taking back some ground

I have a piece of ground that has been untouched for about fifteen years. It was planted at one time so there are no large trees. There has been some brush growth and the trunks may be 3-4 inches on those. I can't go right in and plow and thought I might ask how to approch it. Spray it down to kill everything first? Plow and then spray? How would you do it? I am looking to continue a hay/alfalfa field that touches this after I am done.
My resources are somewhat limited because I only have a three bottom plow, lighter weight disc, and 65 horse tractor. I am hoping to not have to hire anyone with bigger equipment and would rather get this done myself. Most of my neighbors are too busy doing their stuff to mess with my two acres anyhow.

Any tree over 3 or 4 foot tall will have to be removed. If you don't you will be fighting sticks in the field for a couple of years.

Pull them with a chain. Grub them out with a loader or backhoe but anything over a 1" diameter trunk would be removed if it was mine.

Then plow it. Spray should not be needed if plowed and worked down right.

Gary

Heck,with only two acres-go for it!You have plenty of tractor.Even if you plow in low gaer,its not like you have 200 acres....I think (if it were mine)I would plant an annual crop(oats,corn,wheat,etc.)before planting a permanant crop.

i'd pull the trees. remember if you have 15' trees and a 12' chain, you will be wearing the tree when it comes over. i like to cut them 2' off the ground and then pull the stumps after. a 65 hp tractor shouldn't have any trouble with what you described.
as far as spray, if there is quackgrass and you are wanting to seed it down, the best way to kill the quack is some variant of roundup, regular or generic. the other weeds should be controlled by tillage and the frequent cutting with a hay crop.
regardless, i would plow it this fall and let it set over the winter so it would work down smoother in the spring. (assuming that it won't all wash away over the winter if it is plowed).

I agree with IaGary, get those trees out before attempting tillage. How many trees are there on two acres? Cut them with chainsaw leaving 12" stump. Get a single shank 3pt sub-soiler and pull sub-soiler about a foot or so on three or four sides of the stump to cut roots, then pull them out with chain attached to drawbar. Or if sub-soiler is stoutly enough built and tree roots are cut enough, you should be able to pull/lift them out with the sub-soiler by lifting three point hitch . ( Have extra weight installed on front of tractor.).
I've pulled them out that way.

> I am hoping to not have to hire anyone with bigger equipment and would rather get this done myself.

I know it seems like it will be really expensive, but weigh the cost of the weeks of work you have ahead of you against the cost of hiring a dozer to grub the whole field off in a few hours. I would at least get an estimate for the cat work before you write the idea off.

1-2 inch will come out easily with a chain. 3-4 inch, not so much. Repair bill from tearing up the tractor will easily exceed the cost of renting a dozer for a day. And you'll have fun, to boot.

One season I spent my busywork hours on the dairy farm clearing such a field.

Me, a chain, and a Farmall M out in the middle of nowhere.

I enjoyed it, but it is time consuming. The owner still farms it almost 30 years later.

The way it used to be done here? Cut the trees, fence it in as pasture for 5 years. Stumps rot and will fall apart when plowed.

Many years ago a frind of mine made a 3 point puller for his tractor. It pulled up 4 inch trees easily by first clamping around the tree and then raising the tractor's 3 point hitch. He basically built a bit of a frame out of steel he had laying around. I will describe the end that clamped the tree, you can visualize what kind of frame work would be needed to attach it to the 3 point arms.

The clamp used a standard hyd cylinder to clamp the tree against a bar. The bar was a piece from an old culitvator and was maybe 2 inch square solid shaft, suitablly braced to the 3 point attaching frame. The clamp was flame cut from some 1/2 inch material, two pieces, top and bottom, with some stiffening material between. This material did not go all the way to the nose of the clamp as the outer end was allowed to swallow the bar so a smaller tree could be clamped. The clamping portion was rounded and clamped against the straight bar.

I lifted/pulled up 6-7 inch trees with it using my JD4630, He used an IH 656 and pulled 4-5 inch. It worked slick.

A good sized bobcat should grub them no problem.

Sounds like the couple acers I did a few years back. Took a chain and my 504 farmall and pulled all the small trees out by the roots. Then plowed it and planted RR corn on it. Sprayed it with roundup I think three times after planting. Ended up with a good crop of corn and the ground was good to go for future use.

