Landowners....... how difficult is it to clear land for pasture?

[digitS']

Thought I'd mention something about the Old Times.

We have a picture of Dad when he is only one year old. Dad is now 90.

He is sitting outdoors in a high chair looking real happy and cute. But it's the background of the picture that is germane to this discussion. There's a corral and beyond that a field. Even the corral has stumps in it - horse manure and stumps. Yep, it was an old time stump farm.

Steve

edited to correct spelling

 

[SeaChick]

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone.

I think we'll be going out to the property again later this week to walk the land. (Last time it was dusk and we only saw the hosue and yard.) I'll look more losely at the area we're thinking of clearing, the size of the trees, the slope, etc.

Sounds like the thing to do is somehow remove the trees leaving 3' stumps (offer free Christmas trees, offer to paper mill, etc) and then push over and burn the stumps at a later point in time.

I assume we could still fence and use some of that cleared area for sheep/goats in the meantime, even with the stumps still there. Right? And then later remove the stumps and reseed different areas in succession for forage (confining the livestock to another area while root systems formed).

Can anyone recommend any good books on this sort of thing that I should be reading?

THANKS

 

[speckledhen]

SeaChick, here's a good article I have bookmarked that may help you out with some of this:
http://www.homestead.org/Land/ClearingLand/ClearingLand.htm

 

[fullhouse]

I was always told Christmas trees are a crop. Wouldn't they be planted too close together to allow proper growth long term any how?

I think the free Christmas trees is a great idea.

 

[sara]

We had to clear a large portion of our property. Fortunately my husband runs heavy equipment, and the employees can borrow the equipment. My Dh pushed the trees out stump and all with a trac loader and a rubber tire loader. Cut up what could be used for fire wood, pushed the rest on piles and burned it. It was a LOT of work. I think it would be very expensive to hire someone to do it. Good luck with whatever you decide. Oh and I enjoyed seeing your daughters pic in Backyard Poultry mag with her video.

 

[pipermark]

Bull Dozer

 

[josh_bigler]

Quote:
i was reading this whole thing hoping atleast one person said "bulldozer" lol, thats the most effective and cheapest way to do it! a back hoe would take A LOT more time to clear it out than a bulldozer, and would cost more!a bulldozer gets the job done fast, so your not paying for a 100 hours, a tree service would also charge by the tree in most cases and wow it would be very pricy!

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

From personal recent experience I can tell you that heavy equipment will clear whatever you want cleared, but that is just the START of the job. We cleared 3 acres 3 years ago and are STILL trying to get that cleared land to grow any grass. Weeds? By the millions. But grass? Not hardly. We've spent hundreds on lime, fertilizer, seed, and hay to cover the new seed--with nothing to show for it. We picked the time of the year when we get the best rainfall, planted the grass the local ag agent said we should plant, bought the seed from the local co-op, followed the ag agent's instructions to the letter. Three times now. Still zilch.

Mechanical clearing destroys the top soil, or at least that is what all the "experts" tell us has happened. In any case, this has been the most frustrating experience of my entire farming career! What really eats at me is seeing all the green pastures around us while we've still got weeds, weeds, and more weeds.

At least my chickens are doing great.

 

[SeaChick]

Thanks again for all your comments. I think I read someplace that evergreens (they're probably some type of fir tree) have stumps that rot out pretty quickly. And don't sucker like hardwoods. Anyone have experience with that? I wonder if just cutting them low and letting them rot for a few years would work.... ???

What we're trying to achieve in the relatively short term is a more open vista and (possibly, but not for sure) some forage area for a handful goats and/or sheep... and chickens of course! Long-term, if we stayed there long enough, maybe hay. But that's not really an immediate concern at all.

If in fact we could let them rot over 3 years or so, that would certainly help prevent the no-grass situation mentioned above, because the topsoil would still be intact. If we cut them short enough, could we still mow it if we needed to (forgive my total naivite about this, I've no idea yet how to manage pasture land!!! I would personally like to see a meadow-like vista, not mowed, but I gather that mowing is necessary sometimes to keep it healthy???)?

I promise I will research this further so I'm not such an idiot about it. But we just put our house on the market and are frantically trying to get it ready to show buyers. I don't have time for my normal researching!

Thanks
Stacey

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I think that's actually sort of what I'd suggested

They will not rot *away*, but they will rot to the point where they are pretty easy to take up. I'd cut them *high* to do this, b/c it will give you a 'handle' when it comes time to remove them - much easier than a ground-level stump.

It really all depends on whether you want to disk/harrow/seed or whether you would be happy just leaving the existing grass to grow up as goat/sheep pasture. The former will take considerably more labor and expense; the latter, almost none (esp. if you can get people to cut and remove the trees *for* you, as Xmas trees

)

Oh, and no, they won't sucker or stump-sprout.

If we cut them short enough, could we still mow it if we needed to (forgive my total naivite about this, I've no idea yet how to manage pasture land!!! I would personally like to see a meadow-like vista, not mowed, but I gather that mowing is necessary sometimes to keep it healthy???

I wouldn't try mowing over stumps, even cut low. Asking for trouble.

You have to mow periodically to keep volunteer trees/shrubs out, but with just a couple acres you could do as well with a long walk w/a pair of loppers.

Beyond that, you can mow several times a season to discourage nongrass weeds (goldenrod etc) and improve grass productivity; or you can say the heck with it, not mow, and accept slightly less grass productivity (but more diversity, which means more resistance to drought). For goats I'd think you'd WANT a weedier and brushier pasture, being as they are not really grass eaters, yes?

Have fun,

Pat​