Stumps in plot??

wisconsinteacher

5 year old buck +
I have a question for more experienced food plotter. I took a saw and wood chipper and cleared .20 acres in my hardwoods. The trees were mostly 4" poplar with a few 7-8" basswood, 3-5" ironwood, 2-3" muscle wood and some smaller maples. Right now, I have 1/2 of the stumps cut at ground level and 1/2 are 8-10" above ground. I'm really torn on what to do next. In my mind I have a few options. What one would you pick?

1-My coworker has a 38hp tractor with a stump bucket and chisel plow. He is willing to come in for $50 an hour and remove as much as possible. He said that he can move up to 4-5" stumps.

2-Cut everything ground level and put Garlon on the stumps and then pull my ATV disc around and plant it in clover or winter rye and hope for the best.

3-Cut everything ground level and put Garlon on the stumps and then pull my ATV disc around and plant it in clover or winter rye, then in 1-2 years have my coworker come in and rip stumps when they are softer.

4-Rent a stump grinder and try to remove as many stumps as possible. (I'm guessing this would take a long time)

I have a ATV, disc, harrow drag and cultipacker for equipment so I'm limited on what I have for tools.
 
when I first cleared my plots I just left the stumps. After a couple years they were just a pain to work and mow around. I rented a stump grinder for a couple days and just went to work. It’s amazing how many stumps you can grind in a day. Last year I expanded a couple of my plots and have more stumps to deal with. I’m planning on renting a stump grinder again before I put in my fall plots. For me it was worth the time it took and it’s not so much “work”. The grinder does all the work. You just need patience and a couple long days and you can get an awful lot done.
 
Option 5....put an ad on Facebook Marketplace saying "FREE STUMPS - You pick!" You're bound to get somebody. 😄

Seriously though, what you're describing is exactly what I've been dealing with in my small plots that I've cleared myself, though I do have bigger stumps than 7" to 8". I have been simply discing, cultipacking, and planting around then for the past 8 years or so. Works fine, but as Someday Isle said...it can be a pain. But, in doing do I have given the stumps time to rot enough that I won't be fighting them when I go in with my backhoe this summer and pull them out. They should pop very easily.

I think eventually you will want them out completely. So I wouldn't grind them down unless you know 100% for sure that you'll never use a rototiller or a plow in there. If that indeed is the case, grinding them down won't hurt...your disc will run right over the stumps, and eventually you'll never remember where they were.
 
Do you think waiting a few years, made the stumps easier to grind?
 
When I bought my property is was mostly a pine plantation owned by a timber company. They had high-graded the pines and I found a few log landing areas and trails that I turned into food plots. I first rented a grinder (25 HP Raygo) and ground out a number of stumps (500? or so......which were mostly pine and 12" diameter or so. Later I bought a stump grinder and used it on the back of my tractor. Over several years I have ground out well over 3000 stumps....but I have lost count. I now have nearly ten acres of food plots and some trail areas that are stump free. (and I got a stiff neck to prove it). Smaller diameter stumps can be ground out quite easily. Hardwood stumps - not so much.

I have about 30 or 40 stumps I should grind out this year. I hate running my equipment over stumps. I'm nearly done with stumps for my land....and it has not been much work in the past few years. But 8 to 12 years ago I spend a great deal of time to get rid of stumps and roots. I could not do that work today. My stump grinder is somewhat worn out....and so am I. Grin.
 
For 1/5th of an acre I would just broadcast rye,clover,buckwheat and let 'er go. Stump sprouts are eaten by the deer too. Lots of the stumps should die off but not a sure thing. An excavator to dig them out and then use the blade to level if needed if you are determined to remove the stumps.
 
^ Just saw natty's reply. I ground all my stumps to about 6-8" below the ground. And have run my tiller and disk through those plots on a number of occasions before I went to no-till. Not much left for wood in any of my plots. Not sure everyone would do this amount of work.....but it can be done.

On some of my land - I again logged pines - and followed the logging with a forestry mulcher. That operation really helped clean up the debris.....but I had to take out numerous stumps after he completed his work. It was mostly "tillable" when the mulcher finished.......but I took some extra steps to remove more stumps and roots.

Affordable three point stump grinder models were not too plentiful when the Woods TSG50 came out. I think I bought one of the first ones. Mine has worked very well....but the many joints now need to be rebuilt. I suppose some of that is due to the excessive side pressure applied at times when grinding so many stumps. Perhaps they have upgraded this model as I know several others had some issues too. I wrote extensively on my experience on Tractor By Net at the time I was using mine. Just looked and not much of the old content is available anymore (?) or at least I cannot find it.

Ive got some new land with a few stumps remaining after having this ground cleaned up with a forestry mulcher. If I grind these out this afternoon......I will take a pic or two.....just in case anyone is interested. I am convinced that grinding stumps (softwood pine, etc) is more cost effective and faster / easier than digging stumps out. The exception could be if they are quite small.....as said above. Not sure if you can pull / push those out? <----I've got a 38 HP tractor and have not had a very good experience in doing this.
 
