Clearing land with tree stumps?

Ive got a few acres Im thinking of clearing - it has trees but all smaller 6-10 inch diameter,  was planning on keeping the wood , so whats the best way to go about this ? Cut the trees about 2 ft up so the dozer can push the stumps out ?  I think thatd be the best way but looking for opinions and real situations

Edited by DougG - 28 Jan 2022 at 1:08pm

Leave the dozer out of it. Excavator with a thumb is the ticket.

I have about a dozen box elders that I plan to take down. I did some drainage work late least fall and I was telling the excavator operator that I will get him to dig out the stumps after I have them cut (very close to my warehouse). He told me that he would rather tip them over with the excavator and then I could cut the trees up.

Maybe you can get ole Shameless to come blow them out of the ground for you.  Had a coworker try that one time; i think some of the stumps landed on the neighbor's property. Small trees a dozer or excavator should work fine. Around here they use excavators, especially to take out the large stuff..

Its just gonna be cow pasture - as small as they are it seems easy to push them out just dont think my NH 865 bobcats enough- as for stump grinding it would be a bunch of them, Heizel rents a JD 555 for $1000 a week, or did before things went haywire , they seem like a nice size machine , was an older guy down the road who was at 85 @ hr, new guys are all close to $200 , and seem to waste time Ive heard- see what happens- the excavator with a thumb does seem like a good idea too - thanks all

Edited by DougG - 29 Jan 2022 at 8:25am

escavator with thumb gets my vote!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVCHNzri_TU
Sons Tree Puller for skid loaders - can be modified to work on a 3 point system also 
Shameless bought one for his tractor to clear field of larger trees 
Taking them out with a dozer is better if cut higher - ablout 6 ft of trunk - with a loader machine about the same but in most cases taking full tree down with machine as more leverage .
 Cutting them at 2 ft either a excavator or a backhoe will work - thumb is nice but I have taken many out with just my AC 715B , full trees I use HD5G but the FA FD5 with 6 way blade works well also as can angle and tilt blade to get at roots .

i have cleared many acres of trees thru my life in many different ways. the puller i bought from Coke's son was the easiest way from all of them, grabbing from sizes 1/2 inch up to 8 inch sizes. the puller was mounted on the 3-pt of my 7010. it has pulled over 1500 trees of various sizes. alot of 20-30 and a few 40 foot tall ones. after pulling the trees out, it was easy to carry them still in the puller to where ever i was making a pile and releasing them on it. the puller shows no sign of wear on it yet. i have also used a heavy duty rear blade at times, backing up to a 4-6 inch tree and getting it to rocking back and forth, when a root or two pops up outta the ground, back up and get the blade under those roots, keep pressure on the roots while backing up and lifting at the same time and it'll pull those trees out with the roots all at once and ready to push into a pile. make sure to use the center of the blade framework and not the blade part on either side or you'll ruin the blade. oh...and the blade should be turned around backwards so the cutting edge is against the tree. only one tree stump i had to dig out, was a BIG sucker and had to dig down (used what is called a "GNUSE" scoup) far enough to cut the tap root, then i was able to ratchet strap the stump to the scoup and carry/drag it out of the hole, then filled the hole back in.  i have helped friends, they had hired some heavy equipment guys with excavators, they wanted the trees cut off about 3-4 foot above ground and then they would take over. i have also taken a one shank sub soiler into an area that was cleared of trees, no matter what method is used when pulling, pushing, yanking them out, there will always be lots of roots left. i put the sub soiler down into as far as it will go, drive as slow as to can and you'll see the ground moving behind your tractor, then up pops a big ole root to the top. drive thru that area in about 3 ft apart slices traveling the same direction each time. done this way you won't have the whole area dug/torn up. you will hafta pick up those roots by hand, throw them in/on a wagon or truck bed. as to burning green trees, they do burn well. just push into a pile, pack them tight with no dirt packed in with the trees, i just use diesel fuel in a pump sprayer, soak the bottom area, light, add some more diesel, as soon as you get the tree sap boiling, it'll take off and burn to whole pile by itself. best lit where small branches are packed   together. i have cleared alot of land area with farm equipment thru the years as i couldn't afford to hire the big stuff to come in and do it...you know....doing it the "farmer way"! and this is how i've done it thru the years. you get to know what does/doesn't work for you in your area if you do alot of it. remember i told you about that "GNUSE" scoup? well...i had an HD5 diesel and that GNUSE scoup on my 7010 would do more work faster than my HD5 would. the HD5 was a great little dozer, but was just slower doing some things. i still have the GNUSE, i sold the HD5. hope this helps you. oh...i did have a backhoe/loader thru the years too, i thought it would be the ticket to dig out stumps/trees, it did o-k...but just o-k, it too was slower than i thought it should be, and when digging out the smaller trees with the backhoe, then you still had to go thru and get the trees/stumps pushed/drug out of all the loose soil  making it harder to clean the area up.

Wish I had a video!

I have pulled lots of stumps.  Excavator is very effective and clean, but can be very tedious on larger tracts.  We have used a D8K tractor with root rake on bigger fields that worked very well- usually putting one tooth on the middle of the stump would break even large oak stumps.  D7H with ripper worked ok to split stumps, but ended up with quite a bit of dirt that way, we put them in windrows and went through with an excavator later.  Also have used 11-B Allis with rake for smaller poplar stumps-works well but very hard on the tractor!

DougG wrote: Its just gonna be cow pasture ...

Lots of good, well-reasoned advice above

Do you really need to remove the stumps? Cows have four legs and a mouth; they are quite capable of walking around stumps while grazing.

I have cleared modest amounts of land for cow pasture and just cut the stumps as low as I could with the chainsaw, then used an old narrow section of springtooth (I used horses to pull it, but an ATV or even your Bobcat would suffice) to tear it up and then sowed pasture mix in with a hand-held whirlygig device.

If the stumps are too closely spaced you could probably remove some of the smaller ones with the Bobcat to get enough space to work between the larger stumps.

If you feel the need to remove the stumps for aesthetic reasons, well, that's gonna cost you. The cows won't care either way