What is it costing to doze/stack/pile/burn, root plow, and root rake/burn heavy brush in S Texas these days? Im looking at a couple of thousand acres.

Watching.

It's been several decades since I've been involved in such an operation, and I'm thinking it was $2-300/acre in the 60-70's, when land was $4-500/acre. Gotta be more than 10x that now, huh?

Been seeing a lot of it going on in S. Texas. Wyatt Ranch has done a bunch of it & I think the King, although I may be mis-remembering on the King part. However, it has been going on quite a bit down there. I talked to the owner of Gonzalito's BBQ about it when I saw it across the road. They were letting one of the younger family members learn how to use the equipment by doing it.

You might find someone of that nature, just looking for work, that could do it without it costing you an arm and a leg.

Got a price of $400 an acre from the Valley, so add another $100-150 for the San Pat county area, likely. Looking at ~3000 acres to do.

Check with Landon McCelvey in Dilley. 830-965-5090.

Why root plow 3000 acres, or is 3k just a portion of this ranch?

drred4 said:

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Why root plow 3000 acres, or is 3k just a portion of this ranch?

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~4000 acre ranch with some "industrial" use going in on 3000 acres of it. Brush is incompatible with the future use.

If it's not to be used for production Ag, then why the need to root plow it all? Seems like if it's to be developed into building pads and parking lots, (covered with concrete and/or asphalt), where's the need?

I would not want to pour concrete on top of large roots just under the surface. Best to root plow and remove.
Have been watching about 200 acres of pine timber being logged, stumps and tops are then stacked and put thru a chipper. Chips hauled off. Lastly, they have started root plowing with a dozer while a tractor hauls off roots with a front end loader to the tops pile. A neighbor said another new housing subdivision is coming on this tract.
I had to stop and watch the dozer with root plowing long enough to realize he was doing a grid at a time with gps. I've spent some weeks on an open air D6 doing root plowing years ago and today's cab dozers are a huge improvement.

I personally root plowed 1,200 acres on an open cab D8H. At the time root plowing was going for around $350/ac. That was in the 2006-2007 timeframe. I'd imagine it would be well over $450 by now. We had a direct drive machine for all the forward/reverse going on. It was expensive for a couple reasons. First it was very slow. The other issue is that every time the machine went down it was over 20K to get it fixed and running again. Also had a D6D with a root rake to pile brush. Purchased the equipment from a guy named Tim Ward out of Brackettville. I believe he operated under TW Equipment and pretty much specialized in brush clearing type equipment. He was refurbishing dozers.

Typically, depending upon the topo, a lot of dirt work occurs, including bringing in base/gravel for foundations, such that concrete is never actually poured on natural, undisturbed soil, so your premise is false, and my question of the need for root plowing every square foot remains.

Did that price include stacking and burning the brush prior to plowing, or for plowing alone?

BoerneGator said:

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If it's not to be used for production Ag, then why the need to root plow it all? Seems like if it's to be developed into building pads and parking lots, (covered with concrete and/or asphalt), where's the need?

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It will still be used for production ag in addition to the proposed use.

In Se Tx on concrete I've done, we take off the topsoil- 16 inches on average and add base- sand/ clay mixture where concrete pads are poured. Sand/ clay is worked in good with a small dozer and concrete piers are installed under the beams. But only AFTER removing the trees and roots.

For this particular job, I purchased the equipment and did the work myself. I was about 6 or 7 years out of A&M and I had the time but not the money to have it done for me. My family had previously cleared quite a bit of raw land and the $350/ac would be for root plowing and one rake trip. My experience was that two rake trips were needed if the brush was heavy. I also was never really super happy with how well the root rake worked. The process of root plowing covered/buried wood. The rake tended to ride out of the ground and gather what was on the surface only. We were putting in the property for farming so also took manual stump picking and basic land leveling with a land plane.

Most people in our area have moved away from root-plowing and use excavators to grub and stack. I owned an excavator for about five years and preferred this method. Recently I hired another individual to grub 160 acres for me and it ran around $375/acre. This was pretty thin brush. I think it can get expensive quickly for heavier brush. Thickness and size

Edit: BoerneGator - I think I misunderstood your question. Our brush was not big enough to require chaining or stacking before plowing. Most only 10-15' high. We were able to simply run the front blade about 1' off the ground and plow. This does create some difficulty with plow riding out of the ground at times.

I have a large root plow thank wouldsell

TOM-M said:

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Garrett Rossi at Hebbronville Machine shop builds plows and rakes. He might be able to point you in the right direction of someone in the area you're wanting the work done.

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That shop has gotten quite a following on Facebook