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Picking Up Rocks [Don't Laugh]

F

FBH44

Well-known Member
Today should be last day of picking up walnut-size to double-fist-size rocks on an acre of SW Mo hill-top ground. I have tried an official 3-point rock-rake [dug into ground bad], tried building various designs of skids on rock-rake to prevent digging in [didn't work] tried tractor front-end loader set level on ground [didn't work, iether skipped or dug in], tried 3-point rear blade [dug in bad]. Mounted some skids on that rear blade, nothing I tried worked. Resorted to hand rake and hand-rock-shovel, the old fashion way. Todaay's the last day, hopefully. Am gonna roll in the rest of them soon. How do you guys pick up rocks? [Don't laugh at me, guys, sometines I can't think of the best way.]
 
I always picked them up with my hands. All I could lift anyway. But we never picked up anything we could run over with a tire and mash it down into the dirt. When I got my size I moved to Nebraska where we have no rocks. The dirt goes clear to China.
 
I've used a rock rake, but it didn't dig in. I had it set just to where it was just into the ground, maybe 3/4" to 1". I used a set of chains to set the height so it wouldn't drop below this once I picked up to drop the load and set it back down.
 
Had many "stretch and bend" picnics as a kid. Never did mind picking rocks too much. We had huge piles of rocks in most every field.
 
I've got a spot where we picked up rocks forever and there were way too many of them to ever get close to getting cleaned up. Kinda' the situation where either the frost or a good disk brought more to the top. To remedy the problem I buried them with a good foot of dirt from down by the creek. It's the dirt that used to be there just putting it back in it's original place. It was about an acre so it took awhile but way less time than picking the darn things up.
 
The sure fire way is with ones hands.

I've tried rock rakes and a so-called rock hound. Both were a waste of time and money.

Dean
 
Years ago I had around thirty three acres that had various size rocks from golf ball size to a couple that weighted around a ton. I raised winter wheat on the field and plowed every year. I would put the ex-wife in the loader bucket and lower it close to the ground. Every time she would see a rock I would stop and she would pick it up and put it in the bucket. I had several piles located around the field and when the bucket got full I would dump it at the closest pile. When I cleaned the piles off the field several years later I figured we had picked close to two hundred ton out of the field. Lot of hard work went into that project.
 
The guy I worked for as a kid had a 49 Chevy dump with a four speed, a three range gear box behind that, and a two speed axle, so first gear was about a slow walk.
I'd put it in first, set the idle a little high, hop out and walk beside it, picking the rock by hand - I think that was the only job on the farm that I really hated.
Pete
 
I did 70 acres worth by hand when cultipacking, the larger problematic ones for the combine grain head, mostly so we could cut lower to get more straw. It was not too bad, but lots of stopping and on/off the tractor, sometimes the bucket would get full in the middle so you have compaction issues, but the oat crop never seemed to suffer. We have lots of glacial till and round rocks, but it must be manageable as the large operation in town here, that does all grain, planted beans in these same fields, I always thought there were too many rocks and the cutter head being lower or lowest for this crop is/was a problem. They just harvested too, have no idea what the yield was, not sure if I have his number handy, be cool to see what it did this year, and if the deer were a problem, one field looked like they were.
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Picked em by hand, threw them onto a stone boat. When the darn thing was full we drove to the fence line and tipped it over with the bulldozer to empty the thing. Pushed the big ones out with the dozer. In the late 60's pop bought a stone picker. Life was much better after that.
 
When we planted new lawn in the back yard, we tilled the ground and then shoveled the dirt through a screen made from 1/2" rabbit wire nailed onto a 2x2 frame. A bit labor intensive and it was only a 50' by 50' area and we weren't on a time schedule. When we were done, the ground was like powder.
 
I would not bother picking up rocks smaller than fist sized-most will settle back into the ground at walnut sized.They should not cause any problem with equipment.Mark
 
Picking stones is like buying an indestructible vacuum cleaner. Whatever
you do it will still suck. One acre is good old fashioned manual labor.
You didn't mention the important thing of how ground was worked up.
If it was done state of the art 1950 you will do manual labor like it
was 1950.Modern tillage tools make life so much better.
 
Almost sounds like you are putting in a lawn ?
There is a gizmo made that you use power and it has like ridged rollers to gather them up. I've seen pull behind ones and ones front mounted for skid steers. I just don't know the "official" name of them ?
A yoke rake works pretty good but not in soft dirt as you found out.
 
