Time to clear a place of ours in Fayette County. Mostly mesquite but also some cedars. Most of the mesquite is smaller and not old growth.

I'd like to buy a dozer or skid steer but was curious size and brands would be recommended. I'd like to stay around $35k-$45k if possible.

Thanks Ag Nation in advance.

I think it might be hard to buy a dozer at that price point. The skid steer would take longer but it certainly would be more useful for other jobs that come up I would think?

I'm only focused on used. Need to clear a couple hundred acres and would then resell. Maybe just cheaper to rent. I DONT KNOW!!!

Definitely some dozers in that price range but they're probably open air, old and lots of hours. If you're prepared to pay for a couple of repairs and some downtime then you can probably get away with buying one and selling it for the same price.

I'd look at renting a closed cab with AC. Can probably get one for a couple of months for $8-10k

Fayette has some beautiful property. No doubt about it.

As for clearing the land of mesquites, I'll just offer this: kill the mesquites with herbicide and let them sit for 6 months before you get rid of them.

Also (and I don't know your budget), if you use a dozer you'll probably need to fill in some holes and you'll also need to stack and burn the stuff.

An alternative is hiring in a big hydro ax to turn 'em all into mulch after you kill them. But those boys run about $3,000 / day.

Don't worry about killing the cedars first. They won't grow back.

roycoy82 said:

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I'm only focused on used. Need to clear a couple hundred acres and would then resell. Maybe just cheaper to rent. I DONT KNOW!!!

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If you are fixed on just the one job then resell, then you absolutely need to rent. If you buy an old heavy hours piece of equipment and it won't run one morning (which with your budget that's what you'll get), you're on the hook to fix it and spend your time and money doing so. I love it when I can call the rental place and they just bring out another unit to swap or send a maintenance guy. Assuming you didn't do the damage to the unit yourself, it's swap out, fire up, get back to work.

It's like a car - something you'll use for years, buy new or used with low usage. Something for a month or two, rent!!

If you have never run a dozer or skid steer you will spend time going through a learning curve to learn your use them. If you own them that's cool. If you rent you will waste some of your rental fee learning.
Depending on the sizes of your mesquite or cedars you can pull them up with a tree puller on the skid steer.
Using something like the Danhusser Intimidator.
Larger cedars you can shear with a tree shear. Cut them at ground level and they won't grow back.
The shear doesn't tear up your ground so you don't have spend time filling craters and back dragging like using a dozer.
Suggest not mulching the mesquites unless you plan on not driving in that area as you will have thorns scattered everywhere.
As said above you can spray the mesquites and kill them too.
Probably need to figure on a grapple to pick the stuff up and stack it too.
Another alternative is just to hire someone that has the equipment. They will be experienced in doing it and work faster. Run the numbers and see what's best.
Remember this. Playing devils advocate here. You buy used equipment it may break down.
If it's something major you can spend a lot of money quick on repairs. Especially if it's an engine or final drive issue.

Good advice. Thanks Ags. We've sprayed some pastures and the mesquite has been dead for two years now so it's combo of new growth we want to push.

If we buy or rent a dozer. Is a D-4 or something equivalent big enough to get the job done? Just don't want to get something outmatched. The other place we're pushing is in Hamilton County with big 20-30 foot bushy cedars.

D4 will take out small dead mesquite and cedar like butter. Nothing wrong with buying older equipment, you just have to be prepared to fix them and spend some money.

roycoy82 said:

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I'm only focused on used. Need to clear a couple hundred acres and would then resell. Maybe just cheaper to rent. I DONT KNOW!!!

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Since you're not sure what size or type machine to possibly buy, I'd recommend renting one for a month to try first. You can rent a dozer or excavator with a thumb for around 6k per month in our area. If you have an operator and good weather, you will know after the month what you want to buy.
we rented an excavator and hired a friend with a skid steer on two different jobs this year and I was Amazed at what the skid steer with the brush grinder could do clearing some trees on an old fence line.

I want to know where you can rent a skid steer with a high flow mulching head for $6k a month? Very few people have these in stock and last I checked it was about $4k/week with delivery.

I am in same dilemma however only 20 acres in Fayette county and covered in cedar and McCartney rose. We had a field where we backhoe them then came back with herbicide. Not sure if use backhoe again or a dozer.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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I want to know where you can rent a skid steer with a high flow mulching head for $6k a month? Very few people have these in stock and last I checked it was about $4k/week with delivery.

