Tree mulching for pasture conversion

[mulchsoil]

Hi,
I am new to the forum. Likewise new to heavy duty equipment operation. I have contacted members of the forum about their thoughts/input about my project and appreciate their input.
I am a land owner with 230 acres in South Mississippi area. Most of it is pine plantation, some bottomland with wetland areas (all soil, no rocks) . I have at least 20 acres of land that sustained damage from Katrina that was harvested by timber company. I would like to convert this to pasture for grazing.
I have thought about this (as well as input from others) means to this end including: using goats/pigs to help decompose the vegetation, using bulldozing to knock it all down with burning, versus mulching the trees (mostly dead pine 4-6 inches) back into the soil. I have decided to mulch in order to place the nutrients back into the soil.
I rented a Bobcat T320 with forestry mulcher for a week and was able to clear ~2 acres over 30 hours (again I'm not professional however learned quickly).
I felt this was a good machine however not powerful enough for my needs (especially if I have other land clearing needs). I like to do projects and would thus like to do the work myself.
I am thus considering buying a dedicated machine.
My questions are:
1)which tree mulcher would be best to accomplish this project (I am looking into Fecon 140/Gyrotrac G25)?
2)Does particle size of mulcher matter as far as ultimate goal (grass growth in pasture). ie: will finer mulch lead to quicker grass
3)How low would stumps have to be cut (there are some 12inch Longleaf stumps from previous harvest) in order to allow discing the subsequent pasture land and avoiding disc damage on stumps.
4) How would you seed the grass after mulching? (?drill seeding/broadcast/)
5) Would a PTO driven mulching head like loftness attached to a bidirectional tractor (like new holland) be a possible option (avoiding to have to get 2nd tractor for farm chores)
Thanks for your interest/input
Chris

 

[Eagleview]

If you are going to disc the land and sow pasture , you have no choice but to remove those stumps all together . They will need to be either dug out with an excavator or cored out with a stump cutter . As a disc will reach 6-8" into the soil , you will be snagging stumps and roots and doing damage . A mulcher will not go deep enough to guarantee that all of the stumps are gone . The only other option is to grind them off at or just below the surface and hand broadcast the seed and forget the disking but you will end up with stump holes as they rot away .

 

[cbturf]

IH. I would have to disagree with you on this one. If you have your disc blades straight they will just roll over stumps that are at ground level or a little below. I have seen this done! Also the damage was from Katrina that was way back in 05 and pine will be pretty soft by now. Mulching and then discing will not be a problem in this case.

 

[Eagleview]

Wouldn't having the discs running straight prevent them from turning the soil over ?

 

[cbturf]

the discs have a curved profile that turns the soil. you can have them point forward and allow the concave to lift the dirt. It works I have done this stuff a whole lot.

 

[cann mulching]

Yes you can just Mulch & Disc then seed. I have done some pine that Katrina damaged & most of them are rotten the bigger stuff is still kinda hard towards the center. I don't think you will have a problem though!!!
Where about are you located in South MS (ME TOO)!!!

 

[Redbug]

Hi Chris...it's good to meet a new member!

CbTurf...I have chopped up ground and it never crossed my mind of putting the disks straight. I guess that's called getting stuck in a rut! Good idea I will remember for next time.

The bush hog will keep other growth down as the grass gets established.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

For what you would pay for a dedicated machine, you could purchase a T320 and a big chipper. You should tree shear and stack larger trees for chipping and mulch the underbrush. I think the versatility of a Bobcat can't be beat unless you have to clear everything immediately. I have a 110 acres and work on large ranches all with a Bobcat s330 with mulcher, mower, and tree shear, Vermeer BC2000 w/loader, and a mini ex. I love being able to quickly shear and stack large trees and the chipper makes short work of trees up to almost 22". Discing chips will help immediately place smaller particles into the soil. If you have a manure spreader that would make chip layout quicker but you can also do it with a bucket or 4n1 bucket. Sheared stumps won't hurt a disc and they are generally lower than a mulcher will get them.

In a perfect world it would be nice to have a big mulcher but I often find that the smaller tasks, when added up, necessitate having a versatile machine while the bigger tasks can be done with a rented machine if necessary.

 

[mulchsoil]

Thanks for all your input. Good to meet everyone.
I am digesting and absorbing it all.
These are all interesting, thought provoking inputs. I have never disced before I'm just listening to the input. I will take some pics to give idea of project.

Yellowdogsvc: You have an interesting approach (tree shear then large chipper then spread chips). How much longer/acre would you imagine it would take this route (double the time?/triple?)? Would the chipper produce as fine of product as a tree mulcher? You feel the tree shear would get the trunk low enough for a disc to go over? And the overall up front costs/maintenance of this approach would be less?

Cann Mulching: I'm in Hattiesburg also.

Chris

 

[yellowdogsvc]

Thanks for all your input. Good to meet everyone.
I am digesting and absorbing it all.
These are all interesting, thought provoking inputs. I have never disced before I'm just listening to the input. I will take some pics to give idea of project.

Yellowdogsvc: You have an interesting approach (tree shear then large chipper then spread chips). How much longer/acre would you imagine it would take this route (double the time?/triple?)? Would the chipper produce as fine of product as a tree mulcher? You feel the tree shear would get the trunk low enough for a disc to go over? And the overall up front costs/maintenance of this approach would be less?

Cann Mulching: I'm in Hattiesburg also.

Chris

I'm confident a tree shear can shear at or below ground level. I have yet to see a mulching job where there are not stumps or shredded stumps left above ground.

If you get the right chipper and shear combo, I don't see how it would take longer. My chipper is 200 hp. Others are 225 and 250 in the same class. That's a lot of hp dedicated to one thing. The chips are much finer from a chipper than any brush mower I've seen.

I've cleared the same type of land that my competitors have with dedicated mulchers and the time was about the same for shear and chip versus mulching with a 200 hp machine. Smaller trees, though, would make more sense to be done all at once with a mulcher.