Sorry but I laughed out loud reading this post.

Winter is our good time as the soil almost always wet and a freeze here is frost. From now until December our clay most resembles concrete.

How do they grow peanuts and cotton?

The fields are sub-soiled.

Swamp Wolf got it but peanuts are grown on sandy loams and cotton is planted early cultivated (weeded) until canopy closure (just prior to bloom) then laid by (no more cultivation) until harvest.

As mentioned, during the wet season you’re good to go. Right now with no rain “here” for about the last 2-3 weeks it’s concrete. Looking for tracks is pointless when you don’t leave any, lol. The first 6-8” or so is good dirt, but it won’t hold. You learn through trapping the same places where you can put anchors and where you can’t.
I think I have about a dozen footholds out right now and only 2 have earth anchors. In the past I’ve tripped sets and had to come back after a good rain to try and get them up. As long as the bears stay away I’ll be using mostly drags.

This is what I do, Going to set a few in the morning .you guys have me sweating already. The property I am going to has red clay roads and they are dry as a popcorn fart with the heat we been having.

If you don't want re-bar then finding a good alternative is important for you. I tried the bullet type for a few years with chain and did not like working with them. I used to stake canine sets wityh 1/2 by 24 inch rebar with washers on the end and that is why I tried the bullet system. Now I use re-bar again. I use 1 1/2 inch by 18 inch re-bar and 1 3/8 inch by 16 inch re-bar with a butterfly cross stake system. .I have nuts weled to the ends and I turn the stakes 3-4 times when pulling and the stakes come out easily. We have mostly clay silt loam with quite a bit of red clay in the area I trap.

Bryce

With 6+ revolutions on 18" rebar, without up leverage im not getting them out. Broke fiberglass handle on trap hammer and ended up flat on my back. Glad no one was there to see me.

I had a trap I had to do some work on once, because someone decided they were going to steal it. Tried to pull it with a chain and fourwheeler, when I got there, there were big holes dug out where they had been spinning their fourwheeler tires, and a 750 with bent up jaws. It was still there though, that was a super stake in clay.

I used to pull them with the winch cable on a fourwheeler, park right over them and winch straight up, but I kept breaking winch cables. Some of them I have troubles pulling with the leverage of a five foot puller I built. Have went to packing bolt cutters on pull day, and if I can't get them I just cut the chain (chained earth anchors, not cable). But also have went to a lot of drags.

I never had any problem removing 18" re bar. Hit the stake a few times to loosen It up then with the vice grips rotate till comes out. In frozen ground I would just drive It In a bit to break It loose. If you cross stake go with 1/2" smooth rod It comes out pretty easy. I can get away with 2 16" stakes when cross staking.

But most of my anchors are disposables.Cut and go.

I use super stakes and finned super stakes with chains. I pull them with a T-post puller that I modified. I occasionally have one get looked under a rock or root that I have to leave but rare.

Most of the earth anchors I use are wolf-fang with cable. If I’m in a hurry I just cut and run.