Farming for Beginners - equipment questions

[slowzuki]

Re roots, if they are bigger than your pinky they are going to need to be gathered with a spring tooth harrow or landscape rake etc. I had a 2" softwood tree root hook a bottom while plowing with a 160 hp tractor and it stopped it dead.

Coulters are for cutting through clumps of sod, straw and stalks, not wood.

 

[flusher]

Like you, I started with a small parcel of flat pastureland (6 acres out of 10 on my place). I mowed the weeds as short as possible with my 6 ft brush hog and 2008 Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto). Then plowed with a 6.5 ft wide offset disc with a DIY drag attached (a piece of chain link fence with some concrete paver blocks for added weight) going over the ground three times.



The first year I planted Kanota oats. The seedbed wasn't perfect (quite a bit of trash on the surface) but I had to live with that because my soil is thin gravely loam and not suitable for turning over with a moldboard plow (which just flips the bad soil to the top and buries what good topsoil I have)



I planted oats with an old 10-ft wide Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill that I restored



got pretty good germination



and a pretty good stand of oats



This year I planted two acres of a Lana vetch/annual ryegrass mix, two acres of Austrian winter peas and two acres of bell beans. I used a DIY drop seeder for the vetch/ryegrass



and a 2-row JD 71 Flexi planter for the bell beans. I broadcast the peas and used a cultipacker to press the seeds into the soil.

[ATTACH]245215[/ATTACH]

 

[Jsheds]

Re roots, if they are bigger than your pinky they are going to need to be gathered with a spring tooth harrow or landscape rake etc. I had a 2" softwood tree root hook a bottom while plowing with a 160 hp tractor and it stopped it dead.

Coulters are for cutting through clumps of sod, straw and stalks, not wood.

The only roots I have to deal with are from the weeds that have been growing there for 10 plus years, mostly goldenrod. There were a few aspen ssedling the first time I mowed, but they were very small. When I tried roto tilling last year, I had a very hard time getting throough the thick sod layer with the tiller. From what I've read here, the coulters should cut through that to let the plow flip the soil easier.

 

[Jsheds]

Flusher, what is the planter in the second last picture?

 

[flusher]

Flusher, what is the planter in the second last picture?

That's a 10-ft wide DIY drop seeder I made a few months ago. I salvaged a pair of John Deere grass seed boxes from a old Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill. Welded up a frame from square tubing to attach to the 3pt hitch. Made a 2-bounce seed chute to spread the seed evenly in a line. Added sprockets, axles, chains and drive wheels.



I included a hitch so I can attach my cultipacker to the seeder and do the seeding/packing in one pass.

 

[300UGUY]

I had a 2 - 16 eagle hitch plow that worked great. I had a Ford 309 planter, but plates are very expensive. I now have a JD70, and the plates are easier to come by, and cheaper.

 

[Herkypilot]

That's a 10-ft wide DIY drop seeder I made a few months ago. I salvaged a pair of John Deere grass seed boxes from a old Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill. Welded up a frame from square tubing to attach to the 3pt hitch. Made a 2-bounce seed chute to spread the seed evenly in a line. Added sprockets, axles, chains and drive wheels.

View attachment 245370View attachment 245371

I included a hitch so I can attach my cultipacker to the seeder and do the seeding/packing in one pass.

Very nice!

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

That's a 10-ft wide DIY drop seeder I made a few months ago. I salvaged a pair of John Deere grass seed boxes from a old Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill. Welded up a frame from square tubing to attach to the 3pt hitch. Made a 2-bounce seed chute to spread the seed evenly in a line. Added sprockets, axles, chains and drive wheels.

View attachment 245370View attachment 245371

I included a hitch so I can attach my cultipacker to the seeder and do the seeding/packing in one pass.

Dude, great idea. :thumbsup: Adding it to my "bucket list" of implement builds. Mark

 

[HCJtractor]

I would never buy a plow without trip protection. If faced with having either coulters or trip protection, I would choose the protection. My first plow was a Dearborn two bottom that I carefully restored, used it for less than two hours , snagged a rock and broke the frame bolts. Fixed it again, and immediately had the same thing happen but this time bent the frame. I replaced it with a Ford three bottom with shear pins and it works great. It has no coulters and they really don't seem necessary, especially if you cut (bush hog) the field first as low as possible. Or you can also Roundup first to kill everything. I have found that a field that has been sprayed will plow much easier. That being said, I usually don't do that, but at least cut every thing first. You may not have rocks big enough to damage your plow, but why take that chance. By the way, I break shear pins regularly. I probably go through a half dozen when I plow my food plots. It's no big deal to replace them, as it only takes a few seconds.

 

[FarmerG]

I'm the opposite. If your field isn't just full of rock, I would buy the plow with the coulters every time. Coulters are invaluable for keeping trash from collecting on your plow. Believe me, when u have to jump down and clean the trash out from the hook on your plow for the 20th time in 2 hours, you will be glad you figured out how to use and adjust your coulters.

Also, draft control is your friend. If you only have position control, then a trip plow might be the way go. (I don't even know how to plow without draft control, it would be awful) Position control is great for blading, scraping ,brush hogging, etc.....but for anything like plowing or disking, draft control is your answer. I turn out an occasional rock that is softball size or bigger in one of my fields, and have two really rocky spots, and my family has been using the same 2 bottom plow since we bought a tractor in 1952. The awesome part of DC is that it floats the plow in the ground and adjusts its depth automatically depending on what you encounter. If I hit a big rock, the plow jumps out of the ground, or at least floats right over it.

Trash is my enemy with plowing. If you cut your fields first, give them some time to rot the trash down before you start plowing (usually 2-3 wks) I can flip over sod with foot tall grass or higher all day long without stopping, but give me a bunch of weed trash in a field (johnson grass residue is the worst) and it will take me twice as long to get the field done.

Good luck!