Need to clear some trees, what should I use??

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
I need to clear 10 acres of land that has not been farmed in several years. It has hundreds of small trees 2" and smaller. I am trying to decide on an efficient way to clear these and I wanted to get some opinions. Here is what Im considering.

1) Smaller dozer -- Would a dozer take these trees out or just run over them? Would a root rake be necessary?

2) Skid steer -- with a grapple or tree puller? not sure if a skid has the ability to clear trees like this?

3) Backhoe -- put a root rake type attachment on the front loader to push / lift trees out. Does a backhoe have the torque need to push trees out?

Let me know what you think.
 
There is a great attachment for some skid-steer models called a "forestry cutter" You can see a video on the Bobcat website. I have used one of these for the same purpose you mention. It did a great job. Some trees will sprout from a close cut stump, others not. Following the cutter with a ripper may be necessary and then gathering and burning. Removal of old fruit and nut orchards here is often done with an excavator which can pull up and neatly pile whole trees.
 
Depends on what type of trees you have.
Trees with a tap root are harder to get out or cut off. Soft wood is easier to cut than hard wood.
This makes a difference on the type of equipment you need.
 
I bought a Marshall Tree Saw a few weeks ago from my Bobcat dealer to use on my Bobcat T250. It cuts the trees off below grade. Does not require high - flow hydraulics. What isn't big enough for firewood, I use a root rake equipped with 2 grapples for finishing up. It is leaving my re-claimed areas clean enough that there will be no-till corn planted there in 3 months.
It is very well built , extreme heavy duty, although, I think it is a bit too pricey, it is definitely giving me my money's worth.
poke here
 
i agree. or at least a bucket or blade with long teeth--I don't recommend cutting them off at first--just makes double the work
 
You might be better off to just hire it out to an experienced contractor with a good sized dozer and/or an excavator with a thumb. I say this because clearing brush can be a real PIA and take a lot longer than you think with a small machine. It can also be dangerous. The other option is to see if someone has a mulcher in your area. This would be expensive but would grind everything up. Wouldn't want to use a rubber tired backhoe for fear of ruining a rear tire.
 
I have pulled out a few dozen small trees at a time with a chain and a tractor, it will uproot them pretty cleanly and then it is easy to throw them on a wagon but if you have a lot to do I suppose it would take much too long. I have seen some kind of a device that has jaws that bite a small tree and get tighter when you pull on the end but I don't know what it was called. It would save time over chaining to each tree. If you don't have any big stumps to deal with I would think you wouldn't really need big equipment, but I guess it depends if you have more time or money to devote to the project.
Zach
 
Like Zach says, yank them out, if you add one more thing to your list of materials: Take chain, wrap it around tree, put chain over the tallest old rear tractor rim you can find, and then attach other end of your chain to your tractor. the rim acts as a direction changing pulley, to pull the tree upward and out.
 
My neighbor had a similar planting in christmas trees but he decided to convert it back to farmland. The xmas tree grower had his crew cut the remaining trees and grind the stumps off below the ground.
What are you planning on doing with the ground afterwards?
I would suggest talking to a xmas tree grower. (if you have any in your neck of the woods) Didn't take them long at all.
 

I'll let other folks deal with "efficiently" - I can say that this size sapling is easy meat for the working end of a backhoe, and if you don't cut them first it makes it easier to back in there and not pop the tires, just ripping all the saplings in reach and backing up. But it's slow-ish. I would not try it from the bucket end.

I think some folks just flail mow them. You could also pasture pigs there.
 
a root rake would do wonders i done it all different ways bush hog pulling with a chain(not recommended for a thick 10 acres! up and down all day chain unchain talk about tired dont get much done either)excavator does good with bigger trees but a waste on 2in. trees never seem to get much done thumb helps and if you have a root rake on 1 then yes great but not g.p. bucket bush hogging does a lot quick if youre not busting things but when you plow or whatever the roots are a mess so if you can get a root rake dozer do yourself a favor save a lot of headache and root rake it most efficient way by a long shot in my opinion
 
Didn't read the post right, LOL. If I had 10ACRES to do, I would bush hog it, then bush hog any thing still sticking up! I use a front mounted 4' wide unit, on my little rubber tracked loader, that does about 7-8 acres a day. After thorough bush hogging, I would go after sprouts with Garlon, or a similar tree herbicide.
 
