Leveling clear cut & mulched land

[Atoz24]

Hi all - need some help on the best solution for leveling out about 2 acres of land.

My wife and I bought 20 acres a few years ago and had it clear cut in 2022, and decided to leave slash on the ground vs pile it up.

We then had 2 acres of it forestry mulched last year around the area we wanted to build our home, which cleaned up all the leftover slash and took the stumps down to ground level.

Now that our home is built, one of my priorities is to level out our backyard. It’s tough to see from the pictures but there are some sizable ruts leftover from the logging equipment that we want smoothed out.

I’m trying to figure out if there is a good implement I can use with my Kubota L25 or if this is something I need to hire out. Being just 2 acres I would prefer to do it myself.

Any thoughts?

 

[2manyrocks]

If there are stumps below the surface that will hang up a box blade, my thought is to use a landscape rake or maybe drag a section of chain link fence to level things out.

 

[Racer4]

I’d want skilled operator to come in with a dozer and carve in some gentle swales to direct water away from where you don’t want it. Use that dirt to fill in the rutted sections.

If that’s even a concern.

Hard to tell elevations from the pic. But it looks like a big low spot at/in front of the garage.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Love the work a forestry mulcher can do. I found where I had mine done that the stumps and roots are very much intact. It will take several years for them to rot away.

I had planned to take a disc out and runover my food plots. If I have to, mine has been about 2 yrs now since the mulcher did its thing. I have a tiller but wouldn't dare put it in there yet. It would tear it up for sure.

Another thing you could do is a spring loaded chisel type plow. Going kinda shallow it will tear some of the roots out for you.

I am able to mow mine fine but it is as you mentioned "rutted", but the deer like what I'm putting in it.

 

[airbiscuit]

Start at 15:00

 

[big bubba]

welcome to forum. where is your place if i might ask?

 

[Atoz24]

Thanks all for your responses. I’ve used this forum to gain a ton of knowledge over the past few years, and figured it was a good spot to post this question.

The property is located in eastern NC, about 45 minutes north of the Myrtle Beach area.

The disc was my original thought to break up the soil, then maybe rig up a drag to help level and smooth the dirt. Just wasn’t sure how the disk would hold up with the stumps still at surface level. Guess that video shows that option could work.

 

[airbiscuit]

The disc will "roll" over the shallow stumps. It will probably take many passes to get it where you want, but that's half the fun!

 

[paulsharvey]

I would consider, based on soil types, and number and size of roots, a spring chisel/all purpose plow. Break everything up well, pick roots, stack and burn that, then smooth with combo of loader and a box blade. Level vs smooth, I'm assuming we are talking smooth, not level. If we need level, we probably need a laser, and set some temp grade stakes, and it becomes a lot more time consuming.

 

[paulsharvey]

Also, I mentioned this in all of these similar threads; some stumps are better to work around than remove. Yes, everyone likes a clean pasture/yard/field, but there is a reason the old timers would just leave some of those big stumps, too much work/time/money.