Set yourself a skid loader with a rock bucket. It picks up the rocks and lets the dirt fall through. No-till your ground if possible so your not continually bringing up more rock and also use a rock roller after planting to press down the ones you missed.
 
(quoted from post at 08:45:47 11/10/15) Picking up rocks is a never ending process.....they will keep coming to the top. I know this for a fact.
Click to expand...

and if you leave the little ones, they will grow to be big ones next year :shock:
 
Sister first husband was told not to rake first crop he did put a glacier rock through the chopper scrap heap after that. It's a bad job but can save a lot latter
 
If they are smaller than a volley ball here they don't get much of my attention. My ground has been farmed since something like 1800 and still can't make it more than a few minutes without tripping the plows.
 
No rocks in NW Iowa either. I believe it was in the late '50's, when space and moon exploration were just getting started, the federal government encouraged farmers in that part of Iowa to be on the look-out for rocks. They figured the only rocks to be found would have to be meteorites.
 
I have a lot of field stone. I use it for building projects. Like others, I do not bother with a fist size rock unless I have a project pending and need them. For larger rocks I have a rock picker that pulls behind the tractor, scoops up rocks and then will dump them into a bin. All hydraulic, not very fast, but beats the heck out of getting up and down and lifting rocks all day.
 
Picking up rocks here in Missouri is a never ending thing so I gave up years ago. Shoot you pick up 100 this year and 200 will take there place next year or so it seems
 
I have picked up so many rocks in my 18 years of mowing, for other people. I usually pick up the large rocks. Now most of the fields I do are fairly clean, except for the rocks I can't move. I try to remember where they are. Sometimes my memory isn't that good. I use my disk for fields full of rocks, the tractor just bounces over them. Kind of hard on disk blades though. Some times a rock gets stuck between the blades, If you ever had happen you know what I am talking about. When Dad farmed there was only one large rock in all his fields, so I never had to pick up ricks growing up. It's always a challenge when I do a new field. I will ask the owner if there are any rocks if he sys a few, that means the field is full of them. Stan
 
Ah rock picken , Each year we go thru this . Ya get some young guys that are willing to work and yes there are a few that will work the ground up a little and have at it . We start on one side of a field with four or five guys and a skid steer with the big bucket and go . The first year we went to deep till i think we found rocks that have not seen the light of day in ten million years . we have plowed that field now for about 45 years and got some out before but ya always were tripping the plow everywhere . The first round with the deep till the plow sole was so hard that at twelve inches deep i could only pull five shanks going down hill with a turned up 1066 with duals . Broke a dozen shear bolts on the ripper the first year and found some pretty huge rocks that i dug out with the skid steer , some as big as the skid steer and had to dig a ramp to get them out of the holes that were darn near the start of a basement for low income housing . Each one had to rolled to the end of the field and rolled down into the ravine . As for the hand rock picking we were dumping at each end of the field . The next year we went down to 14 inches and did the rock picking all over again any rock soft ball size and up got picked that we could find and again found some big ones that would break a shear bolt and when that happened they got flagged and dug . . We did this three years in a row and it has really helped , you may have to stop a couple times while working ground to pick up a couple here and there but that is ok as this past spring i picked up only five rocks out of that field. The deep ripping really helped out on the wet spots as they now drain better and up on the hard clay knobs the corn roots now can get down and find moisture that they never got before on a dryer year . With all the rain we had this spring then the dry the rest of the year the corn in that field did real well . If we had the money we would buy a rock picker and a windrower , i would even settle for a old potato harvester they also work well on rocks up to about a foot or so . My uncle raised taters and they were rock free after four years with the harvester .
 
Done my share of that when I was a kid. Best crop our fields made. The frost brings them up every spring. I have heard of modified potato diggers being used to pick rocks. I believe International marketed an attachment for potato diggers. Generally, the best method is either kids or an Andeerson tow-behind rock picker.
 
For cleaning up an area for lawn I used a manure pitch fork. Last spring I used my chore lawn mower and reached down and picked them up and tossed them in the trailer I pull behind it. I had picked that area before and only needed to get a few.
 
Oh snap, this field looks like a crop of some sort of little gray pumpkins or something. I would have given up years ago.
 
Something close is the neighbor. Along a picket fence he dumped some 1/2 crushed stone left over from his driveway. Wellllll his is just slightly up grade from me and it slowly oooozzzes onto my side through the pickets. I was out with my Agri Fab leaf sucker and you want to hear a couple of those things go through the vacuum! Next spring this gonna get solved.
 
I used one of these when I worked for a dairy near Fredrick, MD.
It sure was better than walking the fields!!



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Hi FBH44 The guys that usually give that advice are the ones that didn't get the land cheap like they thought they would, and don't want the guy to survive in business very long. It kinda ticks them off when the guy figures stuff out, and is still there in 20 years. It's happened to a few guys round here. A common one is drain all your land so it floods the other guy out and he goes broke in a couple wet years. Then get they joining land cheaper. Guys close to us got land and tried flooding everybody else out draining 200 acres of scrub to farm it. They been bankrupt 4 times in other family members names and still farm 10.000 acres between owned and rented. They work on we can do what we want but if you drain and flood us we will, fill in the ditches or see you in court! They are real generous guys with the donation plate on the 7th day though ;).
Regards Robert
 
we live at the foot of the Mission Mountains in Western Montana and the soil surveys say that for our soils, 85% of the rocks are under 3-1/2 to 4 inches. Don"t I wish! We have large numbers of rocks that are size of Volkswagons. Most of the hay shakers around here have gone to using big rollers to roll their hay ground in the spring. This keeps the rocks in the ground and they don"t damage their mowers when cutting hay.

I did some excavating work in our pastures, running water lines and removing big rocks so we could rum wheel lines. They were so big a huge trackhoe could not lift them. They had to bury them with the tops at three feet below the surface. I bought a New Holland rock bucket for my tractor and picked up everything > 3 inches with it. The rest I have to pick by hand. I dare say if I removed all the rocks from the top three feet of soil, our pastures would be about a foot and a half lower!

So you can buy a roller and roll them into the ground every spring or pick them and carry them to the edge of the field. You have my sympathy whatever you chose to do.
 
Me (age 8) driving the 8N Ford, dad and hired man putting them in the loader bucket. When full, drive to edge of field and dump, repeat. That may have been the origin of one of Dad's favorite sayings- "Oh, my achin' back".
 
Hanging on to dads knee, on the IHC 300; or me hugging the fender on the Oliver 88.

Dad stopped, I hopped down, picked up all rocks in a 100 foot circle, and we would drive again. Probably about 200 feet and stop again....... (You do the math....)

This was mostly during harrowing right before and after planting 6 rows wide, occasionally during cultivating with the 4 row cultivator.

Dad had a wood box that hung on the left side of both those tractors, about 14 inches wide and deep, the length of the tractor. Some days we (by we I mean me...) would fill that box in 2 rounds in certain spots.

Now adays i send the wife out with the Polaris Ranger and she gets the bigger rocks. Don't tell her that is work, she hasn't quite figured it out yet and I've worded things carefully to keep her in the dark.....

Anything under a fist size really doesn't get picked up, unless its laying next to one worth picking up and you can get a 2-fer.

Paul
 
What are these rocks you speak of?

I have picked many of rocks growing up in Wi but down here in the flat lands there are very few. It would be nice to have a gravel pit on the farm or rocks for erosion control.
 
couple years ago a neighbor hired me to cut a couple hay fields. his mower was broke down. I said sure, are there any rocks in it I should watch for, he said no, its pretty clean. Well, I spent half my time fixing guards and sections, along with half the money I charged
 
Call a company called Jenkins I think they are in Long Prairie Mn. They will sell direct and make a nice rock rake.
 
I've picked rocks around here since I was a kid, this farm and many of the neighbors, and each year more appear. But I rarely pick anymore- most are busted up or pushed down by the cultipacker, and I don't dig any up by plowing since going no-til back in the seventies. Oh, they're there- lurking under the surface- just not on top. Only the occassional bigger one that gets pulled up might get moved. But, no till has many advantages......
 
(quoted from post at 07:14:26 11/10/15) Years ago I had around thirty three acres that had various size rocks from golf ball size to a couple that weighted around a ton. I raised winter wheat on the field and plowed every year. I would put the ex-wife in the loader bucket and lower it close to the ground. Every time she would see a rock I would stop and she would pick it up and put it in the bucket. I had several piles located around the field and when the bucket got full I would dump it at the closest pile. When I cleaned the piles off the field several years later I figured we had picked close to two hundred ton out of the field. Lot of hard work went into that project.
Click to expand...
So does ex-wife in loader bucket sound like cause and effect?
 
