I got good money for rock when I was excavating.....Every year, a few more feet and you'll have a nice pasture there. Like I've told you before, what a old timer told me, " I'd rather pick rocks than be in the shittin' nursing home". lol Thanks Dave.

Where is your rock wagon? That's a lot of extra hours and wasted time and fuel running your skid steer back and forth.

I'm from New England and marvel at the thousands of miles of stone walls around farms and homes all of which came from rocky fields. In Spring the farmers would look out in the fields and say, "Look Mother another good crop of rocks!" It does me good to see there are still hard working Americans.

Cleared rocks by hand and shovel with all my friends for Miller's milk farm 57 years ago. Thank God, wasn't as involved as yours. WOW. Doing a fine job sir.

Back in The Day, they used a Stone Boat, a Yoke of Oxen, and a Couple of Bars. Quieter, except for the Cussing and the Hernias.

My brother-in-law inherited a poor rocky farm in Connecticut. It had been a dairy farm. But they couldn’t make a living. They both had jobs. But were in trouble for taxes. I said “ Landscapers buy boulders”. He made enough off of boulders to pay the taxes. He was so grateful he gave me a solid quartz bolder bigger than a basketball! It’s in my flowerbed today.

Used to pick rock onto a wooden sled behind a Ford Major in Delaware County. NY. There were 2 stones for every dirt. Them things reproduced at a rate that rocks needed picked each spring. They kept coming! Thank you. Stay safe.

Looks like beautiful fence building material. Makes you appreciate the old-timers who didn't have all the machinery we do now.

We have thousands upon thousands of great stone fences here in New England, all from fields like yours. Good luck !

That drag and that little Grain drill, it’s worth its weight That’s awesome to have something like that.

Here in northern Germany they took 100s of years to clear the fields of rocks, all done by hand of course. They used the rocks to pave roads, most of which have since been surfaced over with tarmac. In some of the rural villages in the east you can still see the original roads paved with rocks. All axel breakers of course.

First organic rock crop I've seen in years! If you stack them neatly you'll have a fence before you know it. ;)

Excellent video rocks are a mess to deal with my farm used to look the same way until I got a payloader there were areas so bad I just dropped the bucket and Pushed the rocks like plowing snow then I could till it and after a few years I rolled the rocks out of soil. Patience is the only way to clean rocks

New Englanders know about rocks. That is why there are so many stone walls. Cleared by hand using horses and oxen, hundreds of years ago.

A small excavator would be a great machine to pick up all those rocks while leaving the soil in place. That the rockiest pasture I’ve ever seen.

Where I grew up they always used dozers with big rock rakes on the back to pull out all the rocks

I had a 20 acre field like this....and learned.... never dig the rock out ! Lift them out using a grapple ! Anytime I moved soil it only brought up more rocks ! Maybe fill in the lowest areas with a dozer......but move as little dirt as possible ! I bought myself a 14 foot spring tooth cultivator... 200 dollars. Went over the field dozens of times. One last trip picking up smaller rocks. Seeded it with an end gate seeder and culti -packed it . Finished ! I now rotational graze the field and make hay off of it in rotation also. Its now a highly productive field !

Good morning Dave and Dawn.

That’s some great work - excellent video…👍

Had a similar problem in '88. Ended up building a big grizzly with a 3" x 3" opening grid. Bought a big shovel dozer and stripped off the top 2'. Ran the soil through the grizzly. 50% was tailings and 50% went back. Every eigth bucket through the grizzly was manure to fertilize the soil. If I could have afforded it, I would have bought a jaw crusher to make all the rocks into gravel. Good Luck, Rick

Close to where I live in the UK the problem of rocks was solved by making Dry Stone Walls, these marked the boundry of you land, then internal walls went up and made fields for the farm. These walls go miles and miles up and down hills. Building houses is also an option.

Enjoyed the video Thanks, boy I thought I had rocks ,I feel sorry for you guys . Its a good thing you folks are hard workers. Good luck.

Rolling Hills Farms started a very interesting piece of conversation. Stone lake ripples..................

Coming from a area where the rock wasn't bad i always wondered about the effort people had invested when i saw large rock piles. There was a old Scandinavian trick of splitting boulders with fire when the cold got intense. Thank you Dave.

I’ve seen videos of folks in the northern climes picking out the larger ones then using a very heavy roller to push the others back down so they can use their no-till planters. Trouble is, those squished stones always return. Y’all get what we down here in Texas call “real winters” which come complete with frost heave. Good luck. 🫡

That a healthy crop of rocks you got there ; )

They used to pull them out with pry bars and horse teams. Then drag them over on a sled and stack them up in the edge of the woods as a fence. You got a lot of fence laying out there in those fields.

Ann and I spent our youth in Northern Minnesota and spent many springs picking rocks so I feel I can say the following with some knowledge of the process. With this in mind no matter how many rocks you pick this spring a new crop will grow for the next season.

