Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture

   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #1  

Ed27

Silver Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2019
Messages
133
Location
east TN
Tractor
Ford 2310 and Kubota M7060HD12
Hi all,

I just bought 50 acres, about 35 pasture and 15 woods. Land is flat. Pasture has been neglected for many years and has hundreds of trees in it that need to be cleared. Most are Bradford pears and cedar trees, about 5-6 inches in diameter and about 20 feet tall. I want to make a wide open pasture of it all. After the trees are cleared, I will keep it cleared with a bush hog. I will move 6 horses on it. I am not in a big hurry, but I want to get it done as soon as reasonably possible. I don't want to tear up the pasture land more than necessary, but will do what I need to get the job done.

Here are some ways to get the job done. Please tell me which way you think is the best way to go and your experiences.

Forestry mulcher: Wow, what could be more awesome than a forestry mulcher?!
Clevinger Forest Services- Forestry Mulcher Land Clearing - YouTube
I can rent one (tracked Bobcat T770 with forestry mulcher) for about $3,000 per week. Pros: Turns trees into mulch, grinds them down to the ground, does not tear up other pasture, and no burning required. Negative: Renting a Bobcat is still pricey, and it may take many weeks to complete.

Bulldozer: Hire someone to push them over, shove them in a pile, and set them on fire. Pros: Fast, probably cheapest method too. Negatives: Will tear up a lot of ground because many stumps will come out and make holes so ground will need to be graded too.

Tree saw and stump grinder for tractor PTO: TurboSaw quickly cuts each tree.
Tractor Mounted Tree Saw
Use grapple to put in a pile and burn them. Take saw off tractor and attach stump grinder.
Stump Grinder Videos | Woodland Mills USA
Pros: Should go pretty quickly. Can go at my own pace, depending on how much time I have each day. The saw and grinder will cost about $8,000 total, but I will be able to use them later too when I cut some trails through the woods. Negatives: Not sure, but may take the most time.

Your thoughts? Thanks for playing along!

Ed
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #2  
best way? get rid of the horses.....(all in good fun)
you have a task ahead, best regards
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #3  
Well.. How big a tractor you have available? If you want to do it yourself, and you have enough HP (75-100), I'd buy something like this:

BaumaLight - Brush Fire Mulchers

And sell it when you're done. A mulcher rental, as you've already found, is real pricey, so, if you need it for say 2 months, you're coming real close to buying the mulch head. Also, be aware, I've looked at this before, and all the rental ops near me call a "week" 40 hours of machine time. You can go through that real quick.

I think that mulcher is in the 20K range, if you used it for a few months, I'd have to believe you'd have little/no trouble selling it for 12-15K when you finished. And then you don't have to rush. I have a Baumalight Brushcutt, I've never seen their mulcher, but, if the cheaper Brushcutt is any indication, they make a fantastic machine.

The tree saw + grapple, IDK. For me that would be unacceptable. It would take forever to do that much land for me, but I have a lot of smaller trees.

Push it into a pile and burn it, seems reasonable. You know how to run a bulldozer? If so, that'll rent much cheaper than a mulcher, but, as you said, it'll tear the ground up good.

Might want to get a price to hire it done. If you have anyone in your area with a big dedicated mulch carrier, they might be interested in that job. Those machines are huge, so you can't have them come and cut "a few trails". But level 30 acres, that'll get them interested. It would probably take them less than a day to turn the entire thing into mulch with a 300-400HP carrier. It's quite an operation to watch, I've seen them do it in ROW's around here. It's amazing, it'll take down everything in it's path basically at full speed (5MPH or so). And the heads are big. I've never looked at hiring one because my land and needs aren't suitable, but.. Maybe 3-4K a day? That's a WAG (wild *** guess), but, given the cost of other heavy equip rental with an operator, seems like it should land in that zip code.
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Big bubba. Lol! My wife and girls own the horses. They love me very much but might kick me to the curb before they got rid of the horses. I will not ask them who is more important because I don't want to know the answer!

Overtaxed. Good suggestions. My pasture has more trees in it than is shown on Google Earth. Image must be several years old. My son owns a drone. I am going to ask him to take some good overhead video, then show it to some contractors with the big boy mulchers and ask how much they will charge. As for the tractor, I am going to buy a new Kubota M7060.
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #5  
If you have cedar trees like the ones we have the stumps will rot very very slow, they need to come out. If I were going to mulch the trees would certainly get pricing on hiring it done.

