I've brought up the topic of getting a few small plots in on here over the years, but I think I finally have a little help on the equipment and a little motivation to do it. My dad has not hunted since the 2008 season, as he had a serious stroke in '09. We are planning on getting him a crossbow for Christmas, and if he can get the hang of it, I'd love to have something for him to hunt over where I could drop him off with the 4wheeler at a blind. My cousin has offered to come shred all the bushes and tall grass in the area, and then disc it up for me this spring before he starts on crops. My biggest problem will be removing a few trees and their stumps. I have enough friends who have wood burning furnaces, that I'm confident I can get help removing them from the areas, but what about the stumps? What is the best way to get these out of the plot? Most are only 3-4" in diameter, but there are 3 larger trees that will need to come out to allow sunlight to hit these areas.
Do you have access to a skid loader? I dig the dirt out from around the stumps with a bucket, then use the forks to break up the roots. Works pretty well
I don't know what equipment you have but a stump grinder does wonders and can usually go deep enough to plant over the top. Some trees grow back from roots however so know your tree type or you can end up with more trees than you began with.
We had the same issue when we made a new plot in the woods. We got a skid loader and drove it through the woods to make a nice walking/4 wheeler path back to the plot. Then when we got back there we just started wrapping a chain around the base of the tree and yanking them out of the ground. Hickory trees are a ***** because their roots go straight down. It worked fairly well. The bigger trees we just cut off at about 3', dropped them and pushed them out of the way. The few really big trees we rung to try to kill them so we would get more sunlight through.
How big are these plots? If smaller kill plots just leave the stumps. Some will even sprout out shoots the deer devour and help create more plot cover=safer feeling deer. We never have removed any of our stumps and actually purposely cut the stumps in the winter (tree dormancy) to hopefully get the shoots the next year. Some trees are more app to do this than others, and we've come to know what to expect usually. The number one mistake too many guys make when creating food plots is making them to open and big. Here's a write up Tom posted on Monsterraxx I wrote up, may be worth nothing to you but worth a read hopefully. It's HERE
I can tell you how not to do...by hand(axe,shovel and pick axe). I am forced to do it by hand here in NYC. The tree grew along a retaining wall so that means the roots went down extra deep. Like everybody says you could would rent a small dozer. A long term version would be to cover the stumps with leaves and keep them wet. This will rot the stump and roots to the point where they break up when you kick them.
Tannerite and a .223. Lots more fun too. Dig out a smaller hole in the base of it, mix up a 2lber, stuff it in the hole, stand back around 50-75 yards, and let her rip. Last year we mixed some bigger 2-3lbers and they leave some pretty big craters in the ground. Not advisable if you have neighbors around though........lol.
Dozers are for grading. In your situation the easiest thing is probably to get someone with a backhoe and have them push em over and dig out the stumps. Shouldn't take long, you said you don't have that many. A skid loader is fine on trees up to about 6", I do it all the time here. But anything bigger...a backhoe is alot better. You can dig out the roots on one side, and push em over easily. Even a big tree. We use a backhoe and skidsteer with grapple bucket and it makes quick work of clearing and cleaning up. Rick...re: tannerite, there is no doubt that stuff works. Could be an option, but be careful. LOL, my buddy set off 11lbs at once here at our property about a month ago - just to see what it would do. Holy cow. My wife was in our house which was about 1/3 mile from where they detonated it, and she said the house shook. I still can't believe you can buy that stuff over the counter. Wonder how much longer. After seeing what 11lbs did, man I'd hate to see what a van full could do.