A lot like Ireland I think it is ( could be Scotland LOL) where all the stones pulled from the fields became the huge stone fences you see everywhere

Now thats a lot of rocks! But you are making some nice progress

Uffda! Picked rocks in college days! But not in a field like that. God bless you in your work.

That's the same reason I bought my stump bucket for, it works great. Go to dig one out, find five more. Looks like the Honda is earning it's keep. The pasture looks nice when the rocks are cleared up.

I enjoyed the video. I appreciate how hard farmers work and are always trying to improve their farms. If you want to be more efficient look into a rock bucket for the skid steer. There are several manufacturers the make 60" and 72" wide buckets which will pick up the rocks and leave the soil behind. Another option is a loader with root rake. If you know any site contractors they may have one available.

we have an area in victoria australia called stony risers the original farmers cleared by hand and made all their fences with the rocks

THIS IS FLIPPING EPIC DAVE !!!!

When Abe Lincoln wasn’t splitting rails, he was picking rocks. Building character

That looks so much better!

I lived in Connecticut and built houses and they used the rocks to build stone walls was a good selling feature. The stone walls were built by the early settlers not me. Lol

Long job.been there done that using a Pedrick rock picker and used the rock for creek crossings and bank reinforcement and make bunds for tank bases etc. The cattle will be happy to have a place to lay down free from rocks.

Looks good. Met Mr. Erkkila many years ago I think he would approve.

Them is BIG ROCKS ,I was a rock picker as a teenager, changed handline irrigating mint,alfalfa and potatoes each morning and evening and picked rocks mid day , ,Central Oregon was the location 8 miles from Terrebonne on Deschutes Valley Farms 🚜 lots of kicking rocks ,actually fuun , that was 1972 and 3 😁

Living here in Rock Village section Of Middleboro, Ma as soon as you opened talking rocks you caught my attention. OUr ground is made up of rock, ledge, and bigger rocks with a little soil just to tease us. I loved your video and subscribed

Building materials!!!

Mom grew up in an area of Quebec known for its rolling rocky terrain. They moved closer to the border where farming is way easier. I'm helping out on a farm that's mostly yellow soil, with some sandy fields, some that get swampy easily, others with some clay and top soil. The water table is 4 feet down or so. Ditches need digging out. Two pretty much opposite setups. Keep a good thing growing. :)

Been there. Worked at a camp where if I wanted to work the ground I'd dig down a few inches then work out the quarter ton rock. Wash, rinse, repeat.

In Madison County Western North Carolina looks like Ireland with the stone walls with the rocks carried out of cropland and pastures

I just subscribed. We didn't have much rock, but way too many old stumps(especially locust and gum) and I helped my grandfather dig, dynamite, and pull many of them out with a team and a Farmall A. Your helper can sure finesse that rock digger. Bill

Being a guy from a row home, in philly, for over 50 years; I'm envious of the type of life, guys like you lead...I'm in the suburbs in a single rancher now...I never considered the amount of work required to upkeep the grounds...I HATE IT!...:)... I can't imagine all the work THAT property has experienced! Good health to you and yours...

Love what you're doing. Just watched a "rock pickin" vid from "It's a Stable Life" and "Veggie Boys" channels the other day. Fortunately for them, their rocks are small enough to be handled by a mechanical rock picker. Down here in South Texas, you find a layer of hardened, dark red sandstone on occasion, but in my neck of the woods, it's mostly just sand, sand, and more sand. Have to use creative approaches to getting anything of worth to grow, but it's home. New sub. Thanks for your vids.

Hey nice dry stone wall kits!

The old VB drill still getting it done!! Worked up nice 👍

I grew up in East Tennessee. Our motto was " The Lord made the earth in six days , and threw rocks at East Tennessee on the seventh day ". We would spend a week plowing and a mo th picking up rocks !

Basalt. Farms in my town have 3 TIMES this amount. Sheep literally eating grass between the cracks in rocks. My dads farm is almost this bad in parts but mine is pretty good. You'll find 8-10 YEARS after clearing, you'll HAVE MORE. The hooves literally push the soil down and more rise to the surface

The problem is he can clean up the pastures from the rocks that you can see now, but given time there will be more rocks being pushed up from underground to take their place. Maybe not as many as there is in this first clearing, but it will still be a good many to push back up.

You need a rock bucket so you can knock the dirt loose. I’ve done several fields like this, it’s to much work to carry them one at a time away. Back in early 2000’s I removed several thousand rocks like that but with a rented excavator and my dump trailer.

Our farm is located in the rolling hills of the Palouse region in Washington state. The glacier from the last ice age fortunately just missed our area. As a result, the 3300 acres that we farm is almost completely free of rocks, except for about 40 acres. We were left with some of the best fertile soil in the world. In some areas, the soil is 100 feet deep before reaching bedrock. But 120 miles to the NW are some of the worst rocky scablands where the topsoil was swept away in a matter of about 2 days down to bedrock, 18,000 - 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. At that time, the massive Glacial Lake Missoula (Montana) formed from the melting glaciers to the north. Then, an ice dam suddenly broke and flooded large parts of northern Idaho and central/southern Washington. The water flowed very swiftly, sweeping away the topsoil and depositing boulders everywhere. The water flowed down the Columbia River and out to the Pacific Ocean near Portland, Oregon. Geologists say that during that two-day stretch, the quantity of flowing water amounted to about 10X the volume of every other river in the world combined. It is interesting to drive around the area and see the results or that flood today.