Last edited:
I rented a mini excavator, it was fun, but didnt do a great job, and cost about $500 to rent it for a weekend. My first plot I had someone experienced come in with a dozer, and he just plopped them out, leveled it all, and made a nice food plot, wish I would have done that again, rather then renting a mini excavator. It was the same price, and the dozer did a much better job.

Your area you are clearing is pretty small, but if a dozer can get to it, someone will do it to fill in a morning, or an afternoon for $500. Your neighbor with the stup bucket will probably pop out most, but you will have big holes, and it will probably take him at least 8 hours to do it.

An experienced dozer operator will have it done in a couple hours, and level it nicely.
 
Was digging out 4"-8" stumps last wkend with my 43 hp tractor with very short 32" forks to leverage with. Can be done but agree that your neighbor is gonna take most of a day for a dozen or so and yep big bomb craters. If a dozer is possible that includes cost of bring on site for $500 do that.

A mini ex would work fine too but size matters, more towards the 8k to 10k lb ones. The ones above that are really a midi ex would be great too but at some point they no longer typically have a blade which would be handy for back filling holes
 
If your biggest stumps are 8" diameter and softwood, you could just cut them off at ground level and let the deer browse them to death. Eventually they will rot away and you will be good to go. Stumps are hard on equipment though, so I prefer to get rid of them if possible.

I had larger stumps in my plot, including some pretty large oaks. I paid a guy to come in with a self propelled stump grinder to grind up the stumps and it worked great. I think it was over $100/hr, but he ground down 100+ stumps in half a day.
 
I have 2 experiences...

I made a clearing in my woods at home and just cut the trees level with the ground. We're talking mixed hardwood and bigger trees 12"+ in diameter. Eventually they just rotted. I cut them down as close to the ground as I could get and I was able to go right over them without jacking up my equipment.

I also had a field (1.5 acre) plot put in at my camp by a logger. When they were done, they popped the stumps out with an excavator (we're talking BIG hardwood 20"+ diameter) and left them in the field. Later a dozer came in and pushed the stumps out of the field, leveled things a bit but also pushed away topsoil (as little as possible but some). And after that was done, the challenge with that was it kind of "enclosed the field". Deer and most game animals want to be able to walk in and not feel like they are in a "bowling alley" surrounded by stumps, branch piles and dirt mounds. It has taken almost 10 years for that stuff to break down enough to give the field more of an "edge" to it. Sure - that field is easy work work with - but so is my clearing at home.

With the equipment that you mentioned (ATV, Harrow and cultipacker), if you cut the stumps down to the ground, the stumps really shouldn't be much of an issue. Keep in mind, you don't need a plot/field to look like the picture on the bag of seed. Animals feed on things we consider weeds. Shoots off a stump are great winter and spring browse.
 
If you wanna save money, cut them flush to the ground, drill or cut some openings and get a bag of trophy rock granular. Put few cups of salt on each one and the deer will chew them down.

A second option is do all the same mechanically and swap out the salt for diesel exhaust fluid. A stump is all carbon, DEF is all nitrogen. It’ll speed along the rotting process.

Third option is a bigger mini excavator. Pop them out, cut off enough roots, dig it a little deeper and bury the stump right where you found it. Use the bucket to smooth it back out, tracks to pack it in, and it’s gone and still smooth. I did that on my last expansion with a bunch of logs and stumps. I took out numerous balsam fir and ash stumps up to 16”.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My trees were all sheared close to the ground (when I logged about 4 years back). I am still cleaning up some plot areas to expand my plots....but close to "done". Today I spend the afternoon grinding stumps. Spent maybe 4 hours of seat time. Did 40 to 50 pine stumps over about 2 acres taking them to about 6" below ground level. I have drilled some buckwheat and some rye and a little clover in this ground over two years.....but have not had very good results. I now plan to lime this ground....then disk it one final time to incorporate the lime......and finally plant clover and rye into it this August. Then it's no till going forward (I hope). tempImagevjLC9h.jpgtempImagelPJJRp.jpg I should be able to maintain clover shooting lanes.....or perhaps some brassica spots in these areas.
 
I’d get rid of the stumps and get things leveled out. That way you will be able to plant and get things to actually grow on the entire plot and not have high dry spots and low wet spots.

Any way you can rent a skid steer for a day or 2? A guy can get a lot of work done in 8 hours with a machine and it’s probably 300-400 bucks a day for renting a good sized tracked machine.

The attached pics are before and after of a 1/2 acre plot we cut in last spring. 4 hours cutting trees off about knee high (more leverage) and about 6 hours plucking stumps with my skid steer, disking, leveling, liming, etc. My bobcat is mid size and only 50 hp and it makes quick work of an 8-10” stump and will pluck 4-6” stumps like nothing.

