Need to buy a disc

[jenkinsph]

Come on, that's just silly. You likely never had it set up properly. It all depends on what you're doing. A tiller is great for gardening. For actual farm work, a disk is the proper tool.

Depends on the tiller, depends on the disk, depends on what you have to pull either one. A high horsepower compact will perform better with a tiller harnessing the pto power. You can get 16' wide tillers with tilling depths of about 12 inches.

 

[Bob Ha]

Last year I disked about 10 acres (sandy loam soil) for seeding giant Bermuda grass. The 10 acres had a lot of large weeds and Love grass so the disking was less than desirable. The grass didn't take so this year I decided on trying something different and purchased a used hydraulic 4 Bottom plow. My 72 HP tractor can handle it but not easily. The last two weekends I've been preparing the same 10 acres for sprigging Midland 99 Bermuda grass. The first weekend I turned over the soil with bottom plow and the next weekend I disked it with a harrow behind the disk. I will need to disk a second time with harrow for perfection. The quality difference between the JD bottom plow and the cheaply type disk from TSC is night and day. If I need to plow any more after this year I'll be looking for a used tandem John Deere disk. I know they are a little pricey but my time and fuel also costs. Only problem is I may need a bigger tractor. I think I should hide all the guns before I tell the wife.

 

[wolc123]

I wouldnt want to do more than a couple acres with a tiller. Beyond that a disc is usually more efficient. That said however, I wouldnt waste money on a 3-point disc. A pull or transport type is the way to go if you are looking to get-r-done with a minimum number of passes and using minimum fuel. 3-point discs require more power and passes per unit width because all sections do not follow ground contour as well as they do on transport or pull-types. In my opinion, anyone with smaller acreages and the need to transport over the road would be better off with a tiller than a 3-point disc. Having used many different tillers, pull-type, transport and 3-point discs over the years, I no longer see any good use for a 3-point disc. This rubs some folks the wrong way, particularly those trying to peddle "junk" to unknowing buyers.

 

[RollingsFarms]

3 pt disk comes in more handy for my uses then a tiller would. i wouldn't mind having a nice tiller though, but for doing fire breaks a disk is ideal imo. i would like to have a pull type disk with a lift cylinder, but i haven't come accross one that i thought was good enough to part me from my money. the current disk i have is a 300 series Leinbach 3 pt. disk. it's 6'9" with 20" notched blades front and back. has easy adjustable gangs, and i keep them at the most aggressive setting. this is the best cutting disk i've ever owned. i can sink it to the axles easily and make my tractor grunt.

 

[123rday]

I bought a used TSC angle iron 6' disk. I had a weld break where the 3 point connects. I welded some heavier angle iron on both sides and drilled my one inch holes for the pins. Works good, but I found I had to put a 125lb wheel weight on too and set it aggressivly to turn the soil in two passes to "meet" the guidelines for CRP. Now I need to straighten the disk out and go back over it followed by a packer to smooth things out so when they tell me I need to brush hog it won't be so rough. Off subject... I also need to go around and finish getting rid of the thornapple trees so I don't end up with more than the one front flat tire I ended up with.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Looks like the Frontier costs around $1950

John Deere - Helpful links

Disks work great in hard soils if you wait for a soaking rain and then wait again for 2-3 days later and get after it. This disk harrow type doesn't work as deep as tiller but much faster.
Don't you have someone around that has a big deep setup that can hit it first heavy and deep? My neighbor did ours. 1st with big disk, 2nd with fine harrow, and last with a water filled roller to smooth it back down. About 13 acres for about $700 while I drank barley pops and filmed him.
This works great for a coastal bermuda field if you get rain after getting it done...

 

[jenkinsph]

Kyle's suggestion to hire it out would be the most economical if you have someone close by to do it.


I looked into getting a new pull type disk last year 8' with 22" notched blades about $7000 for Frontier DH 15 if I recall correctly. Kind of pricey, since my 73" tiller was $2900 so even if a disk is a little faster using a good one I felt it hard to justify.

