Tractor for land clearing and preparation
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paulsharvey
Super Member
Ok, didn't know they made something like that for a tractor 3 point. I did look at the website, and another site. I haven't found a picture of the rotary assembly and teeth/hammers. Any idea what we are talking about: carbide teeth, like a milling head? or more like teeth like a mulcher? or something in between?
The one impliment said it can run at 540 rpm or 1000 rpm, so I don't know if it has a two speed gear box after the PTO h
shaft, or how it does that; but 1000 PTO was for wood chipping, and the 540 relpm was for crushing stones upto 10" diameter.
Edit: the "Starsoiler" rotary assembly looks kinda like a road reclaimer (a cross between a milling machine and subgrade mixer). Which makes me want to point out; when mixing subgrade for roads, or mixing grass shoulders to widen a road; if there was trees there that weren't root raked well; you will pull up roots; and you have atleast. 3 man operation; 1 running mixer/reclaimer; 1 guy walking picking roots, checking depth, ect; and 1 guy following behind with heavy vibratory roller. They uniformly mix soil, but they also really 'fluff' it up, about 15" deep, and if it rains before you roll it in, that fluffy material will turn into the worst mud pit you have ever seen.
If this product works like it shows; it seems like they are running them on 150+ hp tractors; so look into the cost to lease them. This attachment is probably something you wouldn't want to own, its going to take a beating, and leasing might be expensive (nearly 100% chance you will 'buy' the entire set of teeth in addition to the rent), but might be a good option, if there is a way to get one and a tractor large enough to run it.
Seems like they run from $30k-100k depending on the machine; and that doesn't come with a tractor; so rental would be the only real option
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It's easier to hire a guy and get 100% write off that year. Like forestry mulchers these machines take a lot of abuse so I'd either rent or hire a guy with the machines.
I find these subsoilers tend to push the big stuff down like rocks and big roots and leave the soil up top. The guys doing the service say only disc the fields after for a couple of years to avoid pulling up the root pieces.
If you hire a guy make sure he's going full depth to grind the roots. I'm finding some sucker trees like poplar will send lots of new shoots afterwards. I'm not sure yet about how buckthorn reacts.
WVH1977
Platinum Member
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You will need lots of money, heavy equipment, and someone with the know-how to get this done. Have you looked into talking with any local farmers/construction companies who have done this or are currently doing this? Is this going to be a business or hobby?
300 acres squared is around half a mile across. I cannot even fathom trying to clear the little brush with any 50-100 HP tractor. We are talking years (like 10 years if you are doing alone, maybe longer). A local farmer up the road from my house just did 50 acres of the same thing you are talking about. mostly 2 to 3 inch brush. They had a huge excavator, 3 bull-dozers, and 3 CAT wheeled dirt scrapers. Took them around 4 months or so to get it all done and leveled out. That is not including all the soil prep they did with fertilizer, soil, spray, etc. It was not steep grade either. Mostly flat.
This is a serious job and lots of money will be needed. You state that you don't want another loan. Follow your dreams but I believe you are in over your head with this idea and might need to rethink your game plan. The good news is you have 300 acres to play with and work. That in itself is a blessing!! Good Luck.
300 acres squared is around half a mile across. I cannot even fathom trying to clear the little brush with any 50-100 HP tractor. We are talking years (like 10 years if you are doing alone, maybe longer). A local farmer up the road from my house just did 50 acres of the same thing you are talking about. mostly 2 to 3 inch brush. They had a huge excavator, 3 bull-dozers, and 3 CAT wheeled dirt scrapers. Took them around 4 months or so to get it all done and leveled out. That is not including all the soil prep they did with fertilizer, soil, spray, etc. It was not steep grade either. Mostly flat.
This is a serious job and lots of money will be needed. You state that you don't want another loan. Follow your dreams but I believe you are in over your head with this idea and might need to rethink your game plan. The good news is you have 300 acres to play with and work. That in itself is a blessing!! Good Luck.
Rockbadchild
Elite Member
I did 17 acres with a 60hp tractor in a summer ... I did it the hard and long way with a slink and a cable chocker, it was alders, willows and spruce, sparse in some area and more dense in other, it was old field that the brushes where starting to take over so different from straight up clearing a forest ... so cleared, burn and I also bottom plow it all before that winter.
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paulsharvey
Super Member
How bad where the roots when bottom plowing?
