2 or 3 shank chisel plow and tractor HP

[Spindifferent]

Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent

 

[oldnslo]

Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent

On sod with R4's I would expect you will have traction issues. Rule of thumb used to be 10 - 15 HP per shank depending on soil type and depth of work. You are talking about drainage so how deep do you want to go? Will the two shank version take the stress of going deeper without bending something?

Roy

 

[Gsquared]

I run a 6 shank pasture renovator with a 75 hp tractor. It is fine in sandy loam. Traction will be more of a issue than hp. The tractor salesman said that depending on soil conditions I might need to remove 1 shank and only run 5. First time I used it I went really slow, worried about the HP rating and I ran into issues with the tires spinning. I found that if I went faster there was less of an issue with traction. Those shanks look pretty flexible to cut very deep. Best of luck!

 

[Spindifferent]

Thanks Roy and Gsquared.

Roy - I'd like to get the chisel points down below the depth of a rotary tiller, so this would put the depth around 8 to 10 inches. I'm not sure how sturdy the Buckeye chisel plows are, so it may require a couple passes to get to that depth without lots of bending force on the plow frame. I don't own a plow yet, and I'm still in the research phase.

My master plan is to plant vegetables in single rows, and right now, I'm thinking that I'd like to subsoil down the middle of the row, then chisel on each side of the subsoil, and then lightly rotary till to finish the bed for planting.

I'd like to get the subsoiler down to around 16 inches if possible.

I'm thinking that I'd like to rotary till to about 5 inches.

My soil needs to drain better, and to aerate better, and I want to avoid as much compaction as possible given the clay content.

Gsquared - what part of Central Texas are you in? I'm in western Williamson County.

 

[sweettractors]

Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent

I think you can use this Cat 1 used chisel and remove shanks as needed for $695. Ken Sweet

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent

In clay soil you will need at least 15hp to 20hp. The engine 37 hp may only equal 25hp drawbar. R4 tires are against you and getting enough weight . I looked up you may be 3,000#. Clay soil is tough to chisel if it hasn't been tilled before. We have added tractor weights to our chisel to help get it in the ground. We have added coulters before and it pre slices the ground in front of each chisel which helps some.

I pull a 7 shank pull type chisel (much larger framed) 8 inches deep in bean ground with my JD4430 which is a 125hp PTO which is rated at 108hp drawbar. We are running Firestone RI radials also. Injector pump turned up as well. Pulling a clay knob is all it wants do. The 4430 also weighs near 15,000lbs. Chisels can pull like ancors.

Multi passing might help. Some moisture will help also. Once you have broken the top up do a soil test. Gypsum can help keep clay soils loosened up. That will help tilling it in future years. A lot of guys no tilling in hard soils are using vertical tillage with gypsum to help keep their clay soils loose to premote better root growth. No-Till Farmer - Gypsum Improves Soil Profile, No-Tillers Say

Good Luck and let us know how it works out.:thumbsup:

 

[sweettractors]

Thanks Roy and Gsquared.

Roy - I'd like to get the chisel points down below the depth of a rotary tiller, so this would put the depth around 8 to 10 inches. I'm not sure how sturdy the Buckeye chisel plows are, so it may require a couple passes to get to that depth without lots of bending force on the plow frame. I don't own a plow yet, and I'm still in the research phase.

My master plan is to plant vegetables in single rows, and right now, I'm thinking that I'd like to subsoil down the middle of the row, then chisel on each side of the subsoil, and then lightly rotary till to finish the bed for planting.

I'd like to get the subsoiler down to around 16 inches if possible.

I'm thinking that I'd like to rotary till to about 5 inches.

My soil needs to drain better, and to aerate better, and I want to avoid as much compaction as possible given the clay content.

Gsquared - what part of Central Texas are you in? I'm in western Williamson County.

Here is a Tool that we have running on Ebay that may be something you can easily pull and get the results you need without going to a chisel. Ken Sweet
New 9 Shank Pasture Renovator,Tiller, Shearpins - eBay (item 150511450083 end time Dec-24-10 06:53:52 PST)

 

[D7E]

In our clay a chisel plough will struggle to get deeper than 6 inches and as the shank bends it becomes increasingly harder to pull .
For a decent deep job with low disturbance a subsoiler or flat lift is better !

3 Leg Flatlift (2.85m) machine only - Spaldings

 

[Spindifferent]

Thanks Ken, HHM, and D7E.

I'll look into the gypsum and equipment that you all mentioned.

- Spindifferent

 

[flusher]

Howdy Folks,

I have a Deere 3520 tractor rated at 37 engine HP with R4's, and I'm wondering if it can effectively control a 2 or 3 shank chisel plow to an 8 to 10 inch depth.

My soil has never been plowed, and is a clay loam to clay texture with few to no rocks or roots.

I'd like to use a chisel plow to improve the soil drainage and soil air without inverting the soil profile and to minimize compaction.

