CX55 or Skid Steer for picking rocks in pasture?

[Haystack]

Got about 4 acres of old pasture I'm trying to prep for reseeding, and the top few inches are absolutely full of fist-sized rocks and limestone chunks. Every pass with the harrow turns up another wheelbarrow load. Feels like the ground is growing 'em overnight.

Been running my CX55 out there and thinking about a skeleton bucket to sift the worst of it. Neighbor's also offered to loan me his mid-size skid steer if that'd be the better play — figured I could put a landscape rake or rock hound on it and windrow the mess.

Ground's hard clay with limestone shelf underneath, so whatever I use has to take a beating without bending tines on the first pass. Question is which way actually saves time and money. Buy a decent skeleton bucket for the CX55, or run the skid with the right attachment? Don't feel like being out there til October.

Anyone here actually picked rocks out of pasture this way before? Would rather learn from y'all than throw cash at attachments I don't need. TIA!

[naedlaen]

I think visibility for a skeleton bucket would be better in a skid steer over a tractor.  

If you could rent a rock picker or rotary rock rake the tractor might be the better option.  Maybe even if you had a spring tine rock rack.  

Such things were not even on the horizon when I was at home.  That North Central Iowa glacial till produced a pretty good crop of rocks.  The Farmall B and a hay rack was the method for removing the worst of them that could be picked up.  A time or two we found a rock that made the Farmall 300 groan to lift and I remember dumping one over the pasture fence that caused the trip bucket to reset itself on the rebound.

Neal

[mmi]

BTDT  WELL over 500 T .in (1) 12 acres ,#1 to #1200,

  ...1/3 + was better served by hand .and kids (12-16) sports healthy begging to hire on couldn't do it + dehydration. THEIR father (45) finished the shift to show their unfit shame.

Chisel plow then heavy disc 5 yrs in a row. One of the flattest fields in the county .

Would be time to do again, but as land OWNER has $0 say, marchellaus intentionally diagonal dead centered the ENTIRE length,putting all the garbage on top then planting shallow and making off limits for farm use.  

 A RENTED PROPERLY DOWN SIZED POWERED rock hound+(ss full size TRACKED $80K+ unit) is the best $$ return.

wasted $$ buying a $2500 CHEAP bucket  is going to be too big loaded,too tight to flow /push the dirt thru (timely) and yet too wide to get 30% >

have one 4hrs on it.......hand picking 5x faster

[Matt Kirsch]

Skeleton buckets are really best suited for the occasional rock in my opinion. You WILL be out there until October if you have to scoop up every inch of dirt and shake it out, because that's how you use those buckets. Not to mention you'll probably wear out the loader pins. Also not sure how well it would work on clay if it's the clumpy kind. Bucket can't tell the difference between a dirt clod and those fist sized rocks.

Get the extended family to come in under the guise of a pig roast. Then attack the field with 20-30 people. You'll be done in an hour. Then bring on the roast pig and accoutrements! You'll have less into it than the cost of a bucket or the fuel to run the skidsteer to rake the entire 4 acres 5' at a time.

[stronger800]

I have a skeleton bucket, it’s heavy and awkward. Use it only for work clearing old  hedgerows and such.  Like they said, would plug up a lot and be very slow in a field 

[Mudfly]

1 hour ago, stronger800 said:

I have a skeleton bucket, it’s heavy and awkward. Use it only for work clearing old  hedgerows and such.  Like they said, would plug up a lot and be very slow in a field 

For fist sized rocks, just get a roller and pound them down either before or after you plant.   I'd post pictures of some of the ones that I just plucked out of a pasture, but the site isn't taking pictures still.  There were a couple that the skid steer wouldn't lift and tipping capacity is over 4000# on that machine.  Got them pushed out of the hole and to the rock pile.  Probably pulled 15 or more in the 2 to 4 foot diameter range the other night and these were all within 50 feet of each other.  Plenty more to go if I choose to do so.

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

I have a skeleton bucket. I like it, but I’m not sure about trying to clear acres and acres with it. I mostly use it for occasional rocks and picking up roots after clearing. Here if someone has rocks, I would tell them not to work it at all. Burndown what is there if necessary and then reseed with a broadcast seeder or no till drill. 

