PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Brush does not take a pasture all at once. It takes it a few percent a year until the day you count cattle and the number does not work any more. Taking it back is one of the few pieces of ranch spending that pays for itself in grazing capacity. Every job below is documented with photographs and a day count.
A pasture rarely fails in one season. Canopy closes a little more each year, grass under it thins because grass needs sun, and stocking rate quietly drops. Most owners call us the year the hay bill stops making sense, and by then the brush is thick enough that a shredder cannot touch it.
This is the honest way to think about the cost. Reclaimed acres carry animals again, and the arithmetic on what an additional grazing acre is worth on your operation is arithmetic you can do better than we can. What we can tell you is the day count and the number, so you can run it.
Heavy cedar is fuel and it is a wall. Cleared ground gives you fence access, water access, and a break where there was not one. Several of our reclamation customers started the conversation about grazing and finished it about being able to reach the back of the place with a truck.
The default on most reclamation. The mulcher grinds standing brush where it stands and leaves the material on the ground as cover, which holds soil through the first hard rain and slows what tries to come back. Nothing leaves the property and nothing gets burned. See what mulching costs.
When the roots have to come out. Mesquite in particular resprouts from a cut crown, so on mesquite ground a mulcher alone buys you a few seasons rather than a fix. A root puller dozer takes the crown out with the stem. This costs more and it is worth it on the right ground. See grubbing.
Tractor work, offered in Central Texas. Shredding for maintenance on ground that is already open or where regrowth has not gone woody yet, discing to break a seedbed, and seed drilled or broadcast behind it. This is the cheap end of the range and the right tool only when the stems are small. Anybody offering to brush hog a closed cedar canopy is going to hand you a broken shredder and an invoice. The tractor runs $1,500 per day plus transport.
Not every pasture wants to be a field. Leaving mottes of live oak for shade and taking the cedar out from between them is often better for cattle than a clean sweep, and it costs less than a full clear because there is less material to grind.
Full write ups with photographs, acreage and day counts. This is what reclaimed ground actually looks like.
Cedar does not resprout from a cut stump. Take the stem off below the lowest green limb and that tree is finished. What brings cedar back is seed, and there is a great deal of it in the soil, so the return comes as a carpet of seedlings rather than as regrowth off the stumps you already paid to cut. That is a mowing problem in year three, not a clearing problem, and it is much cheaper to stay on top of than to let close again.
Mesquite is the opposite and this is where most money gets wasted. Cut a mesquite off at the ground and it comes back multi stemmed and angrier from the crown below the soil line. Grinding the top with a mulcher looks finished on the day and is not. On mesquite ground worth reclaiming properly, the crown has to come out, which means a dozer or an excavator rather than a mulcher.
Yaupon fills the space under a canopy and it comes back readily from the base. It mulches easily because the stems are small, so it is rarely the expensive part of a job, but it is the part most likely to look reclaimed and then not be. On yaupon ground the honest quote includes what you should expect to be doing in two years.
Pear is not woody and it does not grind so much as smear. It also propagates from pads that get scattered, so a machine that flings it is planting it. Where pear is the main problem the answer is usually a grubbing pass rather than a mulching pass.
A high horsepower mulcher is $4,000 per day plus transport. A skid steer mulcher is $3,000 per day with transport included. Dozer or excavator grubbing is $3,000 per day plus transport. There is a one day minimum on every machine we own. Ranch acreage is usually the size where day rates work in your favour, because a full day of a big machine covers a lot of ground.
Elgin was 125 acres. Dale was 9 and took two days. The difference is not just size, it is how thick the brush was and how big the stems were. Two neighbours with the same acreage routinely get quotes that differ by half, and the honest reason is that one of them let it go five years longer.
Grubbing costs more per acre than mulching because it moves dirt as well as brush. On cedar ground mulching is usually the right answer. On mesquite ground grubbing usually is, and the cheaper quote is the one you pay twice. We will tell you which one your ground needs rather than which one we would rather sell.
Past about fifty acres we quote the whole job rather than a day rate you multiply out, because at that scale we can plan the passes properly and you should get the benefit of it. Elgin at 125 acres and Rosebud at 1,200 both ran that way.
Alongside the clearing machines we run a tractor, so on Central Texas ground a job can run from closed brush through to disced, seeded pasture without you finding a second contractor. Outside Central Texas we clear and shape and the planting is yours or your seed contractor. We do not spray. The tractor runs $1,500 per day plus transport, the same one day minimum as every other machine we own.
On ground that was pasture within living memory the seed bank is usually still there, and once sun reaches the soil the native grass comes back without help. Dale was brush out and grass coming back inside the season. Whether yours will is a question your county extension agent can answer better than a clearing contractor.