After a few winter freezes working on the rocks below, you may have more to harvest but keep at it.

Looks a lot like Glen Rock PA. Or maybe the Burren in Ireland. At least in Glen Rock the farmers of days gone by could with great effort clear the trees, stumps and rocks to create arable land. I think in Ireland the rocks were just too many and too deep so they just learned to live with them. I did get a laugh when watching the movie "War Horse" how the featured horse plowed up that hillside in short order tho! Spielberg didn't have a clue!

You could put a rock box on the disc and fill with rocks, the extra weight would make the disc dig in a little better.

You oot to check them rocks for gold! God Bless!!

Thanks. ✌🏻👊🏼

For centuries there has been an occupation known as Stone Picker. They picked tens of thousands of acres where I live. A lot went into stone walls for paddocks and for building. Rocks are worth a small fortune. Here around 100 a ton and theres surprisingly few rocks in a Ton. Bigger ones go for more up to thousands each. To me you look to be removing $20 bills.

In Ireland, the traditional thing to do with rocks pulled out of the fields was to build stone walls around them.

Rocks are why early settlers had as many sons as possible. All that untapped energy could then be used picking rocks. How many men do you figure that bobcat replaces? In Vermont after plowing you always pick rocks being sure to leave some for seed.

i 'll watch. but will give me night mares. had that job in college. rocks a nd rocks and more rocks twenty acres. north powder oregon.

My friend's family had a similarly rocky farm , or as his dad used to say , we were hit bad by the ice age.

Down here in the south along the east coast we pay good money for those rocks and boulders. Yeah I don’t think about selling in bulk. Don’t riparian lotta can be sold for ornamental things.

Full watch Dave

My father always said ! Lifes to short to farm ROCKS !

Thats how New England Rock walls came about

Yeah definitely yeah there’s definitely a lot of money in rocks. Usually just sweep the paddock with a good heavy leveling bar on the tractor. Then heavy roll.. rocks are a good asset in a paddock being free drainage

You could use those rocks for rock jacks , ( fence corners )

Unbelievable the amount of rocks you have their. Hard to fathom.

Some of this land was origionally sold to the unsuspecting when it was covered with snow.

They have rock grinder crusher the attaches to a big tractor and grinds the rocks to power, might be worth looking into.

Try Madison County in Western North Carolina 😂😂😂

All we have is rocks in Stafford springs. More like boulders you'd need some real heavy equipment to move mine

I could use that machine for a couple of days . Here we call them New Hampshire potatoes , yummy !

Our ancestors collected those rocks as a building resource. Barns, stone walling. whole houses. Learn to use your advantages.

There's a couple spots like this on 213th St. east of Camp Ripley.

I will never complain about my rocks again!

Lots of rocks!

I guess if you wanted them gone fast, you could get a D9 or 10 to push them out. You might lose a bit of soil, but they'd be all gone in a day or two.

Not to worry there will still be more rocks appear when this crop is cleared

Im not a land expert, but I think a backhoe would be easier to pull them to the surface then a blade to push them into a pile?? I wish I had a farm. Nothing but respect for those who live in harmony with mumma earth...

Have you ever thought about using a 3 point rock crusher attachment to work your fields?

Well done, it must be awfully tedious work, but good idea to do a small section, then disc and sow, so you can see some results for your efforts. Greetings from AUS 🦘🇦🇺

A well managed pasture should last forever !

Glacial Harvest !!! Now the trick is to turn the rocks into $$$ !!!

Our best Crop is Rocks.

Rocks could be remnants from the Great War of the Ancients, where asteroids were deliberately tossed through this atmosphere in an attempt to demolish all of the Little Men's great works.

Using a mini excavator with a thumb to sort through the rocky field, making rows of rocks to be loaded on to a truck for transport away would be more efficient than the tracked skid steer running back and forth with a few rocks at a time. Replacing the tracks and bottom is expensive .

Deep rich black soil with out rocks is the only way to go. We are happy we do not have this problem. Jim in Chile

Nice pasture improvement. You have a serious rock issue there. The absolute worst rock pasture I've ever seen was east of Waupaca WI. I have rock but not nearly as bad as yours.

Yeap another rock.farmer 😊

👍👍

Glaciers: Youre welcome. Have fun.

Dawn the rock meistress. Dave field looks real nice. Are your rocks in a place when they sell you can access without tearing up your new pasture. Those are premium landscape rocks don't sell them cheap They are another income stream.

I think that the ideal setup would be about a 10 ton excavator pulling a dump trailer.

I don't hear anything about rotational fields? Please advise. You tube tip, reply to all comments.