Just did this last spring but with a lot bigger tractor 150 horse JD. Cut the trees leaving about a 4 ft stump so you will have lots of leverage when you start pulling. hook the chain high on the stump,wrap it around the stump twice before hooking it back into itself. Pull what your MF is capable of then find some one with a bigger tractor to help pull the rest. Whether or not you disc before you plow depends on how tall the weeds are Ours was 4ft reed canary grassy didn't disc it first but should have.

What would you be "tearing up" on the tractor? They are made for pulling.

Yep.

With only two acers it might be hard get'n water to it but a trailer load of goats would do wanders.

Dave

Mainly the loader, when you tried cutting roots with it because you couldn't pull the bigger ones out intact.

I"m no fan of messing around clearing trees with a wheel tractor. A small cat will do the job fasster, better, and more iportantly,safer.

If you are going to do it with a tractor, I"d consider pulling the trees over with a long choker cable attached to the drawbar and attached to the tree as high as you can get. You might consider using a snatch block anchored low on a big tree, also. You"ll get the tree, roots and all. A small cat with clearing forks makes short work of brush, but you may have to pull that with a choker also
Soil type and conditions are really important. You want some moisture so the tree roots come out easier but not so much that you have poor traction.
Pile the trees and brush for burning and wait til they dry down before you light them off. While you"re waiting for them to dry, spray the ground with whatever you will use to kill what ever is there. Then plow that down. Depending on the seed load, you may have to spray again in the spring before you plant if that"s what your time line is. If you want to fall plant then a single spraying might worrk,again depending on the seed load and type of weeds. (Fall germinating weeds might require additional spraying.)

Anway, that"s how I"d approach it.

The video is of a similar situation. I have used this method many times as it never endangers the operator, the tractor, or people watching. The A frame can be made more substantial than this one. The tractors pull is now directly translated into lift. The force is multiplied by the angle, and it really works. Cutting the stump at about 3 feet allows a grab hook and three wraps of chain to sinch down on the stem and pull hard.
I have used it with farmall H and 400 tractors and lifted 6 to 7 inch trees with no wheel slippage. Do use at least 40 feet of chain or Way too strong cable so the tractor is far enough away to have less lift applied to the draw bar. It is at least lift, which prevents all flipping. There is no need to ram or jerk with this setup.
In the days of horses, this was the method of choice as it was easy on the horses, and amplified their strength. Jim
A frame

We cleaned "the bottom" last summer to make a hay field.

Started by mowing with 7ft Corsicana rotary cutter to cut down tall weeds and small trees.

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Used a Stihl 170 on the other small trees.

Sprayed the field this Spring with RoundUp to kill everything.

Used a spring-tooth harrow and disk harrow to till the ground.

Picked and pulled all remaining roots.

The <a href="http://youtu.be/vWUcw97Xrt0">Brillion cultipacker</a> was used to prepare the seed bed.

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Spread Tifton 9 Bahia seed and used the cultipacker again for good seed-to-soil contact.

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Even though we've are in a severe drought, here's how it looks today.

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Hope this helps and good luck with your hay field.

i always got a better kill by mowing brush down and then spraying the regrowth.except for poison ivy that is,ive not found anything that would kill that stuff yet.even tried some of that stuff they use on a rr right of way,all it did was set it back some.i think ive sprayed the tree row beside my house so much it glows in the dark!

I cleared (or opened up) my 12 acres by hand---chainsaw, axe, 8N and heavy rotary cutter. I learned that the best way to clear hardwood thickets, stuff 6 inches and smaller, was to burn the entire site in the spring and summer when the sap is up. It kills the tree, and for some reason that I don't know, makes it rot faster. The next year most of these can be pushed over by hand, breaking them off at the ground. Stumps might require a bit more work, but they're spongy. I will also kill pine saplings, but it won't faze the larger pines.

You should get as many roots out as you can..they will sure make real Headache, when you go to plow it..!!
Add-in any wild Grape-Vines AND Poison Ivy Vines and plowing that ground can be a very real experience..!!
We pull the smaller trees with a row-crop tractor and a chain hooked to a clevis on the end of a drawbar..
Sub-Soiler or maybe get someone with a chisel Plow to rip it up for you,.??

Ron..

(quoted from post at 18:48:08 08/26/11) Yep.

With only two acers it might be hard get'n water to it but a trailer load of goats would do wanders.

Dave

Click to expand...

I am with KYplowboy, goats and/or sheep, then you will see what is under all the grass (downed trees, rocks, whatever).

I cut a lot of 3-4" cherry, pine and brush with my 65hp tractor and JD MX8 brush mower. It is amazing what it will do if you take it easy.

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