Cedar seedlings will come up in a carpet and mesquite will test the crowns that were left. Neither is a failure of the clearing, both are the ordinary behaviour of Texas brush, and both are cheap to handle at ankle height. Budget a maintenance pass rather than another reclamation in six years.
Acreage, what is growing on it, and what you want it to be when we leave. A photograph of the worst part is worth more than a description. Most quotes come back the same day.
Machine days, machine type, and mulching and grubbing as separate lines if your ground needs both. Nothing on it is an allowance we revisit later.
After you have approved the estimate we walk it with you. What stays, where the fences and water are, which mottes are worth keeping. None of this happens until you have approved the estimate.
You get told when we start and when we finish. We walk the finished ground with you before the trailers load, and we will tell you honestly what to expect in year two.
Pierce Land Clearing did a great job clearing mesquites and cedars from a field so we can plant. They got it done quickly and for a great price. Great folks.
Tani Vinson, Google review
I had about 5 acres that had gotten out of hand with mesquite and cactus. They spent 2 days on the property with a root puller dozer, even in a storm on the second day! I am absolutely pleased with the work.
Rebecca Weggen, Google review
Super friendly and efficient! Got the job done in one day, clearing out all the dead cedar while leaving the pretty oaks. Excellent job, thank you!
Michelle Aguayo, Google review
We live on 12 acres off 1431. When we purchased our property we absolutely fell in love with the amazing views of the Hill Country but were strapped with inheriting tons of cedars, a few pitiful oaks, and lots of debris.
Jim Abshire, Google review
Taking ground that has been lost to brush and putting it back into grass and grazing. In Texas that usually means removing cedar, mesquite, yaupon and prickly pear that have closed over what used to be open pasture, either by mulching the growth in place or by grubbing the roots out where the species demands it. In Central Texas we can also disc and seed it; elsewhere the planting is yours.
It is priced in machine days rather than by the acre, because density rather than acreage decides the work. A high horsepower mulcher is $4,000 per day plus transport, a skid steer mulcher is $3,000 per day with transport included, and dozer or excavator grubbing is $3,000 per day plus transport. One day minimum on every machine. Ranch acreage tends to be the size where day rates work in your favour.
Some of it, and which part depends on the species. Cedar does not resprout from a cut stump but returns heavily from seed already in the soil, so expect seedlings rather than regrowth. Mesquite does resprout from the crown, which is why mesquite ground often wants grubbing rather than mulching. Budget a maintenance pass in year two or three; it is far cheaper than a second reclamation.
In Central Texas, yes. We run a tractor as well as the clearing machines, so discing and seeding can be part of the same job. Outside Central Texas we clear and leave you open ground with a mulch layer, which is good condition for seed, and the planting is yours. Worth knowing either way: on ground that was pasture in living memory the native seed bank is often still there and grass returns without help once sun reaches the soil. Your county extension agent can tell you whether yours will, and if it will, seeding is money you do not need to spend.
Yes, in Central Texas, where we run a tractor as well as the clearing machines. Shredding is the right tool on ground that is already open or where regrowth has not gone woody yet, and it is the cheap end of the range. It is the wrong tool on a closed cedar canopy, where the stems will simply break the shredder. Discing and seeding follow on the same tractor. The tractor runs $1,500 per day plus transport, with the same one day minimum as everything else. We do not offer spraying. If you are not sure which situation you have, send a photograph and we will tell you.
Look at what is growing. Cedar and yaupon usually mulch well because the stumps are finished once the stem is off. Mesquite and prickly pear usually want grubbing, mesquite because it resprouts from the crown and pear because a machine that flings pads is propagating it. Most real pastures want some of each, quoted as separate lines.
Dale was 9 acres in two days. Elgin was 125 acres and ran on a schedule. As a rough guide a high horsepower mulcher covers about three acres of mixed growth in a day, more on light stuff and less than an acre in a heavy cedar thicket. Your quote states the day count rather than leaving it open ended.
Usually leave some. Mottes of live oak give cattle shade and cost you very little grazing, and taking the cedar out from between them is both cheaper and better than a clean sweep. Selective work costs more per acre than a full clear but there is less material to grind, so on thinned ground the two often land close together.
Statewide. Documented reclamation jobs on this site run from Elgin and Dale in Central Texas out to San Antonio and Bastrop County, and we work north to Weatherford and west to Brady. Mobilization is a written line on the quote reflecting the distance.
Send the acreage, what is growing on it and a photo of the worst of it. You get back a day count, the machine we would bring, and a written number. Call 512-400-2693 or send it through the form.
Pasture reclamation we have documented recently: 2 acres of pasture at San Marcos. Each one is written up with the day count, the machine used and what it cost.