Rockbadchild
Elite Member
well see I ripped the bulk of them out with the trees or brushes when the condition are right there is barely any dirt that stay on the root ball, some of them broke and some or all the roots or stump stayed there and the small alders I brushed hogg them, I used a diamond harrow to pick up the wood pieces from the brush hogging. To give a quick answer not bad at all, it would cut through most of them like it needed to be a 4 inch ish roots for the plow to not being able to cut through and stop the tractor, I would try to plow plowed through the stump or as close as possible and lift it up and rip the stump with the FEL bucket... now I have a rootrake grappler so its not issue... After it was disked I went around with the quad and trailer to pull some roots that was stricken out of the ground and pick up branches and roots that stayed behind on the surface. I have pictures in two of my threads if you are curious ''field clearing'' and ''life on 75 acres''. Note that it was is pretty clear in some spots and I don't have pictures before I started my first picture it was already in progress.
Hello all,
I appreciate all the replies, thank you very much. Sorry for the late response, it's hard to gather strength after working day long to complete this project.
Everyone thought this through based on your environment, in USA most of you probably, which is light years away from the place I am now.
Short story, I'm from Romania, Europe , I was traveling for a while, being able to work remotely, and I made a mistake..or not...to stop here, in Tanzania , where I would be able to build a farm as i always wanted. Obviously, even in Romania, I can't touch the prices for farm land since it got very expensive, for me at least
So..I saw this opportunity and took action, so I got myself with 300 acres of cheap virgin land.
First of all, you are thinking from a position with a different incomes, budgets, etc. I can get a loan of maximum 25000$ with ~9-10% interest which is a huge difference from the banking environment in USA for example
I learned that everything here is very different from the world I know
Regarding tractors, implements, agriculture, beside the operational part where you can't compare any amount of reading with experience, I found out that I more knowledgeable than any farmer I talked with. Maybe because I haven't talked with the right people.. I spoke with consultants..I don't want to seem arrogant but here nobody has real knowledge about modern technologies. They only use disc plough , richer ones have a disc harrow and the big guys have planters, that's all.. I can't even find all the implements I want, everything is gonna be imported, disc plough, harrow, land scraper, planter, sickle mower, FEL, grapple, fork lift attachments
About land clearing, here, you don't have many options ... I checked dozer prices for land clearing, there's also the option for a big loader which is more expensive probably but standard way of clearing land here is by hand.
Clearing land by hand together with roots equals with ~35$ per acre + food provided, clearing with a dozer is 45$ per acre , one liter of diesel fuel is ~1.05$ , with other extra expenses, one uncleared acre final price costed me about 150$..
I already planned to clear 20 acres of land , which will cost me ~650$ , and probably I will hire more teams from different parts of the country to be able to clear faster.
I know this look like very tiny numbers for you, but I'm left with a very small amount of money as a reserve which I don't want to touch and I have to rely on my monthly income. And as everyone knows, land clearing is not the only cost, I have to build a house, barn, storage building, infrastructure before importing the tractor, drip line irrigation for 20 acres, drilling rig, etc Yes, I can't even reach the prices to buy drip tape here for example, I have to import from manufacturers that are kind enough to supply a small orders, which are multiple times cheaper
Possibly, like some of you said, I might be over my head, but it's not my first rodeo
I've designed and implemented irrigation systems, build buildings, houses from first brick to the end ,smart home systems, dealt with imports, designed and build fully automated hydroponic greenhouse from with some many sensors that I don't remember all of them anymore (hobby size ), small scale agriculture. Now I'm tapping into the mechanics area which is still new to me.
I hope this won't start other side subjects, I wanted to give you all the details(almost) since all the discussion was based on assumptions but very very helpful for me.
To be honest, I never thought I will be able to clear all the land just with a tractor , even though the idea was there. Probably I'll use it to speed up the clearing with the help of people which, for me, seems to be the obvious choice.
When I started all of this, the initial plan was to get 80 hp tractor for this job plus the farming tasks afterwards but had second thoughts afterwards that maybe it would be cheaper to use a small tractor but I agree, a smaller tractor is limited, lightweight and it's gonna take damage much faster.
After all my market research I narrowed the options down to two 4WD 80/85 HP models: Deutzh Fahr Agrolux 80 and Massey Ferguson MF 385. I already had talks with the exporter for Massey Ferguson and I have to see with Deutz Fahr now. Depending on the negotiations, I would say I prefer the Deutz Fahr tractor, based on my analysis, it's seems to be better quality wise, works with bio fuel, better fuel consumption ( I estimate from my research), higher ground clearance. The most important parameter used to choose the tractor, the weight, is the same for both of them, ~6600 lb, MF has higher torque due to slightly larger engine , Deutz Fahr has creeper speed which seems to be like a nice option to have and it's also more expensive than MF. Both are naturally aspirated which seems to be a logical choice for me, a beginner who wants to learn and do it's own maintenance
But anyway, the tractor choice is another discussion and for those ones that said I need a bigger tractor 100-150 HP, I agree, but the price jumps too much for me and the same second hand tractor here is more expensive than the new one that I want to import...one of many things that don't make sense here
And I forgot, the soil is completely RED, sandy, which makes it easier for land clearing. Attached a picture, no picture with the actual land though
Thank you all again for all the help!
