John Deer 1025 attachments

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Yearling... With promise
buddy has 325 acres on a PA mountain with lower fileds that we have planted two 1/2 acre foodplots with quad attachments.
Bigger foodplotting requires bigger toys. They are looking at the JD 1025. Soil has a fair bit of shale type rock that we manually remove while dragging a tine attachment, but its very labor intensive.
One of the tractor attachments being consider is the rototiller. I have some concern how much abuse it will take if most stone is not removed.
Probably only enough $$ for one attachment for 1st yr or two. Would a disc be best option?
 
The only way a rototiller will have a chance of working is with a min-till approach. I hold the rototiller so high with the 3-pt hitch that the tines barely touch the top inch of soil. Just enough to scratch the surface. Deep tillage disturbs the natural soil tilth and introduces oxygen into the soil burning the organic matter at an accelerated rate. This significantly reduces nutrient cycling. High quality fertile soils can withstand the abuse of deep tillage much better than marginal soils. I find no-till and min-till methods are the best for soil health in the long run. I've improved my soil health enough that I have not needed fertilizer in 5 years now.

Take some time and read through Crimson N Camo's Throw and Mow thread. He takes the soil health principles espoused by "Ray the soil guy" from NRCS and applies them to small equipment food plotting. You can google "Ray the soil guy" and watch some of his videos. They are aimed at large equipment commercial farmers but he explains the principles well. Watch his short infiltration video first. It is an eye-opener.

I've seen cultivators used successfully for min-till. When you select smart soil-building crop mixes, you will build OM over time improving your soil. When I'm done min-tilling a field, it still looks green, not brown. Some have called it "Thirt" (Thatch/dirt). It is mostly chopped up vegetation with a little soil mixed in.

If you try traditional tillage with a tiller, you will find you will be replacing tines quite often; both labor intensive and expensive. While no-till methods like T&M work best, sometimes soils need to have the surface scratch up until they have time for organic matter (OM) to build. OM building is a slow process that take years. I've seen cultivators and light discs with a single pass work to scratch the surface. Discs should be set close to straight with a slight non-aggressive gang angle.

If, for whatever reason, you decided to do tillage, a disc will hold up much better than a tiller when rocks are involved.

Thanks,

Jack
 
For smaller plots (under an acre), I'd rather have a tiller over a disc. But in your case, the disc is tempting over a tiller because of the rocks. I'd think you'd wear and damage the tines in no time. But then again you probably don't have the weight or the HP on that tractor to get much out of a disc.

Personally, I'd be looking at a bigger tractor if I had 325 acres to work with. Surely there's room (or can make room) for a larger plots than an acre :emoji_slight_smile:
 
I run a 5 ft tiller from Tractor Supply on my 1025 with no problems. You have to go slow but, a tiller is slow work anyway. If you want fast you actually have to get a tractor. Remember a 1025 is basically an oversized lawn mower however it does do a lot of work and in my opinion much better than ATV. If it’s just 2 small plots there’s shouldn’t be a problem. I also run a 4 ft brush hog with no problems. I keep the bucket on as these implements are a bit heavy and it’s hard to steer with no front weight. I think you’d have a lot of trouble pulling a disc around with a 1025. I have run this tiller in fairly rocky ground for 15 years and have never broken a tine or had any issues. Once in a while a larger rock will get stuck in between the tines and you just pound it back out.
 
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I have a 1025 and use it for mowing my lawn. I have a 48" tiller for it and it works good but even doing an acre with it would take a long time. Don't know if you could get a heavy enough disc to pull behind it. A bigger tractor would be a better investment but isn't always doable. The 1025 will do it but you'll feel like you worked up 40 acres!
 
For those saying the 1025 is questionable for pulling a disc, would it not be sufficient for a beefy ATV type 4' disc weighing 400-600+ lbs if not needing to dig deeply?
 
For those saying the 1025 is questionable for pulling a disc, would it not be sufficient for a beefy ATV type 4' disc weighing 400-600+ lbs if not needing to dig deeply?
Yeah, it will do it but usually the weight of the disc is what gets the depth. To work the ground deeper would just be making several more passes with a lighter disc.
 
Yeah, it will do it but usually the weight of the disc is what gets the depth. To work the ground deeper would just be making several more passes with a lighter disc.

Being new to this stuff, is something like this https://tarterusa.com/tarter-products/8-blade-disc-harrow or this https://pmiattachments.com/item/atv-disc-harrow/ weighted down to be 500# plus still considered "light" and would require 3+ passes for a light discing?

Most of the videos on these products show them running over worked ground which doesn't help me get a very clear picture..
 
Yes it would be light and I think it would be more like 10 passes. If you can get notched blades you can reduce the number of passes. It can be done, it will just take longer to get there.
 
The number of passes needed depends on the type of ground also. If it has been worked recently it won't take nearly as much to prep. If it's new ground being worked it will take many,many passes.
 
It’s usually more of a weight and traction issue with small / compact tractors. A 25 HP ag tractor will easily pull a 2 bottom plow. Our 50 HP compact is about all it can handle in 4WD.. with Ag tires.

Disc no different.. Will just be limited by weight and traction, not HP.
 
I use a 5 foot disc behind my ATV, new ground, takes several passes if you want it to be fresh black dirt when you are done. But if the ground doesnt have standing plants, or a thick layer of thatch to cut, it breaks it up nicely. Me personally arent looking for a pretty fresh black dirt look, I just want to loosen it up some for the seeds to make good contact. It all depends on what you are starting with, and your expectations of the finsihed product. I would think a tiller would bend or break some tines hitting a big chunk of slate.
 
Yeah, it will do it but usually the weight of the disc is what gets the depth. To work the ground deeper would just be making several more passes with a lighter disc.

Or one pass with a light disk set pretty straight! :emoji_smile:
 
I rocky like that I would check out the food plot methods that Grant Woods uses to build his soil on Growing Deer TV
 
I’ve got a Kubota B2601 - it’s a little more tractor than a 1025 but not by a great margin. I love it. It pulls a four foot land pride disc just fine with both gangs set at the most aggressive angle. I’d think a tiller would not work well on my rocky soil. I also use a four foot landpride rotary cutter and a 54 inch box blade. They’re all the right size for that tractor. I researched 1025R, the Deere 2 series and the Kubota. The dealers all recommended the same implement size for all three units unless going up in horsepower. The Kubota BX was too small and too low to the ground in my opinion. It get like a lawn mower. The 1025R I felt was borderline but still
Believe it would have worked as well. The ground clearance, a little heavier tractor, and bigger footprint was my deciding factor. I think in your case a 1025 will work, but you’ll need to be patient and not be in a hurry. If a slightly bigger tractor was an option I’d go that route - but it’s not always an option.
 
I would not try a tiller on rocky ground. Get the disc.
If possible, spray it then burn it after everything is dead. That disc will work a lot better if you remove most of the vegetation.
If you’re just wanting to plant grains, clovers, and brassicas, a light scratch is all that is needed.
 
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