Using a cheap and light 3pt disk doesn't seem to be any faster than a tiller. You can pull a drag harrow behind the tiller and be ready in one pass for grass.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Steve, how many acres would you say that you can till before having to replace the tines, the u joints, then the tines again, maybe a gear box etc?

 

[warhammer]

The way this acreage lays out big equipment won't fit. Its a sloping terraced area with more turns than straightaways for big iron.

Looks like the Frontier costs around $1950

John Deere - Helpful links

Disks work great in hard soils if you wait for a soaking rain and then wait again for 2-3 days later and get after it. This disk harrow type doesn't work as deep as tiller but much faster.
Don't you have someone around that has a big deep setup that can hit it first heavy and deep? My neighbor did ours. 1st with big disk, 2nd with fine harrow, and last with a water filled roller to smooth it back down. About 13 acres for about $700 while I drank barley pops and filmed him.
This works great for a coastal bermuda field if you get rain after getting it done...

 

[warhammer]

I'd like to have a tiller.
What dissuades me at this point though is the extra expense of the tiller over the disk and the fact that I want to take over the farming of the 24 acre row crop field that I lease out in the next couple of years.

Warhammer

Kyle's suggestion to hire it out would be the most economical if you have someone close by to do it.


I looked into getting a new pull type disk last year 8' with 22" notched blades about $7000 for Frontier DH 15 if I recall correctly. Kind of pricey, since my 73" tiller was $2900 so even if a disk is a little faster using a good one I felt it hard to justify.

Using a cheap and light 3pt disk doesn't seem to be any faster than a tiller. You can pull a drag harrow behind the tiller and be ready in one pass for grass.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I started to looking for a 7.5-8' 3 point disc like the old Ford Flex-i-hitch i sold 15 years ago and one used dealer told me the used stuff got cut up for scrap when it was so high so I am still looking for something cheap for the 265 MF. A pull type would not work as well for my small points.

 

[MMagis]

This rubs some folks the wrong way, particularly those trying to peddle "junk" to unknowing buyers.

It doesn't "rub us the wrong way". We just feel it's important to let folks know that it's not true. It's nothing more than your opinion, based on something I can't understand.

 

[foggy1111]

It doesn't "rub us the wrong way". We just feel it's important to let folks know that it's not true. It's nothing more than your opinion, based on something I can't understand.

X 2 I dont get your position Wolc....a disc blade and weight....is a disc blade and weight.

 

[jenkinsph]

Steve, how many acres would you say that you can till before having to replace the tines, the u joints, then the tines again, maybe a gear box etc?

Brian,
Hard to know for sure, I haven't worn either out yet. Between my Howard rotovator and the Deere tiller I have tilled up about 45 acres roughly. The Deere is faster and deeper though.

I have changed out disk blades that were cracked on the small light 3 pt disks though and that can be a good sized job. These cheap disks have thin blades that don't penetrate the ground well and are easier to break or crack.


I might add that if were talking even money I would rather have a new $3000 dollar tiller than a new $3000 dollar disk. Bear in mind the OP has a Kioti 45 hp tractor not a large heavy field tractor. He has a much better chance of utilizing the pto to get the power to the ground than the wheels with traction.

Now if you have a good quality offset disk and a good disk harrow and a larger frame/weight tractor this may be a lot closer to discern the difference. Add yet another implement like a chisel plow and the scenario changes again, way cheaper implement than either a tiller or disk.

From what I have gathered most people here have small tillers with shallow depth abilities and seem to assume that a tiller is only good enough for a small garden plot. Alot depends on the tiller as to what you can do and the same is true with a disk. I have pulled a cheap disk over land before that it would take a bloodhound to follow it and pulled a heavy offset disk over the same ground with good results.

My point to all of this is I fail to see where a disk is so much faster to complete the job than a tiller. I think for similar results the time should be about the same.