I'll add one more suggestion to the list. It's amazing how much you can do with a Bobcat with meaty forks on the front. I pop out small trees and boulders all the time and then can move them around pretty quickly as well.
 
At least its not been let go farther, so with the suggestions you already have, definitely some options.

I would be concerned with topsoil erosion, dozer blade could make a mess, even a 6 way where you use the corner, tilt and or angle down, ok for small areas, but 10 acres, too time consuming. I have run large crawlers, D8K with a Fleco or similar style root rake, on forested areas, cleared with a buncher feller, and stumps removed, it does a nice job, so I would imagine a smaller crawler with a root rake would be effective, as long as its stout enough to handle the trees, which are small from what you say.

If this is not a sloped area, maybe soil erosion is not a concern, but when you pop the roots you will want that soil to stay put, so dry conditions might be ideal, and this is if you will need to be able to use the area soon after. Even if it sits, eventually you will use tillage implements and have the same risk, so maybe its not really an issue, seems it would be hard to prevent, around here it takes some heavy prolonged rains on slopes, we have a 30 acre field next to us on a slope and the BTO put it all in corn and it was in sod, before that strips, never can figure why some people do the things they do, last year it washed but good with all the rain, nice rut and or ditch formed in the middle, he should have put a buffer in. Lost that whole side of the field anyway, crop failed, he certainly lost soil, it was sod and hay grasses, that were let go, geese ruined the stand.

I like the idea of cutting, there are rotary cutters/mowers that will handle that, as well as the attachment shown in the link below, or similar, main concern here is stubble or projecting stubs that can puncture a tire. If there is a way to cut it, and eliminate that problem, whereas you can keep it cut for a few years, the roots will decompose, small stumps will come out easily, no soil erosion, until you disturb it the next time. I've done some of that here and have seen areas cleared that were kept cut until such time it was ok to go back and use tillage implements. I think it was 77-82 or so, this entire place was let go, I cut all of it, at least 50 acres tillable, our long time friend and dairyman back then just stopped using it, and like so many other places, nothing got done, I'll bet it was about the same, maybe not as many trees, but it certainly was not all weeds, staghorn sumac, birch and similar. In '82 I did cut all the fields so the farmer could use them again, and he went in with a moldboard plow, spring trip reset, I don't remember it being trouble, and he followed after I was done, it did not sit. Years later it all went back again and is forest now, but I have cleared areas of various degrees of growth, hardwood trees, 3"-4" and worked around stumps, in a few years they all popped out. Sure I've hooked onto some and stopped the tractor LOL, but going slow was no trouble.

I would have to believe a root rake on a medium size crawler would be effective, and if you want to go all the way, there will be some risk of erosion until you plant and get root structure anyway. Your conditions will vary, soil, moisture and all that, I'd want to rake that in dry conditions, let that soil fall out of the roots, but that is just me.
 
Lot a variables here.

Soil type? Here ours is such that almost anything will work Our ground is only hard in the winter.

Type or trees/brush?

Time, as in how much do you have and is there a deadline?

Budget? If you are talking renting and you are not experienced on the equipment it could be cheaper hiring it done.

Rick
 
Im a little late to the thread, but Ill weigh in. For small tree's a dozer with a root rake is hard to beat. No they aren't absolutely necesary, but the amount of topsoil you will push off without a rake is unfreaking believable. For anything over 8 or 10 inches i get the trackhoe out. Im in the south central/east part of KY, Laurel Co. to be exact, and Im doing some clearing right now if you wanted to come by and see just how slick they work.
 
I cleared similar and larger (up to 12 inches) a few years ago with a 4500 Ford TLB, and a 4625 Gehl Skidloader with the manure fork/grapple....tines about 6 inches apart. Both worked well. Trees are easy with the TLB, brushy growth takes time, faster with skidloader. Clay loam and peat ground, lotsa rocks. I have no real dozer experience, but would not use a blade....moves lotsa dirt for what it accomplishes. I can see where a root rake would work well with trees that size.
 
Three wraps around the base of the tree with a logging chain, hook to the draw-bar of your dozer & yank them out of the ground.
 

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