I'm in the process of doing this right now. 30 yo planted pines clearcut. It was on a burn rotation so it wasn't terrible. Also, in the clearcut we had a chipper come in. They chipped everything from tops to limbs to the needles. So we started with as clean of clear cut as you can get. When the site prep was done on the rest of the land we had this done right along with it: sprayed and burned. Then had a forestry disk run over everything. I was NOT impressed with the forestry disc results. Stumps will rot and be able to disc over in about 3 years. My FIL 40 acres just clear cut and everything chipped for fuel wood and property looks ready to plant now but forester wants to spray and burn come summer, I just hope there will be enough sprouting to allow fire to burn the entire property.

My aunt had a mulched on some of hers and they cut the stump below ground levell. Hers was basicly pasture ready in a year. Ours will probably take 5 years and we will spend $$ as much if not more per acre.