I appreciate all the replies, thank you very much. Sorry for the late response, it's hard to gather strength after working day long to complete this project.
Everyone thought this through based on your environment, in USA most of you probably, which is light years away from the place I am now.
Short story, I'm from Romania, Europe , I was traveling for a while, being able to work remotely, and I made a mistake..or not...to stop here, in Tanzania , where I would be able to build a farm as i always wanted. Obviously, even in Romania, I can't touch the prices for farm land since it got very expensive, for me at least
So..I saw this opportunity and took action, so I got myself with 300 acres of cheap virgin land.
First of all, you are thinking from a position with a different incomes, budgets, etc. I can get a loan of maximum 25000$ with ~9-10% interest which is a huge difference from the banking environment in USA for example
I learned that everything here is very different from the world I know
Regarding tractors, implements, agriculture, beside the operational part where you can't compare any amount of reading with experience, I found out that I more knowledgeable than any farmer I talked with. Maybe because I haven't talked with the right people.. I spoke with consultants..I don't want to seem arrogant but here nobody has real knowledge about modern technologies. They only use disc plough , richer ones have a disc harrow and the big guys have planters, that's all.. I can't even find all the implements I want, everything is gonna be imported, disc plough, harrow, land scraper, planter, sickle mower, FEL, grapple, fork lift attachments
About land clearing, here, you don't have many options ... I checked dozer prices for land clearing, there's also the option for a big loader which is more expensive probably but standard way of clearing land here is by hand.
Clearing land by hand together with roots equals with ~35$ per acre + food provided, clearing with a dozer is 45$ per acre , one liter of diesel fuel is ~1.05$ , with other extra expenses, one uncleared acre final price costed me about 150$..
I already planned to clear 20 acres of land , which will cost me ~650$ , and probably I will hire more teams from different parts of the country to be able to clear faster.
I know this look like very tiny numbers for you, but I'm left with a very small amount of money as a reserve which I don't want to touch and I have to rely on my monthly income. And as everyone knows, land clearing is not the only cost, I have to build a house, barn, storage building, infrastructure before importing the tractor, drip line irrigation for 20 acres, drilling rig, etc Yes, I can't even reach the prices to buy drip tape here for example, I have to import from manufacturers that are kind enough to supply a small orders, which are multiple times cheaper
Possibly, like some of you said, I might be over my head, but it's not my first rodeo
I've designed and implemented irrigation systems, build buildings, houses from first brick to the end ,smart home systems, dealt with imports, designed and build fully automated hydroponic greenhouse from with some many sensors that I don't remember all of them anymore (hobby size ), small scale agriculture. Now I'm tapping into the mechanics area which is still new to me.
I hope this won't start other side subjects, I wanted to give you all the details(almost) since all the discussion was based on assumptions but very very helpful for me.
To be honest, I never thought I will be able to clear all the land just with a tractor , even though the idea was there. Probably I'll use it to speed up the clearing with the help of people which, for me, seems to be the obvious choice.
When I started all of this, the initial plan was to get 80 hp tractor for this job plus the farming tasks afterwards but had second thoughts afterwards that maybe it would be cheaper to use a small tractor but I agree, a smaller tractor is limited, lightweight and it's gonna take damage much faster.
After all my market research I narrowed the options down to two 4WD 80/85 HP models: Deutzh Fahr Agrolux 80 and Massey Ferguson MF 385. I already had talks with the exporter for Massey Ferguson and I have to see with Deutz Fahr now. Depending on the negotiations, I would say I prefer the Deutz Fahr tractor, based on my analysis, it's seems to be better quality wise, works with bio fuel, better fuel consumption ( I estimate from my research), higher ground clearance. The most important parameter used to choose the tractor, the weight, is the same for both of them, ~6600 lb, MF has higher torque due to slightly larger engine , Deutz Fahr has creeper speed which seems to be like a nice option to have and it's also more expensive than MF. Both are naturally aspirated which seems to be a logical choice for me, a beginner who wants to learn and do it's own maintenance
But anyway, the tractor choice is another discussion and for those ones that said I need a bigger tractor 100-150 HP, I agree, but the price jumps too much for me and the same second hand tractor here is more expensive than the new one that I want to import...one of many things that don't make sense here
And I forgot, the soil is completely RED, sandy, which makes it easier for land clearing. Attached a picture, no picture with the actual land though
Thank you all again for all the help!
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Last edited:
Rockbadchild
Elite Member
what crop are you planning on planting ?
Long term, mostly maize and soybeans in rotation with some hybrid rye and alfa alfa. These are supposed to be used as food for a future pig farm
