removing the stumps

I have 25 acres in Louisiana, I had about 15 acres of it completely cleared in order to make a pasture. I cleaned up all the debris they left after they cut. I have the pasture in excellent shape except for the stumps. I have a Mahindra 3525 wioth a FEL, and a 6 foot bushhog. The pasture is really hard to bushhog with all the stumps in the pasture. I was sondering the best way to get rid of stumps. Should I put some goats in the psture and let them keep it clean until the stumps rot out. Should I rent a stump grinder and attempt to grind all the stumps in the pasture which is alot of them. should I rent a backhoe. Is there any problem with letting them rot out or should I try to remove them prior to putting anything in the pasture. I dant have a lot of money so I am also looking for the most inexpensive way to do this also. Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Beaux

Beaux, I'm not sure I have a good answer, but it might partially depend on what kind of stumps you are talking about. There are hundreds of different varieties of trees. Some of them will have new sprouts shoot out from the stump to produce a new tree; others will not. The stumps of some varieties may rot out in two or three years while others may be pretty solid for 5 to 10 years or more. You can drill holes in the stumps and there are chemicals that will keep them from growing a new tree, but they may or may not speed up the decomposition.

You say you had the land cleared, but didn't say how it was cleared. Apparently the trees were cut, leaving stumps, rather than bulldozed. I suspect the quickest, and quite possibly cheapest, way to get rid of the stumps is to hire someone with a dozer to push them out and into a pile.

A backhoe works well, but will probably be slow. A stump grinder will do a good job, but again would probably be pretty slow.

Good luck with it.

Go with the goats till the economy gives lots of options. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Then bring in a dozer with a root rake and pile the stumps. If the stumps are small enough a dozer pulling a heavy disc may work.

Egon. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Beaux,
I have a backhoe that I use to pull stumps and it works great. It will pull smaller ones in one "scoop", larger ones need to be dug around and worked a little. Of course it leaves a decent hole that has to be filled and leveled. (Since I'm clearing for building sites and driveways, I'm always moving earth, so regrading isn't a big deal.) If you don't want to have to regrade a good portion of the pasture, a stump grinder may be a better option, since it leaves the material pretty much in place. BUT... you'll probably need to remove some of the chips and top-dress with topsoil before you reseed. Or at least mix in topsoil. As for waiting for the stumps to rot, I've got some in my backyard that are rock solid after 5 years. There are forums with lots of suggestions on home-brews to speed up the process, but none of them work overnite.

With a backhoe, you also end up with a bunch of stumps with dirt and roots attached that need to be dealt with. You could end up with quite a pile of those. If you've got an area that you can bury them, you could use the dirt from the hole to fill in the area you pulled the stumps from. Depending on how many stumps you've got, using a backhoe could turn in a several day project.

A stump grinder would probably be the cleanest and fastest if you're renting the equipment. Then you can use your FEL to play with the chips and topsoil afterwards when the rental clock isn't ticking.

Thanks for all the input, I think I may try rent a stump grinder or dozer/backhoe and see where that takes me. Thanks again.
Beaux

Forget the stump grinder.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I was in a similar position clearing my field. The guy who owned the place before me must have gotten a chainsaw as a present. He cut down about 25 BIG trees and left them there! When I bought the place it was covered with dead and laid over green trees. I had to cut up the trees and piled them over the stump and burned them. Of course, the stump did not burn to the ground [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Lately, it has been dry. So, I bought a cheap back of charcoal briquettes and 5 gallons of diesel. I drenched the stump with diesel and put about 10-15 briquettes on top of the stump. I lit it and moved to the next. Went home. Actually, most of the stumps were completeley burned out.

Cheaper than renting equipment.... Might be worth a try.

There are stump treating chemicals for removing them not just preventing regrowth. You mix IAW the instructions and put the mixture in holes drilled in the stumps. After waiting the prescribed time, you burn the stump and it will mostly burn up.

If you aren't timid with respect to explosives and don't mind the hassle of getting a permit, you can sure remove a lot of stumps in a short period of time with little effort. Then pile them and burn them. This has become a bit more red tape entangled since 9-11 but it can be done safely and effectively with little effort. No dozer required, just a little tractor to aggregate the stumps for burning.

Pat