The weather has everything on "hold" right now, so I thought I'd take this time and ask for your input. I have purchased 24 acres and plan on building a home within the next year. A wheat crop was harvested off of the land last year and since then, I've just taken a 6' bush hog behind my JD 3320 and mowed down the stubble and weeds for a cleaner look. My plan is to plant a mixed blend prairie grass but want to make the surface as SMOOTH as possible. My original thought was to buy a 6.5' disc harrow that I would use to work the land after burning it off this spring. My thought behind the burning would be to make disking easier because I wouldn't be working with as many weeds, etc. After disking, my thought was to run a drag harrow over it to smooth it out and then have my friend use his drill to plant the seed. I'm looking for suggestions on the most efficient way to do this with the tractor I have. I can borrow a field cultivator instead of buying a disc, that would save me $750, but is it going to give me the finished product that I want? Also, if you have suggestions on time of year to plant along with pre-planting spraying to kill the old and fertilyzing in prep for the new. I know I've asked a lot, but appreciate your input.
24 acres
- Thread starter Beavis
- Start date
thunderworks
Silver Member
I'm currently in the middle of a prairie grass restoration. My fields had been fescue grass. I've plowed, disc'd, rototilled, harrowed until I'm blue in the face, but the fields are now ready for seed. I'm also in Kansas. It is recommended to plant native grasses between mid-April and early June, the 5 primary species being Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Side Oats Gramma, Indian Grass and Switch Grass. Since your fields were planted in wheat, you might not have as big a problem as I had with competing weed growth. If it were me, I'd avoid all herbicides and disc, rototill, or drag harrow (depending on what implements you can dig up) as necessary to get a smooth seedbed. To each his own on the herbicide question, but if more chemicals can be avoided, seems like a good thing to me.
Z-Michigan
Veteran Member
I don't think a field cultivator will do anything useful in terms of leveling the surface.
A couple passes with a disk followed by a couple passes with a drag (chain harrow or improvised) should get things nice and smooth. Doing 24 acres with a 6.5' disk will take you.... a long time. About 15 hours I would guess, based on personal experience running that size disk on a 5 acre field, and with a 50hp tractor. Also, will you have any use for a disk after the grass is planted? They are fairly pricey to buy new or in good used condition. I use ours for our garden plot annually and it works well, but a tiller would be as good if not better for a typical garden plot. (However I do NOT recommend trying a tiller on 24 acres!)
Depending on your DIY motivation, any chance of having a local farmer disk it for you at a custom rate? Probably take him an hour or two, or less, depending what size equipment he has. You'll probably still need to drag it yourself, though if you don't want a cultipacker or leveling basket (owned by many farmers) would likely do a good job for that final smoothing.
Another option is to just build a big drag using a spare tree trunk (seriously), or 4x4 or larger lumber in the longest lengths you can get. Pulling a drag doesn't take much hp so I think a 15' to even 20' wide drag would be OK with your JD 3320. A 10-12' drag would be very easy to pull if you have any concern on that. With just a drag you will probably need to make 5-10 passes, but that might be a cheap option if you can't borrow a disk and don't have a future use for a disk.
A couple passes with a disk followed by a couple passes with a drag (chain harrow or improvised) should get things nice and smooth. Doing 24 acres with a 6.5' disk will take you.... a long time. About 15 hours I would guess, based on personal experience running that size disk on a 5 acre field, and with a 50hp tractor. Also, will you have any use for a disk after the grass is planted? They are fairly pricey to buy new or in good used condition. I use ours for our garden plot annually and it works well, but a tiller would be as good if not better for a typical garden plot. (However I do NOT recommend trying a tiller on 24 acres!)
Depending on your DIY motivation, any chance of having a local farmer disk it for you at a custom rate? Probably take him an hour or two, or less, depending what size equipment he has. You'll probably still need to drag it yourself, though if you don't want a cultipacker or leveling basket (owned by many farmers) would likely do a good job for that final smoothing.
Another option is to just build a big drag using a spare tree trunk (seriously), or 4x4 or larger lumber in the longest lengths you can get. Pulling a drag doesn't take much hp so I think a 15' to even 20' wide drag would be OK with your JD 3320. A 10-12' drag would be very easy to pull if you have any concern on that. With just a drag you will probably need to make 5-10 passes, but that might be a cheap option if you can't borrow a disk and don't have a future use for a disk.
After discing, a spring tooth harrow will break it up into much smaller clods. To get it level, you will need to drag a wide heavy thing around. For 23 acres, you could make a box out of 6x6x20' poles. Run 2 or 3 of them separated by a couple feet. Bolt 4x4's or 4x6's to them and brace to keep it together. May want to add weight to it. Then just drag drag drag.
jb
jb
bigtiller
Super Member
I think there probably are a few farmers close to you that do custom farming and that is where I would look. The JD 2210 field cultivator does what you are wanting to do and the 55 ft wide model is popular around here and I bet in wheet country the 64 ft model is the thing to have. 24 acres could be ready for planting in about 45 minutes. The sweeps on the 2210 run about 4 inches deep and is followed by a spike or spring harrow with 2 or 4 inch spacings. After the seed is drilled and the grass starts growing mother nature will make the ground as smooth and level as any machine.
chh
Veteran Member
I'd try the custom approach if you could find anyone willing to do it. Your discing/dragging plan should work and burning it off first will make it easier. If it was farmed it really should be fairly smooth to start with.
Herbicide use on the property is not necessarily a bad thing while you are trying to reestablish grass. Weed competion can really slow your progess. Follow the label directions though and use moderation. Nothing is good in excess. A good healthy grass stand will keep down most of the weed growth after it is in good though.
Herbicide use on the property is not necessarily a bad thing while you are trying to reestablish grass. Weed competion can really slow your progess. Follow the label directions though and use moderation. Nothing is good in excess. A good healthy grass stand will keep down most of the weed growth after it is in good though.
chh
Veteran Member
Missed this in the other post. From what I've been reading the best thing you can do for prairie grass is to burn it once every 3 to 5 years. Let it get a little tall in the fall and seed, disc a firebreak around it and burn in the spring. That helps keep weeds out without herbecides and keeps cedars and other invasive plants and bushes in check.
Thanks for all the input. I am seriously considering hiring one of the local farmers to come and work it with the cultivator and then do the dragging myself. I know that working it 6 feet at a time would take forever; when I mowed all 24 acres with the 6' brush hog it took 14 hours. Thanks again.
Foodplot
Silver Member
Congrats on your decision to plant native grasses. I'm a Kansas biologist transplanted to Kentucky, where we now do a fair bit of this, and it is something of a specialty. I've seen a lot of very poor CRP and CREP implementations. The seed is expensive, so it's best to have someone who knows what they are doing, and has the proper equipment (Truax or similar native grass drill) actually do the work. If you are enrolling this land in CRP, as is common in the plains states, your local NRCS or Kansas Fish and Game private lands biologist may help with an onsite inspection or even with implementation. They may also help with other farm bill cost-sharing programs such as WHIP. Many of the native grass drills are no-till, and would not require any other work on your part, unless you are trying to fill erosion channels. The native grasses grow in clumps, so tend to reform the surface anyway. Regarding herbicides, wheat chemically suppresses the growth of some other plants (this is called allelopathy), including some native ones, so it's often recommended to let a wheat field rest for some time before planting, depending on which species you are going to use. Once again, help from your NRCS or KF&G agent would be useful here. If you have any cool-season grasses in the planting area, there are some herbicides that will suppress them to allow your new warm-season plantings to compete. Again, check with your local agents. Hope this helps.