I'm having some timber cut on 4-5 acres adjacent to my lawn. Pine beetles have infested the pines and it was either cut them or watch them all slowly die. I'm having the area cleared of all trees (pine, sweetgum, maple, black cherry) except the few bigger oaks and dogwoods that are there. There's going to be lots of tops, brambles, muscadine vines, etc. to clean up after the loggers are finished. I'd like to get the area to where I can mow it with my 5' KK rotary kutter behind my Mahindra 2615 4WD. The bigger stumps are spaced widely enough that mowing around them won't be that big of an issue, and the smaller stumps are, for the most part, being cut low enough to the ground that I can mow over them.
I had made up my mind to purchase a 48" Millonzi grapple and a selector valve kit from WR Long to mount on my loader. Total cost would be around $1400.00. I could then use the grapple to pile the tops for burning. This would be accomplished in the afternoons after work and on the weekends. I'd then have to wait until the burn ban is lifted for my county and burn the pile(s) when conditions are right. I had it all planned out. My financial manager (read "wife" for those of you who aren't married
) has reservations. She's afraid we won't have much use for the grapple once the clean up of this area is complete. I keep assuring her that there will be many, many uses for the grapple in the years to come.
Then, I came across a flier for a local guy advertising land clearing. He has a mulcher attachment on a tracked skid steer machine. I've checked out some of his work and was impressed. He'd turn all the tops, brambles, vines, etc. to mulch and pile the bigger stuff for burning. Plus, he'd grind the stumps down. Wow! This would save me lots of work/time and almost immediately get the area in a condition that can be mowed and ready for planting pines, sawtooth oaks, dogwoods, fruit trees, and whatever else we plan to do with it. So, I gave him a call this morning.
He gets $100/hr. running the mulcher. $75/hr. running a tractor/grapple to pile the bigger stuff. He said it averages between $800 and $1300 per acre depending on the topography, the size and make up of material to be mulched, how rocky the property is (which directly correlates to how many mulcher teeth he has to replace), etc. So, with the mulcher solution, I'm looking at a minimum of $3200 (4 acres X $800/ac.) to have the area cleared. That's more than we're going to make off selling the timber (and, there are some BIG, 24"+ DBH pine logs in there)! I can't fault him on his rates. He has to make a living and I know that type of equipment is expensive to maintain. I think he told me each tooth he has to replace in the mulcher costs about $50.
Of course, I could save my money and not go either of these routes. I've been piling brush by just chaining it to my loader bucket. This involves pushing an appropriate amount of brush together, getting off the tractor and chaining it to the bucket, lift/curl, transport to burn pile, get off tractor to unhitch chains, get back on tractor and dump load. I suspect I could pile 5-10 times as much brush in the same amount of time with the grapple attachment.
I guess I'm just thinking out loud. Any input from similar experiences will certainly be appreciated.
Thanks,
BamaRob
I had made up my mind to purchase a 48" Millonzi grapple and a selector valve kit from WR Long to mount on my loader. Total cost would be around $1400.00. I could then use the grapple to pile the tops for burning. This would be accomplished in the afternoons after work and on the weekends. I'd then have to wait until the burn ban is lifted for my county and burn the pile(s) when conditions are right. I had it all planned out. My financial manager (read "wife" for those of you who aren't married
) has reservations. She's afraid we won't have much use for the grapple once the clean up of this area is complete. I keep assuring her that there will be many, many uses for the grapple in the years to come.Then, I came across a flier for a local guy advertising land clearing. He has a mulcher attachment on a tracked skid steer machine. I've checked out some of his work and was impressed. He'd turn all the tops, brambles, vines, etc. to mulch and pile the bigger stuff for burning. Plus, he'd grind the stumps down. Wow! This would save me lots of work/time and almost immediately get the area in a condition that can be mowed and ready for planting pines, sawtooth oaks, dogwoods, fruit trees, and whatever else we plan to do with it. So, I gave him a call this morning.
He gets $100/hr. running the mulcher. $75/hr. running a tractor/grapple to pile the bigger stuff. He said it averages between $800 and $1300 per acre depending on the topography, the size and make up of material to be mulched, how rocky the property is (which directly correlates to how many mulcher teeth he has to replace), etc. So, with the mulcher solution, I'm looking at a minimum of $3200 (4 acres X $800/ac.) to have the area cleared. That's more than we're going to make off selling the timber (and, there are some BIG, 24"+ DBH pine logs in there)! I can't fault him on his rates. He has to make a living and I know that type of equipment is expensive to maintain. I think he told me each tooth he has to replace in the mulcher costs about $50.
Of course, I could save my money and not go either of these routes. I've been piling brush by just chaining it to my loader bucket. This involves pushing an appropriate amount of brush together, getting off the tractor and chaining it to the bucket, lift/curl, transport to burn pile, get off tractor to unhitch chains, get back on tractor and dump load. I suspect I could pile 5-10 times as much brush in the same amount of time with the grapple attachment.
I guess I'm just thinking out loud. Any input from similar experiences will certainly be appreciated.
Thanks,
BamaRob
