What' best way to clear 5 acres of stumps, slash, and regrowth?

[radioman]

most efficent and econimical? no time? simply hiring it out to whom have very large equipment. trackhoe or dozer. or both. You didnt state whats your final goal for the land use when you say you wanted to clear it. Do you have anthing you want to save? any water issues? this is a good time to plan now.

I am all for doing the work yourself, but the biggest thing is whats your final goal and how much time and money you have. It goes hand in hand for this type of work. you dont want to be using a box store equipment (ie sears, lowes) to clear a large amount of land. you will tear it up to pieces. Believe me, I know....

 

[Western]

I only ever rented a stump grinder once, and it was just a walk behind. Worked pretty good on a few stumps on some huge Oaks and took maybe 10-15 minutes on each. I don't know if I would want to do a couple of acres that way, but it is an option if you have the time and the $$ figures out.

As far as burning, that kinda depends on all the factors at your burn site. You may be able have your Ag agent come out or your forestry guy to give some pointers. Also might check with your local fire dept and see if they'd like to burn it, maybe for some kind of training, but not likely.

Another option is have it loaded up and taken to the landfill if you don't feel comfortable.

One last Idea, walk the entire area several times and mark each stump you want removed with Florescent orange spray paint, makes it easier and quicker for the operator. You don't want to deal with a stump later that was missed.

 

[dave1949]

I don't know squat about horses, but I would favor popping the stumps over grinding them down. If you grind, that will leave the main roots and the base of the stump in the ground. I can't see that as anything but a headache if you want to do any tillage for pasture improvement, planting, etc. A disc and spike tooth drag are about the only ground implements I can picture working on ground stumps.

You probably need a burn permit on the day you start your burn and probably the following day. Snow on the ground is good if you get that in your location. Otherwise, you need to pick a time with rain, as mentioned, or a period following a rain with high humidity and a chance of showers. If you need a permit, they (hopefully) will not give you one unless the conditions are good, and here, they do consider what water and equipment you have available too.

The worst kind of brush pile to burn is one with too much air space in it. If you are doing one big pile, I would take a bunch of your slash and put that under one side, the upwind side preferably so the breeze will push the fire into the pile. Get that going hot as an igniter for the stumps. Accelerants are good :laughing: but you really should avoid gasoline.
Dave.

 

[Piston]

As far as getting the fire going, I have never found anything that worked better than a powerful leaf blower

 

[Pilot]

I had piles that were way too compacted and piled when green. So compacted they wouldn't dry.

Had a heck of a time lighting them, but eventually got them going--after 2 1/2 years and covering them with plastic. Got the plastic from a mobile home setup guy; at the store 6 mil plastic to cover all 42 piles would have cost hundreds of bucks. Didn't clean up very well.

Best approach seems to be to use a propane weed burner. Didn't work so well for me as when I stuck it in the pile it used up all the oxygen right away, but I have since learned how to make it work better--and the piles I make have some airspace.

There's a happy medium between too loose and too compacted.

Around here, yes we need a permit for burning logging slash and that's tightly controlled, but for other forest debris you get a permit once and it seems to be good forever. Mine, I got in 1991 & it's still good. Don't ask me why there's a difference. I call and see if it's a burn day, which depends on air quality and fire hazard and if it's OK, I burn, baby, burn!

Rain? No rain for a month or so now (a miracle, it was one of the wettest springs on record and rained for half of July) and today was a legal burn day. I burned about 10 days ago, no problem and there was dry grass 20 feet from my pile. I did have a hose available, but I had bare dirt between the pile and the grass. Away from a water source I wouldn't have burned without first running a cultivator or disk around the pile to clear a fire line.

 

[Reg]

The O/P had said "horse pasture" for intended use.
I don't see a need for much cultivating, so roots remaining after grinding shouldn't be a problem.

I see it as grind stumps below grade, say 8 inches, mow, maybe rake and over seed, keep the horses off it for the first year.
Around here tilling just leads to rock harvests, so for horse pasture I wouldn't.

 

[boomer1025]

Best = most economical and yet efficient.

I clearcut 5 acres last Nov. it was mostly pulp & chipping saw sized pines, but there were 10% hardwoods and a few of them were big. lots of poplar, oak and gum included.

I want to convert this to horse pasture.

I have a TON of hawthorne, and misc crap growing now and I also have regrowth from many of the stumps.

I'm open to advise, money is tight but I gotta get this done so...

What to do?

My vote is for the dozer, with out seeing the ground, you could have several hundred to a thousand stumps. Friend had that done to about the same amount of ground. Took the dozer guy a day or maybe a day in a half. If you try and dig them out with a hoe, you could be there for a long time.

 

[foreman Etexas]

I have operated for many years and gonna put my 2cents out there.If the stumps are small just say under 10in bottums I would go with dozer,what I would do is run the total pasture one way just cutting the stumps on that one side while working across the pasture until your get to the end and then turn around and cutting the other side going back the other direction,then so on with all sides this keeps you from working circles around one stump. But i will say using a trackhoe is also good cause u usually can set in one place and get more stumps out at a time and you can pack the hole back in once they are out,and scrape the dirt off the back of the stump(better for burning).Just pushing dirt back in with the dozer they are going to settle some. Wouldnt you need to disc,drag and plant the field after you are done anyways to get seeds sowed or sprigged to get a nice horse pasture when this done?(I wouldnt worry about what one leaves less tracks marks or disturbs the ground more).... So dozer would be faster,but the trackhoe little longer but you can also dig a hole and bury what doesnt burn up when done.

 

[rmully]

B - A skilled operator will be more $/hour, but should be MUCH fewer hours and in the end a net savings.

c) - I do not have 2 years to let the stumps dry out. I need to get this done so I can quit paying boarding fees. So... How do I burn green stumps (most of them are pine (at least 65% to 85%). AND, How do I prevent a large fire like this from spreading to the other 42 acres of mature forest (i.e. my crop) or my neighbors forest that borders this area on all 4 sides? I have to say the idea of lighting a gigantic bonfire intimidates the **** out of me. My house (and therefore my well) is not close enough, and will never provide enough water to put this fire out.

Yes Hire out ...get a good quote and let someone that knows how, do it !!

As far as burning ...don't burn it all in one pile. When I had a similar stump problem I mad several smaller piles and burnt them one at a time and that way it does not get out of hand and is a lot safer. IMHO

Best of luck whatever you choose!

 

[Pilot]

Stumps in our area don't burn worth a darn. Green stumps only seem to burn if they are in slash piles with lots of slash.

I had a couple small birch stumps from trees that were about 8" diameter. Dried them awhile, put them on top of a pile about 4 ft. high and burned. That took out the small roots. Took the hose, washed off a lot of dirt, put them on another pile and burned again. Washed off more dirt and burned again. Took about 4 or 5 burns to get rid of them. Granted, these were small hand piles, but the stumps were small also.

Douglas-fir stumps are just as hard to burn and I imagine pines will only burn a little better.

What you need, but is probably too expensive is an air curtain burner, essentially a huge metal box with a blower, engineered to burn efficiently and clean. See: http://www.airburners.com/data/kenai_penn_alaska_slash_127.pdf

I have heard of digging a trench, piling in the slash and using a blower to do the same thing. Never saw it done. The burning method, piling vs burning in a trench, would dictate what kind of machine to hire. At least it's another option.

I suspect pile burning of stumps will be a real challenge, given your time frame. A BIG blower might help. Ask around your area.