[HydroTek]

Both would be a pain to get on and off for each rock -- get a trailer and 4 wheeler -- or side by side with a dump bed 

I have 32 acres been working on for years -- just leave the bucket on the loader and stop when I can to put some rocks in

Pulled 2 single axle dump truck loads and several trailer loads from the 4 wheeler 

The holes and ditches are looking pretty good tho 

[Haystack]

Thanks guys. Sounds like the skeleton bucket would be money poorly spent for this job, especially with the clay. I'm going to check around on renting a properly sized rock hound or rotary rake, and may quit stirring up the whole field with the harrow in the meantime. For the bigger ones, a trailer and some hand picking may still be the simplest answer. Appreciate all the real-world input.

[Haystack]

On 8/12/2026 at 10:16 PM, HydroTek said:

Both would be a pain to get on and off for each rock -- get a trailer and 4 wheeler -- or side by side with a dump bed 

I have 32 acres been working on for years -- just leave the bucket on the loader and stop when I can to put some rocks in

Pulled 2 single axle dump truck loads and several trailer loads from the 4 wheeler 

The holes and ditches are looking pretty good tho 

Sounds great. Trying to clean all four acres in one shot is probably where I’m getting carried away.

[Haystack]

On 8/12/2026 at 7:13 PM, stronger800 said:

I have a skeleton bucket, it’s heavy and awkward. Use it only for work clearing old  hedgerows and such.  Like they said, would plug up a lot and be very slow in a field 

That’s kinda what I was afraid of. Thanks for sharing.

[Dave Downs]

Why are quotes including Chinese characters!!!?????

[acem]

I didn't know @HydroTek and  @stronger800 were Chinese???

[acem]

Back to the original programming.

I have seen implements made similar to a potato digger that remove rocks. Like with taters, you turn the ground first.

[HydroTek]

3 hours ago, Dave Downs said:

Why are quotes including Chinese characters!!!?????

Problem (virus/spyware) on his device

anyone else seeing chicken scratch characters ?

[Jeff-C-IL]

I agree on the useless Skeleton bucket.    An ANBO grapple on the Skidsteer would be better than the bucket.  Actual rock picker would be the best. 

Having the extended family help sounds great until you realize that 90% of them would never talk to you again, and anybody under 15 - 75% would likely just refuse to help.   If it requires anything beyond tapping a phone screen they couldn't possibly.

[Jacka]

33 minutes ago, Jeff-C-IL said:

I agree on the useless Skeleton bucket.    An ANBO grapple on the Skidsteer would be better than the bucket.  Actual rock picker would be the best. 

Having the extended family help sounds great until you realize that 90% of them would never talk to you again, and anybody under 15 - 75% would likely just refuse to help.   If it requires anything beyond tapping a phone screen they couldn't possibly.

Yes family rock picking ,surprise rock picking at that is a bad idea.To have a suprise rock picking when they were expecting a day of relaxation, family get together and socializing would be like a bomb going off.

Rock picking as a kid was a jail sentence and I served my time. 

[cobfly]

7 hours ago, acem said:

Back to the original programming.

I have seen implements made similar to a potato digger that remove rocks. Like with taters, you turn the ground first.

You must do taters different than we do.

[stronger800]

I know what he’s talking about, I’d have said  the same. Large, very heavy, very slow moving apron chain type thing that sifts through the dirt and lifts stones.  Sounds amazingly slow to me, but I’ve seen them

[cobfly]

I'm just saying, we don't turn the dirt first except in the garden.

[Matt Kirsch]

On 8/14/2026 at 10:49 AM, HydroTek said:

anyone else seeing chicken scratch characters ?

Yes, I ran it through Google Translate and it translates pretty much to what you wrote in your posts. Only see it in the quotes that @Haystack posts.

[Haystack]

On 8/16/2026 at 3:46 AM, Matt Kirsch said:

Yes, I ran it through Google Translate and it translates pretty much to what you wrote in your posts. Only see it in the quotes that @Haystack posts.

Oops, you're right. Looks like some glitched when I was quoting. Thanks for the heads-up.

[acem]

17 minutes ago, Haystack said:

Oops, you're right. Looks like some glitched when I was quoting. Thanks for the heads-up.

So are you a Chinese spy?

Manchurian candidate?

 

[edwardporter1]

Rock hound. I rented one, did a great job and it levels the ground, leaves a nice seedbed

[495man]

I have rock bucket, works on utility tractor fine, skidsteer would be better for visibility.  Bucket works best in tilled, loose soil.

I use the bucket for bigger rocks, and use a roller to push the smaller ones in.