Some other options since not in big hurry. Chain saw or say a mid size or larger excavator with thumb to pull the trees and pile right away. The holes left will not be bad at all and if they need filling have some dirt hauled in and use a blade to pull the dirt into the hauls. No grading needed.
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #6  
Big bubba. Lol! My wife and girls own the horses. They love me very much but might kick me to the curb before they got rid of the horses. I will not ask them who is more important because I don't want to know the answer! ED27

absolutely...follow those dreams. been doing it myself on an Ozark mt top for decades.
can't beat the M7060, had a 7040 for a while myself. M series utility tractors rule. will you just pasture or try to grow Bermuda/alfalfa for hay?
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #7  
Stump bucket on a tractor that size will work well. Just another suggestion.

Personally of the 3 choices you listed to pick from the 3rd and last one would be my choice. I am a fan of having something long term to show for my money.
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #8  
Well, that M will carry and run a Brushcutter good. The other option, without getting too crazy, that I considered. Buy a used skid steer mulch head, put it on the front of your tractor (on the skid steer quick attach) and get a PTO power pack to send the fluid up to the head. Then you're working in front of you, you can buy "any mulch head" (not just a PTO one, which is rare and will be harder to resell), and then resell the machine (and PTO power pack, if you have no use for it) afterwards. Depending on the size of your trees, your MIGHT be able to get away doing a PTO power pack and an open rotary cutter, something like this:

Virnig Rotary Brush Cutter - Open Front Deck Attachment | Skid Steer Solutions

They make them that can take up to about 8" trees, not sure if that'll do it for you, but, if it will, that might be the cheapest way to get it done. A heavy duty skid steer rotary cutter will be pretty easy to sell (maybe lose 2-3K on the resale, worst case), and the PTO power pack, not so easy to sell, but, even if you sell it for 1/2, they're not that expensive. Again, big advantage here is you've got all day to work on it, and, this will be much cheaper to own and run than a real mulcher. It's basically what my Brushcutt is, which is also a good option for you, but those configuration don't go below ground level. I can flush cut a tree, but not below the soil. Your trees are a little too big for my machine, I think it's rated to 4", but, if you can get away with it, that's a really cheap way to get it done (5K for the machine or so). Also, one final option, a Brown Tree Cutter:

https://www.brownmanufacturing.us/sites/default/files/2000 Treecutter Web.pdf

That's what I was going to buy until I found the Brushcutt, the Brown is a bigger/badder version of what I have. They are rated to 8" trees, IIRC. Might be a little big for your tractor, but, if you go slow, should do what you want. Just have to do it in reverse, which does get tiring. I usually only run mine for 3-4 hours before I've had it. But, given that there's no rush, it's not that bad. I could probably clear 1/2 to 1 acre in a few hours with my machine of scrub to 2-3" (10-20' tall) trees. Goes pretty quick.

Here's some video of me using the Brushcutt, 60HP tractor:

Brushcutt CP56 clearing some land - YouTube

Brushcutt CP56 working on some smaller trees - YouTube
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #9  
If you really don't want to disturb the topsoil much I think a larger forestry mulcher is the way to go for 50 acres. Doing that with skid steer mounted mulcher will take hundreds of hours. Likely 1-200 hours in ideal conditions. If conditions are poor much longer.

It would also be reasonable to do it with a 20 ton excavator and then stack and burn everything you can't use but again 50 acres is going to take much more than a large mulcher and you then have to deal with a HUGE amount of trees to chip, burn or truck off.
 
   / Best way to clear unwanted trees from pasture #10  
I have owned the Turbosaw for about 4 years. I had about 20 acres of Eastern Red Cedar that I wanted to clear. I did a lot of research at the time and bought the Turbosaw. It will cut the stumps at ground level (slightly below if you let the saw settle in by going back and forth) and you do not need the stump grinder. On level ground it works great On uneven ground not so much. If trees are very tall, since you cannot control the direction of fall. It can be dangerous. I have cut several thousand trees with it over the years. I worked on a neighbors field this spring and with trees under 12 feet and 2-6" diameter I could cut about 200 trees per hour. Tractor is a John Deere 3038e. If you have any questions, just ask.
 
 
Top