small plows,discs, sodbuster

   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #1  

elkman

New member
Joined
Jun 12, 2004
Messages
16
Location
Oregon
Tractor
Yanmar 1401d, Bobcat 825
I'm a new property owner of a mountain meadow - elevation 4800 ft. and wanting to plant about 3 acres of alfalfa. My tractor is sub compact Yanmar 4wd wt 1365 lbs. I am purchasing a 4 ft disc. , subsoiler/ middlebuster, and blanket harrow but wonder about a mouldbord plow. I know nothing about plows, the types, or how much tractor it takes to use them. I expect there to be at least some rock and dead wood in the ground. Two dealers have said that they thought that my 18hp tractor is to light but indicated that they had no experience with this combination. I see that Rankin and House make a 12" for smaller tractors. 1) will it work? 2) do I need one? I also have a 48"rototiller but thimk it not right for the potential rocky soil. Please help educate me.
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #2  
That 12" moldboard should work OK with that tractor, but of course it depends on whether it's adjustable, not for the proper depth, but side to side to get the width of the furrow right, and then it also depends on just what kind of soil, how hard, how dry, etc. you are using it in. You probably will not get very deep with that 4' disc. It's not going to be heavy enough to sink in very far, and if it did sink it, the tractor probably couldn't pull it.

There may be some other opinions, and some may be better than mine, but in my own opinion, using the moldboard first, followed by the disc, would be my choice in preparing the ground. You might, or might not, even want to use the harrow after that.
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster
  • Thread Starter
#3  
BIRD, Thanks for the advice. I had thought of using the subsioler first since it is kind of like a small plow. I thought that my little tractor could probably rip 8 or so inches with it and then if I did that about every foot then the disc might work or maybee then use the plow. Any thoughts on this? Also what are the different kinds of plows and why one over another?
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #4  
Elkman

The subsoiler will loosen the ground nicely for you. If youget a subsoiler get the subsoiler/middle plow combo as you might want to dig a small channel. I used my Middle Plow for the sides of my driveway on the hills as to keep the rainwater in cheak. Now back to the subsoiler - It will as you prob know get rid of any roots in the area also.
Anything to add Bird?
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #5  
I made the mistake of buying (pretty cheap, though) a little moldboard plow. The problem was that it was one made to be pulled by mules and some welder had cut it up and made it to fit a 3-point hitch. Now that may have worked fine for him on a different sized tractor, but it couldn't be shifted to the side to get the right spacing on my Kubotas. Of course, my primary tillage tool was my tiller, but I did use my middle buster to tear up my garden one year just to get deeper than the tiller could go, and I used it to tear up a new garden plot, followed by the tiller. The trouble with the middle buster is that it throws the dirt both directions; great for digging the potatoes, but not as good at turning all the soil, and then you have a pretty rough surface, although that can then be corrected with the disk or tiller.
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #6  
3 Acres is a pretty good sized plot. If you calculate the time to pull a subsoiler every foot across this plot, that is a lot of seat time.

Though it wouldn't go as deep, I think I'd be tempted to use the scarifiers on a box blade set to max depth (and then keep the blade from digging) to work it loose. Should be able to get 3-4" and do the job quicker.

Just my two cents.
ron
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #7  
Think I'd go with a tiller and harrows. My tiller has been through some pretty rocky soil and still runs well. Tractor is 16 HP kubota. Know it would only pull a small one share plough as it would not have the traction.

Egon
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #8  
Moldboard plows don't seem to take that much tractor to work well. I was amazed that my 18HP Yanmar pulled my single 16 that I used to use when I had my Massey 50. I have sandy soil though- not sure how well it would work with clay or rocky soil.
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #9  
The Kubota dealer in Orange, Va has a few single disc plows. They appear to be workable on BX or B Kubotas.

This outfit has some stuff that goes onto solid steel bars: http://www.buctraco.com/disks.htm These guys have individual disc hillers and other stuff to bolt onto the bars, plus special clamps.

You can get other disc hillers and stuff to go on those bars and place on the bars to fit your wheels, etc. at http://www.agri-supply.com/ They don't have the clamps, but I've figured out that I can just buy 2 to 4 standard muffler clamps to bolt stuff onto my bars, which are at a 45 degree angle.

I've ordered a couple of disc hillers to go onto my 2x2 bar that's for my soil ripper that has 7 little chisel plows on it now. It was originally designed to be pulled behind an 18 hp JD M. I use it on my JD 4010. I won't post another picture of it, as I've posted pics all over the place. Search for "soil ripper", and you'll find some of them.

According to my friend who gave me the ripper, they used to see tractor stuff by "packages". Many of the packages would bolt onto the same steel bars as other packages (after you remove the other "package" stuff, of course).

Ralph
 
   / small plows,discs, sodbuster #10  
Your tractor will pull a small plow just fine as long as the 4wd and differential lock is working. The toplink has to be adjusted correctly so that the plow doesn't dig in too much or not dig in at all.

However, three acres is a lot to plow with a small tractor. You will be pretty beat up, since the right wheels of the tractor will be in a furrow and the tractor will be tilted all of the time. It wears on you. You will also need a disk to finish it off.

If you're just planting for wildlife and need to break it up, I second the box blade with scarifiers technique. I use it for small food plots around my 10 acres and it works just great. Fast too. I'm sure there are better ways, several come to mind, but a box blade is cheap and is a multitasker.
 
 
 
Top