 

[foggy1111]

Brian,
Hard to know for sure, I haven't worn either out yet. Between my Howard rotovator and the Deere tiller I have tilled up about 45 acres roughly. The Deere is faster and deeper though.

I have changed out disk blades that were cracked on the small light 3 pt disks though and that can be a good sized job. These cheap disks have thin blades that don't penetrate the ground well and are easier to break or crack.


I might add that if were talking even money I would rather have a new $3000 dollar tiller than a new $3000 dollar disk. Bear in mind the OP has a Kioti 45 hp tractor not a large heavy field tractor. He has a much better chance of utilizing the pto to get the power to the ground than the wheels with traction.

Now if you have a good quality offset disk and a good disk harrow and a larger frame/weight tractor this may be a lot closer to discern the difference. Add yet another implement like a chisel plow and the scenario changes again, way cheaper implement than either a tiller or disk.

From what I have gathered most people here have small tillers with shallow depth abilities and seem to assume that a tiller is only good enough for a small garden plot. Alot depends on the tiller as to what you can do and the same is true with a disk. I have pulled a cheap disk over land before that it would take a bloodhound to follow it and pulled a heavy offset disk over the same ground with good results.

My point to all of this is I fail to see where a disk is so much faster to complete the job than a tiller. I think for similar results the time should be about the same.

I agree that for small acreage a tiller may be the best choice....and I prefer to operate my tiller over other tillage means. BUT.....I live in an area where many farmers run 1000 acres or more....and you wont find ANY of them pulling tillers around......whereas you will see lots of discs and field cultivators prepping the fields. I think the cost of operating a tiller is prohibiitve for more than 20 acres or so. (?)

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Steve, I often forget that many guys have the very light weight disks that are about, well you know. In most of those cases, hands down the tiller is going to be better all around. And you may be right about cost, you would rather have a $2500 tiller than a $2500 set of disks. But I believe that a $6000 set of disks is going to till more acreage before repair than a $6000 tiller. Myself, I till the small and or awkward areas that I have and disk the larger areas that I want done. I should be disking about 60 acres in the next week or so, I will not be using my tiller.

 

[jenkinsph]

Brian,
It would be interesting to know how many acres you can disk in eight hours. And at what depth how well pulverised etc.

I would also like to know how fast a person can till with a big tiller with 30" rotors that tills 12" deep. frontier lists one 13' wide about like that. RC13 I think.


If I were to go ahead and purchase a pull type tandem disk and offset disk for about $12,000 total I would be upset if it did not work faster than a tiller. This assumes the same ground, same day, same depth and same degree of finish. I have looked for used 8' tandem disks with 22" blades and have not found them anywhere close to me. I have also looked for 6' heavy duty offset disks to no avail. So I am a little leary of making a move.


The tandem disk I have thought about is the Frontier DH15 8' with 22" notched blades on 9" spacings about 1900 lbs so 95 lbs per blade weight.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Brian,
It would be interesting to know how many acres you can disk in eight hours. And at what depth how well pulverised etc.

I would also like to know how fast a person can till with a big tiller with 30" rotors that tills 12" deep. frontier lists one 13' wide about like that. RC13 I think.


.

With our 6', 8' or 12' disk, all have 22" blades and with which tractor, D6 or 7520? 8-9" deep, equivalent to a rototiller if the ground moisture is just right. What part of the land, rolling hills of sort of flat?

I'm not sure that I want to purchase the tractor that is going to turn that tiller.

 

[jenkinsph]

Brian,

With the 8' disk and the 7520, rolling hills.

Do you have a tiller that is matched for this tractor too?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Brian,

With the 8' disk and the 7520, rolling hills.

Do you have a tiller that is matched for this tractor too?

No, I missed out on an 8 foot JD tiller a couple of years ago for $1000. It was a few hours away and back then I just never had the time to go get it. I will measure out 10 acres and time it. It will be interesting to know, instead of just guessing. Got to go, dinner.:thumbsup: