Smoothing Land

[The Griff]

I recently my land cleared of trees and now there are tons of ruts in my land. I was wondering which attachment would be the most effective in smoothing out the land.

Also, the root balls were removed when the place was dozed, but there are still strands of roots sticking out all over. How's the most effective way to get rid of these?

FYI, my soil is sandy loam in some areas but tough clay in others. In other words, the soil isn't loose and doesn't smooth easily with the loader when I tried.

 

[DB Pilot]

I'm Thinking Harley rake. :confused3: How many acres are we talking about. I haven't used one but take a look at Everything attachments and Youtube under Harley Rake and you might see how it could be an answer to your root problem. :2cents:

 

[Degolyerent]

I would use a disc harrow, box blade to fill any low areas and chain harrow to smooth it out.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Depending on what you have to work with, A disk harrow travelling it X directions to the ruts (2 passes) followed by dragging a chain harrow or a landscape rake behind it would work. A tiller would work also but might be a bit slow and if you have lots of long skinny roots, they may wrap up the tines.
For me, I have a disk and landscape rake so that is what I would use. A box blade maybe if I needed to move some dirt but if just rutting, the disk should loosen it up and fill in most of the holes. It is going to be rough going the first few passes and perhaps a couple of passes with the disk following the ruts would work best then X disc is to move the dirt to the low spots. You may not even need to drag a harrow over it.

 

[The Griff]

Great replies....Thanks! I just got my tractor so I don't have any implements yet but all of the suggestions here include implements I intended to buy eventually, so I'll give them a try!

 

[jenkinsph]

I use a land plane for most jobs that require simple smoothing cutting and filling bumps and holes. A disk would be better for cutting the roots and would also help with the smoothing. Raking works to gather the debris. How much time do you wan't to spend? Is this for a lawn area or pasture? For a lawn area a tiller would help with breaking up the roots but you would want to clean up the surface as best you can which takes some time and effort. In a pasture you could get away with less work and have the livestock walking the land to help break down the debris.

 

[Texasmark]

I just cleaned up my pastures after selling off my herd of cattle. Bad drought cracks in Houston Black Clay and hoof prints. I used a Hay King pasture renovator which consists of several sets (to fit a given hp tractor) of coulters like proceed a moldboard plow and a ripper shank that can be operated at variable depths. I made a couple of passes to get the rips about 3" apart. Then I came back a couple of times, after a good rain and drying out period works great, to spread things out. I could have used a disc harrow but this field hasn't been plowed for many years and the disc wouldn't have been able to penetrate as much as I wanted.

The nice thing about a "ripper" blade is that it cuts right through existing "live" roots and helps to uproot them. When you run the harrow across the land most of them get caught in the harrow and you just pull over to a convenient place and remove them. Makes it easy to clean up the field.

HTH,
Mark

 

[oosik]

To smooth a pasture I have - deep ruts from me driving across when its too wet - its first the disk harrow. I get it to cut as deep as possible by placing a 400# block of cement on it. Then when its dried a little more I go over it with a grading scraper and if it needs to be really smooth, my home made drag harrow.

 

[The Griff]

Quick follow up question: Do I need to plow the land before I disc it? There are quite a bit or cedar roots still in the ground that need chopped up which I'm guessing the disc will take care of. But the ground is pretty hard.

Also, will a disc such as this one do the job? Or will this require something more heavy duty?

 

[jeff9366]

The root balls were removed when the place was dozed, but there are still strands of roots sticking out all over.
My soil is sandy loam in some areas but tough clay in others. In other words, the soil isn't loose and doesn't smooth easily with the loader when I tried.

The "red" Countyline implements are for sub-compact tractors with a Category '0' Three Point Hitch. You need to choose from "yellow" Countyline implements which are set up for the Category '1' Three Point Hitch on your compact (not sub-compact) tractor.

I have no experience with Cedar roots. Will Cedar roots sprout into new trees? What about applying Roundup?

If you plow the land first, a Disc Harrow with 18" diameter notched pans may smooth it for you if the soil is moist. If you do not plow the land first, a Disc Harrow with 20" diameter notched pans may work if the soil is moist; nothing lighter. Your NH1920 should be able to pull a 20" Disc if it has 4-WD. It should not be too difficult to rent or borrow a 20" Disc Harrow, which is a common size.

You cannot satisfactorily disc dry land; nor can you plow dry land. Moist soil is crucial.

A PTO powered Harley Rake may be the "sure thing" but I do not know how easy they are to rent.

A Hay King 2-shank or 3-shank Pasture Renovator is also a possibility, but pretty narrowly specialized implement. I have considered this implement for removing wild grape vine roots but have never been able to bring myself to spend the money for a new one. Have looked, but never found a used one in Florida.

HOW MUCH LAND DO YOU NEED TO LEVEL? We keep spending your money without knowing the job size.
When the land is level, what will you use it for?

Here is a LINK on selecting Disc Harrows:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/308251-disc-harrow-selection-18-45-a.html?highlight=