Soil type does make a difference and clay makes everything more difficult so that’s something to keep in mind. Lots of ways to get rid of the stumps, just a matter of how you want to tackle it if you decide to proceed.
 

Attachments

  • 44A5DE84-B525-428E-90A0-72E3057ED583.jpeg
    44A5DE84-B525-428E-90A0-72E3057ED583.jpeg
    827.4 KB · Views: 23
  • 724E0492-7B4F-4236-B93B-77D56895F359.jpeg
    724E0492-7B4F-4236-B93B-77D56895F359.jpeg
    882.7 KB · Views: 25
  • EEAA6473-2EFE-4964-ABA5-5FD4C306AE39.jpeg
    EEAA6473-2EFE-4964-ABA5-5FD4C306AE39.jpeg
    961.2 KB · Views: 23
Last edited:
Some pics would be nice. Hows the sun exposure from the south? Scope out the stump grinder rental. Mine locally was 24hr rental, but 24hr rental was 8hrs of tool time. How bad is it to get to the food plot?

Got some pics of that stump bucket?

Take a piece of plywood and cut a V into it, makes the saw stay out of the dirt. A small kids rake or hoe helps remove the dirt and leaves faster too.
 
My trees were all sheared close to the ground (when I logged about 4 years back). I am still cleaning up some plot areas to expand my plots....but close to "done". Today I spend the afternoon grinding stumps. Spent maybe 4 hours of seat time. Did 40 to 50 pine stumps over about 2 acres taking them to about 6" below ground level. I have drilled some buckwheat and some rye and a little clover in this ground over two years.....but have not had very good results. I now plan to lime this ground....then disk it one final time to incorporate the lime......and finally plant clover and rye into it this August. Then it's no till going forward (I hope). View attachment 53020View attachment 53021 I should be able to maintain clover shooting lanes.....or perhaps some brassica spots in these areas.
That's a nice looking grinder. How do you control/operate it?
 
That's a nice looking grinder. How do you control/operate it?
The stump grinder is PTO driven with a slip clutch. Then it is raised and lowered by the 3 point control. It takes two sets of hydraulic outlets (4 hoses) and a pair of valves to operate the swing and elevation of the cutter head. It's got a Sandvick wheel with large carbide teeth. The teeth seem to last forever....even when in sandy dirt.

In all truth....my grinder should have the joints re-shimmed and it's got bend in one of the three point pins. The loose joints do make it jump a bit and that should be resolved. I've used it pretty hard....but it's still a good basic machine. I don't have many more stumps to grind.....so it serves me pretty well as it is. I've gotten my money's worth out of this grinder.
 
The stump grinder is PTO driven with a slip clutch. Then it is raised and lowered by the 3 point control. It takes two sets of hydraulic outlets (4 hoses) and a pair of valves to operate the swing and elevation of the cutter head. It's got a Sandvick wheel with large carbide teeth. The teeth seem to last forever....even when in sandy dirt.

In all truth....my grinder should have the joints re-shimmed and it's got bend in one of the three point pins. The loose joints do make it jump a bit and that should be resolved. I've used it pretty hard....but it's still a good basic machine. I don't have many more stumps to grind.....so it serves me pretty well as it is. I've gotten my money's worth out of this grinder.
Do you have a hard time seeing it when you run it? After you are in position over the stumps do you have to get out and check and get back in the cab? Reminds me of trying to hook up a trailer where you get close but still have to jump out to make sure. I guess I'm wondering it's easy to use or does it just take some time to get "good" with it?
 
Do you have a hard time seeing it when you run it? After you are in position over the stumps do you have to get out and check and get back in the cab? Reminds me of trying to hook up a trailer where you get close but still have to jump out to make sure. I guess I'm wondering it's easy to use or does it just take some time to get "good" with it?
I stay in the tractor seat. It does take a little time to get to know which handle to be pulling....like operating most anything else. You get pretty good at positioning the tractor after doing allot of stumps. My stumps were all sheared quite low to the ground - which really helps too.

I do get a sore neck after a time......and it does wear me down looking over my shoulder. A hydrostatic tractor is a must to position the grinder.....IMO. I did start with a JD 790 which is a gear shift......and it was a PITA to operate. You also need two valves and remote connections......but at one time I overcame this by using my loader's joystick on my previous tractors for the hydraulic control (I also had a JD 3520 as well as the JD790). I just disconnected my loader hydraulics at the couplers and used those ports when using the stump grinder. In some ways the joystick control valve was more intuitive to operate the stump grinder. (up / down.......right / left)
 
Last edited:
$50 an hour is about the going rate for tractor work around here too, but I would not go that route for your stumps. I would call several equipment rental companies and rent a hydraulic stump grinder for 1-2 days. Think about the math, $50x8hours is $400. The tractor isn't going to do near what the dedicated stump grinder will do. You may still need to do some work with a tractor after grinding the stump for roots and such, but it will serve you better. Just my .01 worth.
 
Top