BlackstoneFarmSouth
New member
So my father-in-law gave my wife and I about 8 acres as a future house site and this past august I bought a Kubota MX5400 to start clearing it with hopes to build a house within the next two years or so.
I’ve never owned a tractor but have some experience operating them after working for a farm/landscaping company after high school. This property had cows on it approximately 15 years ago but neglected land in southern Louisiana quickly gets out of hand and that was the case with this property, a few mature oaks and gum trees but mostly youpon, tallow trees, and briars so thick you couldn’t see much less walk through the woods.
I talked to several companies about forestry mulching/bulldozing/excavating but with prices between $10-20k and not being in any rush I decided to get the tractor I would eventually buy for the farm and just start picking away at the mess myself. Most of the undergrowth was between 1-4 inches so I bought a heavy duty 66” quick attach brush thrasher and man was I not disappointed, that thing made quick work of everything I put behind it and has held up beautifully. Last month I bought their 60” quick claw grapple because I’d been so happy with the brush cutter and needed something to clear the trees to big for the cutter.
Now 5 months after starting the majority of the land is “cleared” leaving only the mature trees left that I will selectively cut where needed.
To have accomplished so much in such a short time has been far beyond my expectations and I feel accomplished and a sense of pride having done it myself. This brings me to my next phase though, the ground is terribly uneven with divots and bumps ranging from 1-3’ in height. It actually has a natural slope to a Ditch so I don’t need to shape/contour the land as much as I just need to smoothen it out. If this was pasture, it would be one thing but this is recently cleared forest that had dense undergrowth with small stumps and roots systems left behind by the brush cutter. I know the right answer is to hire it out as a bulldozer would make short work of it in a couple hours but having come this far myself I have this completely illogical desire to finish it myself. We’re still a year or two from building the house and at that point we’ll need the dozer to come build up the house pad and we’re going to have a pond dug but I want to make it nice so we can enjoy the property between now and then.
So, tractorbynet do it yourselfers, if you had to buy one implement to flatten rough, stumpy ground (no matter how illogical) what would it be? I’ve done a lot with the root grapple and it works excellent were the roots/stumps aren’t too dense but when it gets thick, the 60’ width is just too much for the tractor to muscle through. I’ve thought about a middle buster or something similar but that seems like it would be an overly tedious process to do several acres that way. I tried my very inexpensive/poorly built box blade but very quickly started bending the scarifiers. I’m wondering if a heavy duty rhino ag 850 series back blade would be worth purchasing as I have some ditching/drain work to do as well but I’ve never used one in a forested area and I’m not sure it would cut through the stumps and roots without damaging it or stalling out the tractor. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
I’ve never owned a tractor but have some experience operating them after working for a farm/landscaping company after high school. This property had cows on it approximately 15 years ago but neglected land in southern Louisiana quickly gets out of hand and that was the case with this property, a few mature oaks and gum trees but mostly youpon, tallow trees, and briars so thick you couldn’t see much less walk through the woods.
I talked to several companies about forestry mulching/bulldozing/excavating but with prices between $10-20k and not being in any rush I decided to get the tractor I would eventually buy for the farm and just start picking away at the mess myself. Most of the undergrowth was between 1-4 inches so I bought a heavy duty 66” quick attach brush thrasher and man was I not disappointed, that thing made quick work of everything I put behind it and has held up beautifully. Last month I bought their 60” quick claw grapple because I’d been so happy with the brush cutter and needed something to clear the trees to big for the cutter.
Now 5 months after starting the majority of the land is “cleared” leaving only the mature trees left that I will selectively cut where needed.
To have accomplished so much in such a short time has been far beyond my expectations and I feel accomplished and a sense of pride having done it myself. This brings me to my next phase though, the ground is terribly uneven with divots and bumps ranging from 1-3’ in height. It actually has a natural slope to a Ditch so I don’t need to shape/contour the land as much as I just need to smoothen it out. If this was pasture, it would be one thing but this is recently cleared forest that had dense undergrowth with small stumps and roots systems left behind by the brush cutter. I know the right answer is to hire it out as a bulldozer would make short work of it in a couple hours but having come this far myself I have this completely illogical desire to finish it myself. We’re still a year or two from building the house and at that point we’ll need the dozer to come build up the house pad and we’re going to have a pond dug but I want to make it nice so we can enjoy the property between now and then.
So, tractorbynet do it yourselfers, if you had to buy one implement to flatten rough, stumpy ground (no matter how illogical) what would it be? I’ve done a lot with the root grapple and it works excellent were the roots/stumps aren’t too dense but when it gets thick, the 60’ width is just too much for the tractor to muscle through. I’ve thought about a middle buster or something similar but that seems like it would be an overly tedious process to do several acres that way. I tried my very inexpensive/poorly built box blade but very quickly started bending the scarifiers. I’m wondering if a heavy duty rhino ag 850 series back blade would be worth purchasing as I have some ditching/drain work to do as well but I’ve never used one in a forested area and I’m not sure it would cut through the stumps and roots without damaging it or stalling out the tractor. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Attachments
Last edited:
