Plowing with a Compact

[Ledgemere Farm]

Sorry. One last comment: I seem to remember from one of my soil science classes in college that it's not wise to plow every year. You will develope a "plowpan" about 18" or so down that will be compacted. That just my $0.02.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

It is 4wd and I hover around 7mph at 2000 rpm's. I can pull it in 2wd if it is extremly dry out. I would not be able to pull it up much of an incline with out dropping down a few gears. I am surprised the 4020 has that much trouble with a 12' disc. Is it a heavy offset? My neighbor pulls a 14' with his 4020 on all flat ground and the tractor just plays with it. I would like to find a old 806 to hook to the 12' so that I can use the TN for mostly plowing and planting as the disk really does strain it and I can always use the extra tractor, especially an 806 or even a 706 if my one neighbor decides to sell his.

 

[dgood1]

woodyed,

In my manual for my L3710 the max. size for a bottom plow is listed as 14" by 2. That is the same for the 4310 and 4610.

The chisel plow is listed as 72".

I don't have a plow yet. I have been having too much fun clearing land with the FEL and mowing.

Good luck on your decision,

Don

 

[cowboydoc]

Well said Robert. The compacts were never made to do a "real" tractors work. Contrary to popular belief these CUT's aren't real tractors. They are a compact utility tractor that was designed to do jobs around a small acreage.

 

[jtn]

woodyed,

I have a 1 bottom 16" plow and a 6' disk that I use with my TC45D. The tractor is grossly overpowered for the plow but it is a hand-me-down from my John Deere 850 and I am not inclined to spend a lot of money on something that I only use once a year for about an hour to plow my garden. Besides I like plowing so if it takes me a little while longer that is fine with me. The tractor pulls the disk, which is 3pt hitch mounted, no problem.

I would second the opinion that if you plan on doing a lot of field work you should step up to a utility tractor. They are a lot stronger and heavier and can handle plows, disks, and chisels a lot better.

Robert,

Why not go all out and get a 1206?

JT

 

[jbs]

Woodyed,
Robert is right a compact is no match for a 100hp AG pulling a 20ft drag, but if you dont mind taking a little longer a compact will do a fine job. Compact means smaller not inferior!!! You should expect a compact to perform every task a large tractor can,just on a smaller scale. Long before the word compact was in vogue tractors like the ford 8n were working in the fields. These tractors were made for farming and if you purchase a 3710 or 4310 it will work circles around the old gas machines. I know because I replaced an old ford and the difference is amazing.

Just to give you an idea of the strength of a compact, there is an ancient Kobata at my hunt club. I cant give you a model because the old girl is mostly rust. I would estimate around 35-40 hp. The abuse and neglect she has suffered borders on criminal. She has never been under cover and to my knowledge she has never recieved any maintenance or service. You can not even check the oil,the dip stick lost years ago. Altogether I would estimate she has plowed and disked a 100 mi. of power lines and clear cuts. She pulls a disk at least twice the size of what she should. Sometimes with a very large oak log across the disk and in the river bottom land we have towed her with a 4x4 when her wheels would spin. Shes not much to look at now, but she has never had any major repairs!
The 3710 or 4310 are awesome compacts. They will do anything you ask them to within reason and common sense. Keep us posted on your purchase.

 

[art]

I wasn't following this post but the thoughts here are interesting. There are many things I like to know before I size a plow to a tractor and compacts can plow, just they can't pull as large of one as the farm tractor. Many of todays farmers are going away from plowing do to the costs and to the plow sole that is a compacted area left below which hinders root growth. The plow is not the heaviest compactor but close, disc's take that honor with some weighing in at 1000lbs per foot of cut. I really like to know everything about the job and the tractor before making any assumptions as to the out come in this area.

 

[fishman]

<font color=blue>The compacts were never made to do a "real" tractors work. Contrary to popular belief these CUT's aren't real tractors. </font color=blue>

Wow, that's kind of an inflammatory statement. If any of the millions of subsistence farmers in the Far East had internet, and the time to visit this site, they might be offended./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Seriously, my mom-in-law has a 20-25 acre farm in Thailand and uses what appears to be about a 20 gross horsepower chinese tractor, don't remember the brand. She hires it out to all of the surrounding farms to till the soil. Keeps quite busy on a few hundred acres of farmland.

Incidentally, she was very impressed with my 2910 as it was considerably bigger than her tractor and a lot easier to use. I certainly wouldn't consider the 2910 as a farm tractor, but it sure would be in other parts of the world.

 

[JohnMiller3]

<font color=blue>...my mom-in-law has a 20-25 acre farm in Thailand...</font color=blue>

Wow John...

You have some rich in-laws... /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Most of the stories I hear about Indonesia area are extremely "small" parcels for the average families... and the main crop being rice...

What does your mother-in-law's farm produce...?

 

[woodyed]

"The compacts were never made to do a "real" tractors work. Contrary to popular belief these CUT's aren't real tractors".

Hi Cowboydoc,
I can imagine that your words will draw many comments and flames from many compact tractor owners. I agree that most large acreage farmers will utilize the larger HP class of tractors, but I also know of many farmers with 100 to 400 acres who maintain their property with compacts and some of them even have 2 compacts to do it. These farmers also plow, disc, and drag about 4 to 10+ acres, mow and bale about 75 to 125+ acres with these same compacts and they have had no problems. They of course use smaller implements that are relative to their tractors horsepower, and it undoubtably takes them longer to accomplish their tasks than if they had larger tractors/implements, but they are happy and satisfied with their "non-real tractors". I might add, that I have talked with some of them and they highly recommend the compacts and have flat out stated that they were glad they hadn't purchased the 55 HP and up tractors as the compacts have done everything that they ever wanted or needed to do. So you see, compacts are "real tractors" and they have their place, even though it might take them longer than the bigger HP tractors to do what needs to be done. I will also concede that there are certain times when a larger HP tractor would do the job required much faster and easier than a compact, but I think those times are rare occurrences. Compacts "not real tractors", NOT SO.