I'm fairly certain you will end up pulling a lot of sod up with a landscape rake.

 

I have used a landscape rake a lot on my property but never for my drive, I have a land plane for that. The rake does a fantastic job of picking up debris and rocks. I would cut the pasture down as much as you could and then got after the rocks. Yes, you will take some of the grass with the rocks depending on how loose the soil is but this is a better alternative than a rock bucket or doing it by hand. A rake will stop a 1 series cold if it hooks a root or buried rock that is significant in size. I would be very choosy on the rake you pick and pay attention to how thick the metal is for the frame and how the tines are secured to the frame. You do get what you pay for with this implement. Heavier is better but will mean it will dig deeper into the ground if that is a concern.

 

Heavier is better but will mean it will dig deeper into the ground if that is a concern.

He also must have gauge wheels.

 

What type of grass do you have in the pastures? I see you are in Australia. If you have something with runners or stolons like my coastal bermuda you will be pulling a bunch of it out along with the rocks, like others posted above.

 

If you have rocks that can't be moved by hand, they are probably going to bend the tines on a landscape rake. Something to keep in mind, if your thought is to rake multiple 100+ pound rocks, you're most likely going to tear up your new implement and be right back where you started.

 

The only way you'll know for sure is to try it. Stones which are buried the least bit won't come loose readily. The rake will just bounce over them. Perhaps adding some weight to the rake would help but you must be careful or you'll be bending the tines or worse breaking tines. It will make the rake harder to pull also.
If it was me, I'd disc the whole field to loosen any exposed stones then use a rock rake to collect the stones with. The right equipment for the job. IMO, using a landscape rake for digging up stones is likened to hunting elephants with a BB gun.

 

I cleaned up about an acre of glacial till that I spread out to level my yard with a rake. It was full of rocks from gravel to about a foot in diameter. It works but it takes a lot of passes and you need a large area for your windrows. I took out about 4 yards of rocks but I must have spent 15-20 hours at it.

I had no issues with bending tines or stalling my 7510 however it takes a lot of time and anything bigger than about 8” need to be loosened with the bucket before the rake grabs it. Bigger rocks end up getting under the rake and you drop everything so having someone walk along and grab those rocks saves a lot of time.

I don’t think there will be much if any grass behind by the time your done. The angle of attack makes all the difference with the rake, a small change in the angle make a big difference and I found using a chain in place of the top link allowed the rake to even out rough spots instead of amplifying them like it did with a solid upper link. I think someone on here gave me that last piece of advice.

 

I cleaned up about an acre of glacial till that I spread out to level my yard with a rake. It was full of rocks from gravel to about a foot in diameter. It works but it takes a lot of passes and you need a large area for your windrows. I took out about 4 yards of rocks but I must have spent 15-20 hours at it.

I had no issues with bending tines or stalling my 7510 however it takes a lot of time and anything bigger than about 8” need to be loosened with the bucket before the rake grabs it. Bigger rocks end up getting under the rake and you drop everything so having someone walk along and grab those rocks saves a lot of time.

I don’t think there will be much if any grass behind by the time your done. The angle of attack makes all the difference with the rake, a small change in the angle make a big difference and I found using a chain in place of the top link allowed the rake to even out rough spots instead of amplifying them like it did with a solid upper link. I think someone on here gave me that last piece of advice.

You need to take into account you were picking rocks out of loosened soil you spread. In the OP's case he is working with soil which has been compacted from years of sitting, walked on by livestock and having been driven over while mowing.

 

True. Unless there is an edge for the rake to grab it will just ride over top of the rocks.

Either way, I doubt there will be any grass left.

 

lots of previous good points......one tip....run the landscape rake at a significant angle and windrow rocks to the side ......multiple passes.....when the windrow gets heavy you pick it up with your bucket......the rake will pull up sod clumps and clog with clumps etc......when your done its a great time to overseed .....as mentioned you will still need to pick up bigger rocks by hand or bucket ......the rake teeth will catch corners of some imbedded rocks and pull them up.......

around here rocks 3" or less we wait till the ground is soft and wet and just roll them down into the soil with a roller....if the ground is very soft you can roll larger rocks in

5 acres is a lot to do .....40 acres seems overwhelming for a rake .....dont know your dirt or climate but a roller should be considered

 

Hi, thanks everyone for your advice and suggestions, your thoughts were exactly what I was hoping for. I've been out today to see a mate who has cattle, and we're going to get a few and section of parts of the paddock with hot tape, to get the grass down, and then we'll go through and manually pick it up. If we get a die back over winter, it'll also make it easier to spot them and pick them up, and if it thins out enough I'll try a rake. I've got a JD 590 mower as well, so I can start to run over the top and drop the height down to make it possible to see the smaller rocks more easily where possible, and I'm actively looking at a flail mower or slasher now to hook up to the 1025R. I checked with my mate about why he's got no rocks on his place, and the answer simply was that they just picked them up or raked them depending on the opportunity, and just worked at it until it was done. I'm glad I asked as I was going to spring for a landscape rake but I can see it would have been a bad decision while there's so much grass. Once I get the largest rocks out of the paddock it should be possible to mow it down enough to make a dent in it.

I would agree though that the most direct method would be to just plough, rake and do a general reset. Depending on how we go and that might still be on the cards, but I figure if we just section up the paddocks and work progressively at it, we'll get it done or at least an indication of whether or not its just too much and we need to go in harder. I'm still tossing up the flail vs slasher and will make a decision on that this week. All things equal as good as the X590 is, I doubt the deck is cheap to replace compared to slasher blades and I really don't want to damage it unnecessarily.

Thanks again, I do appreciate the input.

regards,

craby

p.s. I must say I'm intrigued by the roller idea, its never occurred to me. I'll explore that option as well.