere close to your area. You could either hire him or watch his videos and you will see how to go about it.
Everyone has and opinion, but not the answer to your question... funny how that works eh? I have some unimproved land in North Georgia. It's hilly and really not fit for anything but it's mine and I have dreams and aspirations for it, most of which I would like to do myself. Not that I am an expert or anything, just like to learn as I go, maintain our privacy, and do what I want when I want to do it. Yes it will cost more, take longer, probably not done as good as it could have been but that what makes me happy. Hopefully someone will chime in and answer your question soon. I am interested to hear some ideas as well. I have been reading this forum for awhile as a guest and there seems to be a tremendous amount of knowledge here. Good luck with your projects and don't let all the details get in your way!
Yeah Brad , good question ? I would scale back your project a bit and clear ground that lays good and would make pasture easy with the least effort . Maybe clear 25 or 30 acres at first & see how that go's for ya . Do it in stages over a few years . That's how they did it in the past . Then would keep some of the rougher ground in timber & look in to putting it in " Classified Forrest " . In Indiana it pretty much drops the property tax down to nothing if it will qualify . http://www.ncforestservice.gov/Managing_your_forest/managing_presentuse.htm I tend to agree with your wife on the tool to use , I prefer a dozer & Rome Plow hands down if only using one piece of equipment to clear with . Find some low lifer in the area that likes to knock down & pile trees . LOL ! http://www.heavytruckforums.com/showthread.php?263-Some-Holmes-750-action&p=2537&viewfull=1#post2537