Might have made a mistake

[cat fever]

I had several gofur mounds and such in my hay pasture. My neighbor was harrowing his fields and ask if I wanted mine done. I said yes. The field looks great except now I have many, many rocks that were pulled up. Looks like I'll be going around putting rocks in my tractor bucket for some time. My field is split in two. Upper section (20 acres) is where most the rocks are. The lower part (11 acres) looks great, barely any rocks.

Sure wish I had a rock bucket right now. :mur: I think I'll add that to my wish list. For those that have rock buckets, do they really work?

 

[johntom89]

no kids in the neighborhood to hire for 40 bucks to do so instead of you?

 

[cat fever]

There are kids, but why work when XBox or Playstation is so much more fun?

When I was younger I did anything to make a buck. Kids now are not the same. Mom/Dad will just give them the money.

 

[BertZegers]

no kids in the neighborhood to hire for 40 bucks to do so instead of you?

I used a cultivator ( setting it to deep?) and than diamond harrows, and it brought up a lot of field stones, on a 36 acre field. They became really visible after a rain! I did not want to run a planter with all the stones.
Me and my wife spend several days picking them up. We used our 4x8ft dump trailer. The tractor bucket would not hold much and I would be driving a lot to dump.
If your area has much field stones, you might be able to rent a "stone picker" machine.

 

[cat fever]

I'll have to look into that, thanks.

I'm in a bit of a time crunch, the field is a mature alfalfa field and already up a few inches. Not a lot of rental places around me. My bucket will hold quite a load of rocks.

 

[johntom89]

idk first hand, but from what i have heard, seen on here and read, your location is just as "bony" as it is here.

are you looking for a quick cheat to hurry up and clear the stones cheap as possible(i know foolish to ask as that is with us all) maybe google to find the cheapest attachment that'll actually work and hold up to real work for years. huge bonus is you will never have to cross this bridge again no matter what the circumstances

 

[cat fever]

The answer is yes, quick and cheap since the temps are warming and the field is growing.


The neighbor who harrowed it has a rock bucket he said I could use, mainly so I could see how well its works with a tractor and if I wanted to buy one. He said it works great on a skid steer because you can see better, not sure on a tractor. He also has a 18' roller that you fill with water and smash all the rocks down. (about 20 tons if full) I'm going to do both and see how it works out. Hopefully I can beat the storm coming in tomorrow.

I'll try and get some pictures if I remember.

Over the years I hope I can get the top of my field as good as the bottom. I doubt I could fill my bucket with rocks from the bottom field. But I'm sure I could fill a dump truck from the top field.

 

[LouNY]

The usability of a rock bucket depends a lot on the soil conditions.
I have this rock bucket / grapple; Titan Attachments 82" Rock Bucket Grapple Skeleton Loader w/ Teeth Skid Steer And even with the 4" spacing between the tines it can be difficult to get the rocks to separate from the dirt, that was in a clody chisel plowed field. A dried sandier soil would have been much better. I can see where a skid steer would be nicer for the visibility of the tine ends. I also had difficulty getting the rocks into the bucket while trying to keep the bucket from digging into the ground. On a hard packed feed lot with round cobble stones that had worked up on top of the ground we had decent luck rowing the stones with a back blade or the box blade the running down the row and using the other blade as a back stop to load the rock bucket.
I don't know what size you are thinking of picking down to, when we drill in a new seeding after tillage is done we go in and pick the larger stone 4-6 inch in diameter sometimes closer to 6-8 and up and then roll the others down with a heavy culti-packer, then we use a no-till drill and stop and pick up the ones that didn't roll in while drilling the field.

Of course for lots of money this is the way to go, we have looked at and watched a few of these in operation they will leave a field in great shape;
Rocks: don’t pick them, pulverize them | The Western Producer

I grew up picking rocks every spring it took longer to pick stone then to plow, harrow and plant. That was using mouldboard plows and spring tooth harrows, chisel plows and discs along with no-till planters have drastically reduced that job, fortunately.

 

[cat fever]

Thanks for the info, the field is firm with grapefruit/football sized rocks sitting right on top.

