[snapper21]

This season we've been digging and picking before seeding and after. Have our share of sizes up to ones as big as a d8. Been digging with a front end loader but use our cat in the fall if we have time. What do you rock farmers use for your ugly ones. Anyone build their own rock diggers?

 

[cptusa]

I quit growing rocks. To hard on machinery.

 

[SWMan]

I primarily use my pulldozer now, which is handy because you can smooth over the hole after. Just clean them up with the loader and stonepicker. Larger ones drag to stonepile with pulldozer. Have had a few that I could not pull out even with quadtrac on the front, either get excavator for them or cover them over with dirt.

Used to use a degelman rock hook and it worked pretty good.

 

[Jason Hildebrand]

The Degleman "rock hawk" as they are nicknamed is a great tool, very good at digging big rocks but no so good at moving them. On more than one occasion ended up pulling a big rock up and having to get the excavator to deal with it. They have jumped up in price sooo high! Over 10g! I still think the excavator is the best for big rocks, I usually just dig a deep hole and bury them right on the spot. Its way too hard on the excavator to carry a huge rock a mile to the nearest stone pile. Wear out the undercarriage too fast.

On another note, i'm surprised a Pulldozer is strong enough, its a beefy machine but i thought with all the possible twisting could do some damage.

 

[SWMan]

On another note, i'm surprised a Pulldozer is strong enough, its a beefy machine but i thought with all the possible twisting could do some damage.

I have a 24' model and I dig with the outside corner. Have spun out the quad with the diff locks on and full of fuel more than a few times on firm ground. That pulldozer is one well built machine!!!

 

[farmshop]

We usually dig around them with a skid loader and then haul them off with the payloader. Every once in a while we have to get a excavator out to dig one out

 

[GrampaMark]

When I was a kid, 50+ years ago, you could buy dynamite at any co-op or hardware store. My grandpa loved to blow stuff up or burn things down. Since rocks don't burn, we blew up a bunch of big rocks. Helping him play with high explosives was probably the best job I had growing up.

Mark

 

[hog987]

Do what my one neighbor did. On his worse land he just used it for pasture. His land has big rocks. When he dug one out another one appeared and so on. By the time he got the rocks removed the land was 10 feet lower. He got tired of this and just grazed cattle and sheep.

 

[jaymo]

I've had the excavator dig out some big ones if I've got them out to do some other work anyway.
Otherwise, I've found our JD 260 skid steer with forks works pretty good. I've got some well built pallet forks, just slide them right together in the center. I know the largest ones I've been able to dig are well over 3,000 lbs. because the 260 can lift a full tote but not some of the monster rocks I've dug out. You can also carry or skid any rock you can manage to dig out to the nearest pile or pit. The biggest drawback is having to go back with the bucket or a scraper to fill in the hole created.

 

[wheatwhacker]

We rent a Degelman rock puller every couple years and and use it on the rocks we have found. Works very well but like others have said not good at hauling rocks with. Use the bi directional for the ones we can move with it. I have had to skid a number of big ones with it to the rock piles. Real big ones we get the trackhoe in for and he just buries them.

 

[meritmat]

We rent a Degelman rock puller every couple years and and use it on the rocks we have found. Works very well but like others have said not good at hauling rocks with. Use the bi directional for the ones we can move with it. I have had to skid a number of big ones with it to the rock piles. Real big ones we get the trackhoe in for and he just buries them.

x2

 

[SWFarmService]

Tough-T MFG

The definition of big rocks can vary by 10ft in diameter so something like this may be too big or too small, my father in law has one, works pretty good, I was pretty unsure of the grapple but it works quite well

 

[snapper21]

We have one on my home quarter which dad dug down beside with his d8 and it was level with the top of the canopy. He dug down a few feet beside and pushed it in only it heaved back up the following spring. I wanted it for my yard but rolling it half a mile seems impossible. If a guy could pick on them uglies before freez up and drag them off with a big stone boat after. Some of my best land is the worst for boulders. The submerged ones are bad but those ones that stick out cost me openers. This isn't even as bad as our pasture land. That's stone to stone.

