Compact Tractor guys - What do you use

[Red]

I'm pretty new in the plotting game but here is what I currently use for about 7-8 acres of plots
-3 bottom plow if needed but don't use much
-disc with drag behind - go to for tillage unless it is really overgrown.
-brush hog mower
-atv mounted broadcast seeder. Doesn't work well for small seed. I still use an over the shoulder seeder for that.
-atv mounted sprayer
-roller for ATV.
We are looking hard at tillers. I think for our use it will work well as many of the rocks have been picked and I like the idea of more control. With the disc it's harder to do small plots or small strips or blocks within the larger plots. That being said, the above system works for us and is cheaper than a tiller.

 

[wiscwhip]

Here is the difference, notice the multitude of wheels and heavy duty build of the no-till vs the minimal wheels and lighter build of the conventional drill.

 

[ruskbucks]

I have an ATV sprayer and will continue to use that. Won't be a problem. Good catch though I missed that. I'll have ~4 acres of plots total. I currenlty have a Moultrie Spreader that works decent and maybe I could just continue to use that as well on the Quad.

I might have to just rethink this. Keep my disc but use it with the tractor. I know people will laugh at that but if I put that Loyal Roth Disc on the most aggressive setting it tears stuff up real good if I am going to till.

You will want a disc at least as wide as your tractor. The tires on the tractor will pack the dirt and cause problems. I forgot to mention a brush hog, that's a must by me. I don't have a atv on my land(use my FILs). I like the ATV for spraying and spreading seed. The tractor for the hard work. My father in law spent over $10,000 on his atv and equipment and smoked his motor with only 2000 miles from disking. Now he bought a bigger one, It hard for me to watch him disc on that thing,beating the crap out of body and knowing for 1/3 the price he could of had a nice tractor and disc.

 

[Terrific_tom]

Brad for small seed it is probably best to get the Solo as it would take a very expensive No-till drill to meter the small seeds. You would be surprised how fast you can spread seed with the Solo on a 2 acre plot. I know you have clay by you but if you have lots of rocks then you don't want to get a roto-tiller. Roto-tillers do a great job on breaking up soil. It looks like your Roth disc has been doing a good job on your clay so you might want to stick with a disc. I know a lot is talked about organic matter, but as you stated you have clay, not sand. All I use is a disc and with a proper rotation my organic matter has gone up every time I get a soil test. Another thing these are food plots and we are not harvesting, so every thing except what the deer eat goes back into the soil. In my opinion to many guys get way to hung up on making their food plots look like crop fields that farmers harvest. The deer do not care how it looks. If it would be me I would get a a spreader for fertilizer and larger seed, pull behind cone or 3 point cone will work. Get yourself a little bigger disc, cultipacker, brushhog ,box blade and you will be set. You probably can get most if not all of this in the used market for what a good no-till drill will cost.

 

[BJE80]

Brad for small seed it is probably best to get the Solo as it would take a very expensive No-till drill to meter the small seeds. You would be surprised how fast you can spread seed with the Solo on a 2 acre plot. I know you have clay by you but if you have lots of rocks then you don't want to get a roto-tiller. Roto-tillers do a great job on breaking up soil. It looks like your Roth disc has been doing a good job on your clay so you might want to stick with a disc. I know a lot is talked about organic matter, but as you stated you have clay, not sand. All I use is a disc and with a proper rotation my organic matter has gone up every time I get a soil test. Another thing these are food plots and we are not harvesting, so every thing except what the deer eat goes back into the soil. In my opinion to many guys get way to hung up on making their food plots look like crop fields that farmers harvest. The deer do not care how it looks. If it would be me I would get a a spreader for fertilizer and larger seed, pull behind cone or 3 point cone will work. Get yourself a little bigger disc, cultipacker, brushhog ,box blade and you will be set. You probably can get most if not all of this in the used market for what a good no-till drill will cost.

Ok. Good to know Tom. Thank you and very helpful. I do not really have many rocks in my soils. A few here and there.


That is one thing I do have a problem with then with my loyal disc is that it is only 48". The tractor I am getting is 60" wide I believe. So is this critical that my disc be as wide as the tractor or just nice to have?

This tractor does come with a brushhog. Also forgot to mention that so that is done.

So I will need a pullbehind spreader, cultipacker, bigger disc?

What do you think I need a box blade for? What uses do you see for that?

 

[wiscwhip]

Your disc should be as wide or wider than the footprint of your tractor, otherwise you will get wheel compaction in areas where the disc can't reach to loosen the soil surface after the tires pass over. Seeds have a much harder time germinating in tire compaction areas, so your field will have "stripes" with slow growth or no growth. Someone said earlier, the deer probably won't care?

 

[wiscwhip]

Wheel compaction in a winter wheat field.

 

[tooln]

A box blade work great for trails. Unlike a blade with a box blade you can pull to low spots and level it.

Here a before and after of my trails. I fill them with crushed sandstone.







I hauled by the bucket full, dumped the bucket and drug it out with the box blade. When I was done I tilted the box blade and crowned the trail.

I will use the ripper teeth as a chisel plow in the plot.

 

[chummer]

That is an awesome trail

 

[Terrific_tom]

Ok. Good to know Tom. Thank you and very helpful. I do not really have many rocks in my soils. A few here and there.


That is one thing I do have a problem with then with my loyal disc is that it is only 48". The tractor I am getting is 60" wide I believe. So is this critical that my disc be as wide as the tractor or just nice to have?

This tractor does come with a brushhog. Also forgot to mention that so that is done.

So I will need a pullbehind spreader, cultipacker, bigger disc?

What do you think I need a box blade for? What uses do you see for that?

Wisc covered why you need a wider disc and toolin covered the box blade. To start with you can probably get away without a box blade by back dragging with bucket but a box blade will do wonders for trail maintenance.

 

[BJE80]

Really helpful guys. Thank you.


Is it true I should stay away from the angeled frame discs due to their strength and buckeling and look for a square frame disc?


Well this is interesting.
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/grd/4852370874.html

 

[BJE80]

Have any of you just used the loader on your tractor to spread around Ag lime and then disc?

 

[foggy]

Have any of you just used the loader on your tractor to spread around Ag lime and then disc?

I've considered this idea. I considered making an attachment for a loader bucket that would allow spreading ag-lime. Couple of ways to do it.....but I have a EZ Flow drop spreader that works good.....so I forgot about the bucket plans. :D

I think a GOOD loader operator could shake some ag-lime out the the bucket as he drives and repeat until you have spread the load. Would take allot of focus and a good operator. Also, you could fashion a detachable piece of metal or plywood to make a narrow slot at the lead edge of the bucket. That would control the amount of lime spread and allow you to "shake" the lime if it becomes lodged during application.

I've got a herd seeder for my three point.....as well as one that goes on my 4 wheeler. Good seeders. But, I still dispense the small seeds with a whirly bird-type seeder. I prefer the cheapo whirly birds over the Solo spreader for Brasica and clover seeding. Set on the lowest setting and spread away. Then either drag, culitpack or a combination depending on soil type and depth needed.

I have a flexible-link drag that operates three ways. We mostly pull it behind our 4 wheeler. Works good for smoothing and leveling soils.....firming seed beds, etc. This would be a good tool to spread the lime and work it in a bit. Also a landscape rake if you have one. I use mine allot for that type of work.

 

[foggy]

I got a used box blade for low cost when I bought my old 790 JD and have never needed a better one. It does a good job when doing road maintenance. But the biggest use it gets is as a ballast box. I hang about 900 lbs of suitcase weights on my Box Blade. Between this ballast and the weight of the bb I suppose I have 1200 lbs hanging on the back. I have another 800 lbs of fluid in the rear tires. Even so.....the 300cx loader on my 3320 can hoist the rear tires off the ground if I am careless. I wish for a few more suitcase weights or some wheel weights.

I have considered buying a proper ballast box and filling it with concrete......but never get around to it. Picking up trees with this grapple can require some serious ballast. I think this pic shows I have the tiller on.....but mostly when doing HD loader work.....I put on that box blade and ballast.

 

[MN Slick]

Just remember, tillage is not your friend, especially if you are trying to build OM, no matter what implement you are using. BJE, what soil type do you have and what is your current OM if you know it? Rototillers make a sweet looking plot surface, but it probably hurts your OM more than a disk. Moldboard plows are the worst. As far as tillage implements go, chisel plows will do the least to damage your OM.

I thought roto-tilling in the green manure such as red clover, oats and rye helped build OM?

 

[foggy]

There are lots of ways to use these implements right.....and a lots of ways to use 'em wrong. I use my tiller allot to incorporate fertilizer and prepare for seeding. These days I till about 2" deep and go over the ground quite quickly to minimize the effects.....yet get a nice job done. Sometimes I can prepare a seedbed with my landscape rake or my drag. But these don't work well for incorporating any fertilizer. I try to time my cultivation to make minimal passes to not dry up my sandy soils.....and keep any tillage efforts to the top soil only.

Comare this technique with double pass, slow tiling......where everything is loose and the soils are dried out.....and rooty vegetation is destroyed. Big difference. No till may not be in my current ability.....but minimum till is more helpful to my soils.

I've also learned that I don't need to bury my disk to the hubs in order to do a little tillage. When breaking the land for the first time......it may be more important to do some deep tillage. But later that deep tillage is unnecessary IMO.

 

[wiscwhip]

It somewhat depends on how you do it, but no matter what, any time you are adding air to the soil and chopping up plant material through tillage, it only speeds up the breakdown of any organic material that is in the soil. It also has a high tendency to dry out your soil and that can cause beneficial soil microbes to die. If you could set the tiller to only till the top 1" to 1-1/2" just to turn the plant material under and cover it with a little soil it will speed the breakdown of the plant material, but to build OM you don't really want to speed up that process, you want that plant material to break down slowly and stay in the upper soil profile to promote good tilth. If you need to breakdown crop residue, such as corn stalks, in order to plant your next crop, then turning them 3" to 4" into the dirt will expedite that process so you can have a cleaner field to plant into, again at the risk of drying out the soil. The deeper and more frequent the tillage the worse it is, especially on sandy soils, this I know first hand through years of trying to convince my dad he didn't need to plow and disk our "beach" every year.

 

[ruskbucks]

Have any of you just used the loader on your tractor to spread around Ag lime and then disc?

That's how I had to spread mine last year. The gandy drop spreader I bought would not spread the wet ag lime. I used a skid loaded. I drove forward and sprinkled the lime, then I set the bucket down and back dragged the piles. I can't say it worked good, but I did spread 12 tons this way. I then ran the disc over it before I planted.

 

[j-bird]

Here is my current list of toys - I also borrow a 6' rear mount tiller.



JD 790 tractor (30hp) with 6' FEL, 2 row Ford 309 plate planter, 6' double gang disc, 6/ JD rotary mower, 2 bottom plow, 2 bushel conical spreader, 55 gallon 12 foot boom/wand sprayer, backpack sprayer, hand held broadcaster, and MS250 chainsaw. The tiller I borrow is a king-cutter (I love that thing) - glad I can borrow it and not have to buy one!

 

[BJE80]

There are lots of ways to use these implements right.....and a lots of ways to use 'em wrong. I use my tiller allot to incorporate fertilizer and prepare for seeding. These days I till about 2" deep and go over the ground quite quickly to minimize the effects.....yet get a nice job done. Sometimes I can prepare a seedbed with my landscape rake or my drag. But these don't work well for incorporating any fertilizer. I try to time my cultivation to make minimal passes to not dry up my sandy soils.....and keep any tillage efforts to the top soil only.

Comare this technique with double pass, slow tiling......where everything is loose and the soils are dried out.....and rooty vegetation is destroyed. Big difference. No till may not be in my current ability.....but minimum till is more helpful to my soils.

I've also learned that I don't need to bury my disk to the hubs in order to do a little tillage. When breaking the land for the first time......it may be more important to do some deep tillage. But later that deep tillage is unnecessary IMO.

It somewhat depends on how you do it, but no matter what, any time you are adding air to the soil and chopping up plant material through tillage, it only speeds up the breakdown of any organic material that is in the soil. It also has a high tendency to dry out your soil and that can cause beneficial soil microbes to die. If you could set the tiller to only till the top 1" to 1-1/2" just to turn the plant material under and cover it with a little soil it will speed the breakdown of the plant material, but to build OM you don't really want to speed up that process, you want that plant material to break down slowly and stay in the upper soil profile to promote good tilth. If you need to breakdown crop residue, such as corn stalks, in order to plant your next crop, then turning them 3" to 4" into the dirt will expedite that process so you can have a cleaner field to plant into, again at the risk of drying out the soil. The deeper and more frequent the tillage the worse it is, especially on sandy soils, this I know first hand through years of trying to convince my dad he didn't need to plow and disk our "beach" every year.

I chuckeled. I'm always happy to till my soil to get rid of mositure so it dries out a little bit.