Best grapple for a cutover?

[Xfaxman]

Good gully.

Good Gully Miss Mully!

Sorry couldn't resist. And know it was Molly

 

[jyoutz]

It depends on the

Why burn them at all? They make good wildlife habitat. When I take trees from my forest, I limb them, then remove the trunk. The branches and stumps rot down eventually. I have a great abundance of wildlife now.

It depends on the location and environment. In the mesic eastern US and Pacific coast, large piles rot fast. In the interior western US where the climate is drier, large piles can stand for decades as wildfire hazards.

 

[spruce Deere]

Looking at your pictures, you have pine seedlings planted in that mix.... They must have been planted with a transplanter judging by the lines of soil with trees sticking out from them.

You have a built in forest in the making if the whole acreage is like the pics...

 

[DABit]

I have a MTL RK-3 Rock Root & Demolition Grapple. It has done good by me for several years. Made in the USA. I move a lot of rough cut firewood with it also. A friend of mine owns a tree service we load what ever lengths the tree comes down in and cut it up to size later at home. Mover it all with the grapple.

 

[Xfaxman]

I have a MTL RK-3 Rock Root & Demolition Grapple.

Yep, that is a dual lid L bottom style, my favorite style: https://www.mtlattachments.com/atta...rapple-bucket-twin-cylinder-attachments-p3spf

 

[lorandroehl]

you could also have a forestry mulcher come in and clean it up. Pretty fast since there are no huge logs. Things like this eat that stuff up

I had a tree service with a mulcher like that come in and mulch about 6 acres 5 years go. All standing live trees, mostly aspen and pine. Biggest was about 14” and not very many of those. Most were 8-10” in diameter. I left a number of nicer trees but made sure there was a minimum of 10’ between all trees so I could get equipment between them. Biggest problem I had was the area was over grown with Buckthorn. I now mow and disc the entire area several times a year. The tree mulch is now almost completely rotted and the area looks great. Cost me a few bucks, but am very happy with the results. Lots of wildlife in there now, rabbits, turkeys, deer, etc. I would go the mulching route again.

I also have clear cut several food plot areas about 1/2-1 acre each on a different piece of land. Just piled the slash at the edges to leave it rot. Some lime, fertilizer, and clover seed and they look beautiful.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

if you have a lot of small stuff you want to pick up then I like the grapple used in post #2 as you can get under and tines help prevent fall through.

I have an AE wicked root grapple and every second slat on the bottom can be removed depending on whether you want more stuff to fall through or if you want to capture it.

 

[RollTide1974]

Looking at your pictures, you have pine seedlings planted in that mix.... They must have been planted with a transplanter judging by the lines of soil with trees sticking out from them.

You have a built in forest in the making if the whole acreage is like the pics...

I’m not sure how they planted them (I’m a city slicker ). We are buying the land from a timber company and they stated the Loblolly Pines were planted in Jan 2020. As far as we know, they planted all 48 acres like this. I figured it would look good if I could cut down all the sage and other bushes, and clean up the piles of wood left behind. Not sure that’s a great idea after reading some comments.

 

[spruce Deere]

Depending on what your plans are, some of that debris is good for the seedings. Looks fairly clean all and all.

Might want to look into burning regulations, restrictions, seasons and what not. If its 20 odd piles scattered over 48 acres, they must not be overly large. I'd burn the piles right where they are.

Deer don't care about the slash piles, they care about the green food plants on the property. A burn spot from a slash pile, if it was not so large to scorch the dirt to bare minerals, yields a very good grow sight for all sorts of plants.

Far as tractor grapples go, ETA makes the best far as I can tell. I would go with single lid model. I would start with a 40 hp tractor for a minimum and go from there.

 

[RollTide1974]

Depending on what your plans are, some of that debris is good for the seedings. Looks fairly clean all and all.

Might want to look into burning regulations, restrictions, seasons and what not. If its 20 odd piles scattered over 48 acres, they must not be overly large. I'd burn the piles right where they are.

Deer don't care about the slash piles, they care about the green food plants on the property. A burn spot from a slash pile, if it was not so large to scorch the dirt to bare minerals, yields a very good grow sight for all sorts of plants.

Far as tractor grapples go, ETA makes the best far as I can tell. I would go with single lid model. I would start with a 40 hp tractor for a minimum and go from there.

There’s a few large piles, but most aren’t that big. I just figure cutting the sage and brush will make the land look better. The grapple would help pick up a lot of the stray logs. I’ve got a 4540 Mahindra that should do the job. Just have to figure out how much I want to clean it up.