 

[jaymo]

We have one on my home quarter which dad dug down beside with his d8 and it was level with the top of the canopy. He dug down a few feet beside and pushed it in only it heaved back up the following spring. I wanted it for my yard but rolling it half a mile seems impossible. If a guy could pick on them uglies before freez up and drag them off with a big stone boat after. Some of my best land is the worst for boulders. The submerged ones are bad but those ones that stick out cost me openers. This isn't even as bad as our pasture land. That's stone to stone.

I guess my definition of what is a "big rock" is different then yours!!
When cleaning up some old rock piles and fence lines I have to marvel at some of the boulders that have been moved there long before we had the kind of equipment we have now.

 

[bussard]

Usually can dig 90 percent out with fel on 250 hp tractor very quickly, the remainder is meant for the backhoe.. Some guys use the hooks and they work good but not cheap

 

[cat man]

I use a backhoe to dig them out and pop them on top and haul them off witha wheel loader with a mds rock bucket and grapple. If it's a larger one the size of the wheel loader tire I will use a set of forks to haul the one large rock off.

The skeleton rock bucket works great I can shake them and leave the topsoil.

 

[712alberta]

When I was a kid, 50+ years ago, you could buy dynamite at any co-op or hardware store. My grandpa loved to blow stuff up or burn things down. Since rocks don't burn, we blew up a bunch of big rocks. Helping him play with high explosives was probably the best job I had growing up.

Mark

Oh the good old days. I use to know a guy who would mix up diesel fuel and fertilizer an blow up beaver dams, rocks, buildings (old ones) and what ever else needed to be removed. I kind of wonder how many things I did in my youth, which isn't that long ago, would get me on a terror watch list if I did them now

 

[albertabuck]

When cleaning up some old rock piles and fence lines I have to marvel at some of the boulders that have been moved there long before we had the kind of equipment we have now.

Exactly! I have had the same thoughts myself when I have looked at piles you know were made by horse and hand with a stone boat. I have seen such piles on land that has been allowed to go back into trees in modern times, and one can't help but feel all that work was for nothing.

Probably dig most with an industrial bucket on the large tractor's loader, no bending or breaking that one. Few now and then with the payloader to save mileage on the track hoe, but for the really big ones or when there are several in one spot, nothing beats the hoe with it's thumb. When I use the hoe, I haul them away with the gravel truck, though sometimes that can be a pain as the tail gate needs to come off to dump some of the bigger ones.

Now that a guy close enough can sell the dam things in volume, I actually don't mind seeing all those piles of those things. Gotta love the cooling and settling ponds at Ft Mac lol
But no matter what, I'll still take rocks over moles and gophers, been there done that

 

[thorpy]

I am much the same as the other posts, pull dozer works well for 3-4' and under, if the excavator is close it does the trick on any rock. What works the best though if there is a lot, is the payloader. It can usually dig and lift them out quickly, and then can carry anything you can fit in the bucket. Not as quick to dig out as the excavator, but a lot quicker to move around.

 

[uthinkyourwet?]

I guess my definition of what is a "big rock" is different then yours!!
When cleaning up some old rock piles and fence lines I have to marvel at some of the boulders that have been moved there long before we had the kind of equipment we have now.

A lot of times, the middle of a stone pile has some real mothers that they tried moving off the field but gave up on, or has a giant ground breaking boulder. I asked my dad when I was a lad, why did Grandpa put that rockpile there, and not off the field 200 feet away. Well, cuz there are some real big rocks in the center of the pile you see. I will see when I get it buried this fall hopefully. Hardly any rocks left, most years I do not even pick any, but it obviously had a few originally.

I bought some hayland a few years back, and it had been rarely cropped. I rented a degelman rock digger, and it worked real good. I never had issues carrying them to the field edge, and I pulled out some REAL DOOZIES.