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I have no idea on skid steer rentals with that attachment. The one in the photo is a friend who does contract work. I do not use skid steers as I'm too claustrophobic. Over the years I've rented one several times for a few days for a specific task but rarely. And I don't operate them.
We have an old dozer and excavator at the ranch but I prefer to rent a relatively new one with working ac when I have a project that justifies it. The 141 Jcb in photo I recently rented was about 6,000 per month with a thumb. I've rented cat 4 and 5 dozers for similar recently. There's a rental company a few miles from the ranch and they are great to work with, even doing short hauls for cheap during the rental period.
ETA when land clearing, bigger is better. The 141 was undersized for some of the hackberry trees. And even for smaller yaupon. A longer tracked 50,000lb machine like a Cat 320 or Deere 210 are much faster and smoother to operate. Same with a dozer- if price is similar, bigger and heavier is always better.

Yeah dozers are like half the cost per week as a skid steer with high flow mulching head.

And there is a big economy of scale when going from a weekly rental to a monthly on the rentals we have done.
I can always find something else to do with one if finishing early.

My buddy runs this business

Might have something you want

Buy And Sell Used Heavy Equipment & Construction Equipment https://share.google/60cYHHYVMipCTrYTg

Have you rented a skid steer with a high flow mulching head or not? If you have for $6k a month, please let me know where.

In my ongoing battle with yaupon I've done both. Dozer and forestry mulcher.
I'm in North Grimes County and rental prices and availability are location specific.
Personally I like the forestry mulcher for this. Over time my average cost per acre cleared is about $1,000 either way. The dozer is cheaper but slower.
ASAP Equipment in College Station rents mulchers for $3,000 a week. After looking at all the options I chose to hire this out.

No. You did not read my posts. I do Not like skid steers. I would never operate one with a mulcher and will hopefully never climb in one again- claustrophobic. The one pictured is Owned by a friend in the business and I gladly paid him 7k to clear about 2,000 ft of old, grown up fence line around 100 ft wide. Not sure how many hours it took as he worked on it between other jobs for 3 weeks. I would have preferred to use a large excavator myself but the neighbor across the fence wanted things left a certain way on his side. Luckily, we got to take out some trees and brush on the neighbors side which would have compromised the new fence I'm building. I left some smaller trees for cattle shade in certain spots on my side.

Spray with Sendero. Wait one year. Rent tractor and brush hog. Happy shredding.

But you still have all the mesquite thorns?

I didn't read all the other responses but I recommend whatever you buy has a cab.

Sound wisdom!

Yeah, I missed your clarification posts. I was hoping to find somewhere to rent one for that cheap.

Gunny456 said:

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But you still have all the mesquite thorns?

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Yes Sir. But they will eventually decompose then the OP can put the property up for resale. That's the fastest and cheapest way I can think of. Then the Mesquite's will pop up all over the friggin place and it's now the new landowners problem.

Excavator for mesquites. I've done both skid and excavator. Excavator can get 2-3 times amount of work done in the same time. Plus it can get the big ones

My t-sip neighbor bushed hogged his *****ly pear cactus! I told him he was just spreading it like wildfire. You cant hardly walk in his pasture now in some places!

I agree with Oscar. I've used skid steer, dozer with a grubber, and excavator to clear mesquite. Of the three the excavator was considerably faster. I was a novice on all three machines when running them so my pace was much slower than anyone you'd hire. I did hire a guy to clear some mesquite with an excavator and he was remarkably quicker and more efficient than I was on the same machine. As other posters have mentioned, there is a learning curve. I'd rent first and see how you like the machines before buying. With time you'll get proficient, but it can be frustrating initially. I noticed more resprouting on the dozer-cleared land than on the excavated land.

Are you completely clearing the land, or sculpting the landscape to make it more aesthetically pleasing?

Curious if anyone has experience running a skid steer tree puller like the Danuser Intimidator? I have about 20 acres of small mesquite and huisache I need to clear, nothing bigger around than 4" in diameter. I figured this tool would be quickest with a skid steer.

I recommend a Daisy Cutter. Might need more than one.

Yes. I own one and use it extensively for clearing honey locust trees on our ranch. I use it on a John Deere 328G.
I added the rear weight kit to get greater pulling capacity.
The Danuser has held up well and I abuse it.
Pulls up roots and all. It will then hold the tree and you can take it and pile it.
If you get good at it you can pull a smaller tree then move to a larger one without having to stack the small one first. You can hold both at the same time. Cuts down your time.