I don't know where you are in NW Iowa, but I grew up in Buena Vista county, north of Alta, and picking rocks was a never ending job on that farm. When my Dad passed, my sister wanted a rock for a souvenir The rock pile was gone........ turns out one of the renters took them when he built a new house at the Ia great lakes region. Must use native stone instead of concrete block.
 
Dale, I assumed there weren't many rocks north of Alta. I guess I learned something. LOL I use a five tine pitchfork to pick up rocks. I shape the tines so the outside tines are raised above the rest to form a cradle of sorts. Many tons of rocks have been picked up with that pitchfork, I used it the other day in fact. Pitching them into the wagon from a distance and not having them bounce back out is an art.
 
As stated:
Rock Hound.
Many folks would love to have
permission to walk your property
to pick them up, details negotiable.
Fist size on up are used for many things,
and worth $$$ as well.
If ya can put em in a pile,
guaranteed ya can sell the pile
for more than ya guess.
Just a thought.
Make sure they sign a waiver
before on your property in case they get hurt--
as in " not responsible for a d*mn thing".
 
(quoted from post at 12:11:28 11/10/15) we live at the foot of the Mission Mountains in Western Montana and the soil surveys say that for our soils, 85% of the rocks are under 3-1/2 to 4 inches. Don"t I wish! We have large numbers of rocks that are size of Volkswagons. Most of the hay shakers around here have gone to using big rollers to roll their hay ground in the spring. This keeps the rocks in the ground and they don"t damage their mowers when cutting hay.

I did some excavating work in our pastures, running water lines and removing big rocks so we could rum wheel lines. They were so big a huge trackhoe could not lift them. They had to bury them with the tops at three feet below the surface. I bought a New Holland rock bucket for my tractor and picked up everything > 3 inches with it. The rest I have to pick by hand. I dare say if I removed all the rocks from the top three feet of soil, our pastures would be about a foot and a half lower!

So you can buy a roller and roll them into the ground every spring or pick them and carry them to the edge of the field. You have my sympathy whatever you chose to do.
Click to expand...

I grew up in south central South Dakota and we never saw a rock unless we went to the gravel pit. Out here we are over the path of the Missoula glacier so we have lots of rocks! Interesting reading here....

https://www.deq.idaho.gov/regional-...ne/rathdrum-prairie-aquifer/geologic-history/
 
(quoted from post at 19:18:09 11/10/15) As stated:
Rock Hound.
Many folks would love to have
permission to walk your property
to pick them up, details negotiable.
Fist size on up are used for many things,
and worth $$$ as well.
If ya can put em in a pile,
guaranteed ya can sell the pile
for more than ya guess.
Just a thought.
Make sure they sign a waiver
before on your property in case they get hurt--
as in " not responsible for a d*mn thing".
Click to expand...

Around here they have to be 100# or more to get money for them...even then most people will give them away if you load!
 
If we picked walnut sized rock.... we 'd be in china before we were done. We try to get down to about fist size with a Degelman rake. Beyond that a roller or Brillion will pound the rest down smooth enough for me.
If you're doing a lawn... then I'd think hand raking or mabey one of those skid steer mounted pickers would do the trick.

Rod
 
(quoted from post at 07:14:26 11/10/15) Years ago I had around thirty three acres that had various size rocks from golf ball size to a couple that weighted around a ton. I raised winter wheat on the field and plowed every year. I would put the ex-wife in the loader bucket and lower it close to the ground. Every time she would see a rock I would stop and she would pick it up and put it in the bucket. I had several piles located around the field and when the bucket got full I would dump it at the closest pile. When I cleaned the piles off the field several years later I figured we had picked close to two hundred ton out of the field. Lot of hard work went into that project.
Click to expand...

Right there my friend is why she is an "Ex" :eek:

Gene
 
LOL!!!! True, and this field is mild compared to others we were planting. I've never been too lazy, the farmer I was helping really appreciated the work and the job I did on these fields, he told me while looking over what I did, that was worth every one I picked up and it would have filled a dump trailer when said and done. Best thing was I lost 20 or so lbs, its good honest hard work. Just being in the fields, no matter what you did, seemed to never be work for me. I really hustled to keep up with that grain drill that spring. Seems I was always under the gun, while he was plowing, I was ahead with this tractor pushing back ice storm damaged trees from the previous fall,and or cutting same with my saw. The 7420 and 5-18 IH plow was always bearing down on me, somehow I kept ahead, not by much at times but he never passed me at least. We got the spring planting done well ahead of any deadlines.
 
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