By chisel plow, I mean something like this:

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 14-02 Chisel Plows

Anyone have experience or advice to share?

Much obliged,

Spindifferent

Chisel plow? That think looks more like a cultivator. If you want to work down to 16" depth, a one-shank ripper is about all you can handle with your little tractor. You're low on hp and have the wrong rear tires for what you want to do (need R1's).
My neighbor grows 30 acres of irrigated alfalfa and used a 75 hp MF294 tractor to pull a single shank ripper to work down to about 20" depth to prepare his hayfield for planting. That 294 weighs about 8000 lb and was really laboring in dry soil (which is what you want when ripping--doesn't do much good to rip damp soil since the idea behind ripping is to fracture the soil to improve drainage and aeration).

 

[One Acre Farm]

I would also look at other places, the implement I bought at buckeye was good, but it could have been built a little heavier, IMHO

 

[sweettractors]

Here is what is called a Field cultivator with spring loaded shanks. Shanks can be removed for smaller tractors. We use them in fields with multiple passes to get to the 14-16 inch depth. Shanks auto reset when you hit a rock. Ken Sweet

 

[Spindifferent]

Thanks Ken and One Acre Farm.

Ken - I was thinking along the same lines - that if I used this type of implement, it would take a couple passes to get down deeper.

One Acre - Did you purchase a chisel plow from Buckeye? If yes, which one?

Thanks,

Spindifferent

 

[One Acre Farm]

I didn't buy from them, still looking for one, will let you know if I find something

 

[Renze]

In your first post, that doesnt really look like a chisel plough to me, its just a heavy duty spring tine i guess... I wouldnt be too fond of using it at 10" depth, the tines bend so that the chisel doesnt make a proper angle to penetrate the soil, and if they dont pull themself into the ground, they dont give you any additional weight transfer to the tractor which causes traction problems.

I use a rigid tine cultivator to renovate pastures, its a 9 shank model, with a 10" tine spacing. Its comparable to what Ken posted in this post:

Here is what is called a Field cultivator with spring loaded shanks. Shanks can be removed for smaller tractors. We use them in fields with multiple passes to get to the 14-16 inch depth. Shanks auto reset when you hit a rock. Ken Sweet

just without the auto-reset, as we dont have rocks around here. I run it in 1st gear high range with a 55hp 4wd Zetor which weighs around 8500 pound. For what i want to do with it, i'd actually need a wider tine spacing, as a rule of thumb you shouldnt run a tillage implement deeper than the tine spacing. First pass on hard tramped horse pasture i run out of traction, 2nd pass i bury it to the frame, which is about 15 inches deep. So i'd actually need an implement with a 15" shank spacing, but its my neighbours cultivator so i cant modify it

The cultivator with auto-reset springs is a different animal than a heavy spring tine cultivator: the spring tine cultivator will flex under load and put the chisels upright in the ground if ran too deep. The auto-reset does have springs, but it only moves when hitting a boulder, but maintains its chisel angle when just running it deep.

I think if you have solid shanks with a chisel angle of 30 degrees, your tractor will most likely pull the three shank chisel on hard tramped pasture. With a chisel angle of over 45 degrees, you'll run out of traction and you'll still be mixing too much soil.

 

[Duffster]

Here is what is called a Field cultivator with spring loaded shanks. Shanks can be removed for smaller tractors. We use them in fields with multiple passes to get to the 14-16 inch depth. Shanks auto reset when you hit a rock. Ken Sweet

That is a quack digger.

 

[Duffster]

We built a 1 shank chisel this fall and pulled it with a JD 2305 w/R4s. It pulled it pretty well in ground that had been tilled to about 3".

On the farm we use a 4455 to pull 7 shanks like a previous poster. Firgure about 20hp and 2000 lbs per shank.

I would think 2 would be the max for the OP.

 

[Spindifferent]

Thanks Renze and Duffster.

Renze - Is this similar to what you are using?

K&M Mfg. Product 3

I've spoken with the Hay King folks, and they can build a custom unit that can use either the renovator shanks (with or without the coulters) and that can also use the chisel shanks as well:

K&M Mfg. Product 4

All of these just bolt to the 4x4 square tubing and I could build it with any number of shanks - probably 3.

Spindifferent

 

[sweettractors]

Here is a 9 shank (spaced 15 inches apart) shanks are 18 inches long and each one is shearpin protected. $995 New. Ken Sweet

 

[Renze]

Renze - Is this similar to what you are using?

The manufacturer doesnt have a very clear website, but its very similar to this:
http://www.butsmeulepas.nl/data/images/producten_extra/gr_db90ch93oek93i_bm2.JPG
The one i use, just has 9 of these shanks and no roller behind it.

Here is a 9 shank (spaced 15 inches apart) shanks are 18 inches long and each one is shearpin protected. $995 New. Ken Sweet

this one would be useful, just needs its shanks staggered. When tilling deep, ours already plugs up with quackgrass with staggered shanks, which means 30" spacing on each row.