Question for you guy with tillers

[screamin400]

I moved into a 4 acre parcel today that an older lady wants cleared and seeded. Trees have been removed but some remains are still there. Grass has grown upward of a foot and thick in spots. I am wondering how a tiller will do in this type of condition. My box blade and york rake are very slow. I will get to the goal but could be after I retire. I have talked to some folks and they say the grass will be an issue. I ran a large tiller back in the day on a large tractor and grass was no issue for it but it was very large. I am looking at a 6 footer. Possibly the Mahindra brand. What do you guys think? Will the grass wrap it up?

 

[WM75Guy]

If it were my land I would spray it with Roundup and then mow it as low as possible after you see it is dying. Then I would till it till smooth and seed it. If you broadcast the seed you will need to drag it to get the seed down into the soil a little, 1/4" to 1/2" is plenty. You don't have to wait long to reseed after Roundup, 3-7 days is plenty. It takes that long for stuff to start dying and to get the soil prepared.

 

[screamin400]

We are in full agreement on the roundup. I need to finish this asap. At the rate I am going 4 acres is going to take 3 days. Too slow. I need to get it done in two and ready to seed. Not sure a tiller is the answer in grass this tall. I have no way to cut it either. I wonder how bad it would wrap up. I could always use another attachment

 

[mapper]

I have a 60" Taylor Pittsburgh tiller, I get a little bit of tall grass wrapped around the very ends but nothing in the center of the tiller. It's not like a walk behind at all. A couple of weeks ago I turned under my annual rye cover crop in the garden, it was about 30" tall, I pulled a few dozen stems off each end when I was done.

 

[kthompson]

Can you spray with roundup and then burn it when dead?

 

[screamin400]

I have a 60" Taylor Pittsburgh tiller, I get a little bit of tall grass wrapped around the very ends but nothing in the center of the tiller. It's not like a walk behind at all. A couple of weeks ago I turned under my annual rye cover crop in the garden, it was about 30" tall, I pulled a few dozen stems off each end when I was done.

This is what I needed to know. Thanks

 

[screamin400]

Can you spray with roundup and then burn it when dead?

Time does not allow it for me

 

[Goose69]

My experience is same as mapper.

I have a 6' Taylor Pittsburgh tiller, and tilled up a few places without mowing first. And the tiller did fine. Had some grass wrapped around the ends, but was mostly clean.
.. It's not the way I would normally do it, but it worked fine for the 1/4 acre I did that way.

 

[powerscol]

I moved into a 4 acre parcel today that an older lady wants cleared and seeded. Trees have been removed but some remains are still there. Grass has grown upward of a foot and thick in spots. I am wondering how a tiller will do in this type of condition. My box blade and york rake are very slow. I will get to the goal but could be after I retire. I have talked to some folks and they say the grass will be an issue. I ran a large tiller back in the day on a large tractor and grass was no issue for it but it was very large. I am looking at a 6 footer. Possibly the Mahindra brand. What do you guys think? Will the grass wrap it up?

I agree with killing the grass and cutting it short before tilling. Also a littler moisture in the ground helps. As for tiller brands, consider Ansung Terraforce. Thier heavy weight units (YJR074 is what I have) are very tough and heavy (read thier specifications). In tilling weight is your friend. I got mine out of a local agg rental yard - barely used.

 

[jenkinsph]

Good heavy duty tillers would be my preference and the EA offerings seem to be reasonable. That said if you need it today TSC has a 5' tiller in stock for $1499 at the Rome store nearby. One of the other stores may have the 6' tiller model too. I would compare this to the Mahindra tillers up close before buying or paying more as these are similar in appearance. I reviewed the Mahindra tillers before responding to your thread and they do not appear to be anything special.

A King Kutter 6' tiller would be a good choice too if you can find one locally today. These are held in high regard here on TBN by lots of people. I honestly don't know how much difference there is between the Countyline models and the King Kutter models as I have not used either one myself.

I have a Deere 673 tiller that doesn't have trouble with tall pasture grass and has held up very well in tough rocky soil in the southwest. Well pleased with it so far and will be putting new tines on it next week. This is a heavy duty tiller that may be available at a local dealer if you can't find what you want fast enough but they are more expensive.

Sounds like you need to pick one up quickly to get this done. I do a lot of tilling with my work and would expect that your tractor and a 5' or 6' tiller with 30 pto hp. will take about 10 hours to make two passes in different directions on 4 acres. I don't think the 6' will be much faster than the 5' either as you can run the 5' model with a little higher ground speed without over loading the engine. Weather permitting you could till and plant Friday afternoon is my guess.

If you had more time I would suggest running an S tine cultivator across the field first. It can help break up the sod but more important it can find things beneath the grass before you find it with the tiller. Keep an eye out for wire and other debris.