 

[LouNY]

That size would be rough on a haybine, I don't know what type you are using sickle bar or discbine, that size rock is rough on a discbine.
Good luck with any way you go.
Possible one of the side delivery style rock rakes would help to gather the rocks without digging into the sod much.

 

[pmsmechanic]

When I picked rocks for my dad we had a pull type rock picker. It worked best when you didn't slow down to pick up the rocks. If you came to a stop and tried to gently roll the rock into the times it was very frustrating. Hit the rock at speed with tines against the ground and it would bounce up and roll onto the tines. With your soil being firm the rock bucket should work very well.

 

[cat fever]

That's what I want to hear! :thumbsup:

 

[cat fever]

So here's how the rock getting is going;

The rock bucket was not working out. To hard to see the front of it and I was doing more damage to the field than good. So my bride and I started picking rocks by hand. I'm glad to say the bottom field is "rock free", at least surface rocks and any we could see and dig up.:dance1:

The top field is another story. We spent a good deal of time yesterday and this morning making one pass throwing rocks into the tractor bucket. Had to dump it several times. The one pass is where most of the rocks are. The rest of the field has rocks here and there but over most of the field. We stopped because it started raining. We'll pick up more when it stops and dries up a bit. Then run the neighbors roller over it to get what we missed.

This is the rock pile.

 

[LouNY]

Thats too bad I was hoping you'd have better luck with the rock bucket then I do, hand picking sucks especially picking climbing back in the tractor moving 20 ft climbing out and repeating numerous times.

 

[cat fever]

I agree, in/out move tractor repeat gets old and I'm not young enough to keep this up for 15-20 acres. I'll get as much as my back will put up with then just roll it and get more rocks the next time we run the harrow over it. I'd sure like to get them all now but I have time to keep at over a few years.:thumbsup:

 

[pmsmechanic]

Thats too bad I was hoping you'd have better luck with the rock bucket then I do, hand picking sucks especially picking climbing back in the tractor moving 20 ft climbing out and repeating numerous times.

The above comment made me smile. Sometimes a cab is nice.....and sometimes it isn't!

 

[cat fever]

The above comment made me smile. Sometimes a cab is nice.....and sometimes it isn't!

I have a cab, but for sure sometimes I wish I had both open station and cab.

It's not raining now so we'll be heading out soon for a fun filled day of rock picking.:thumbdown:

 

[rScotty]

Thats too bad I was hoping you'd have better luck with the rock bucket then I do, hand picking sucks especially picking climbing back in the tractor moving 20 ft climbing out and repeating numerous times.

We had to sort a lot of rocks after a flood. How well the rock bucket works depends mostly on the dirt the rocks are in. We have a very sandy base with round river rocks from tomatoe to front tire size. I've tried several different types of rock bucket. The Bradco or the Hough with the round rod construction stick out farther and work noticibly better than the more generic type made of flat stock. Neither one is great, just passable if you don't mind tearing up the ground a bit. Hand picking is way better for the field, but what a pain.

There's a trick to using a rock bucket: Just pick up a few with the lip of the rock bucket and tilt it up to roll them to the back. That way the dirt falls through. Then repeat until the bucket is full. Yes, it is time consuming that way, and you only move a foot at a time. But if you try to get many rocks in the bucket all at one time you will end up with too much dirt and the dirt won't fall through. BTW, the dryer and sandier the soil the better. I doubt these rock buckets would work at all in good loam or clay soil.

There are commercial rock picker-upers with a rotating sleeve that mounts to a SSQA and is skid steer size. Sorts out the soil and conveys the rocks to a holding pen for dumping. Real expensive implement to buy, but might be rentable. I've never seen one in use.
rScotty

 

[mopardude318]

Put that sucker in creep and walk with it as ya load. Yea I’ve done it. It’s not safe. Maybe you’ll be reading about me one day. LOL

Nice hard work Cat Fever.

 

[cat fever]

I've got 30 acres to clean the rocks out of. So far I think 25 acres is clear. 5 left but it's been raining/sleeting most of the day.

I really need to get it done, the alfalfa is getting so tall it's getting hard to see the rocks.