Tiller 3pt tiller usage/effectiveness

[flusher]

I see a lot of post/advertisements for 3pt tillers, but i was under the impression that they were primarily for light duty garden use. I am not familiar with tillers so please bear with me for a few questions.


We plant approx. 15 acres of corn and oats and i am curious if the new tillers would cut down on fuel and time required to prepare the fields. Currently we plow, disc, and then drag the fields which ends up requiring going over the fields 3 to 6 times. If the new tillers are capable of this much use i would think that even if you have to go slower, one time through the field would still end up being faster and cheaper.

Are the new tillers capable of being used for larger tracts of ground?
Has anyone used a tiller for this much acerage? If so how was the experience?
How well do the tillers hold up?
Obviously fields will have more rocks than a garden, so how do the tillers
handle rocks?

Any info and recommendations will be appreciated.

Dave

Tilling breaks down the soil's microstructure (too much pulverization) which is not beneficial. One pass with an offset disc set aggressively with some sort of drag attached to the disc gets the cultivation job done. I use this method to plant about 6 acres of Kanota oats on my little hayfield (gravely loam soil). One pass to cultivate, one pass with the 10-ft grain drill gets the planting chore done.

 

[LeadPoison]

I have been having a similar situation as well. I plant about 8 acres of food plots every year. I have been discing all these years. I have grown tired of passing over the fields three times one week and another three times another week. I was wondering if one pass with the tiller would do the trick. All I plant is oats and wheat for the deer. I can easily run a 6 or 7 foot tiller on my Kubota M4900.

 

[2458n]

Used a 1650 Oliver and a heavy 6ft Howard tiller to do several hay fields. Worked well. Spoke with a man who used his Howard to till up Christmas tree stumps. Was not much worried on my dirt.

 

[Botabill]

Okay what is the difference between tilling and cultivating.

To me when you use a rototiller you are tilling. Cultivating is a broader term which can include the use of many different impliments; plows, cultivators, harrows,discs etc., to break up the soil to varying degrees. A tiller, broadly speaking could also be considered cultivating the soil.

 

[ModMech]

I have been having a similar situation as well. I plant about 8 acres of food plots every year. I have been discing all these years. I have grown tired of passing over the fields three times one week and another three times another week. I was wondering if one pass with the tiller would do the trick. All I plant is oats and wheat for the deer. I can easily run a 6 or 7 foot tiller on my Kubota M4900.

We are successful using one pass with the tiller, as long as there are no stalks in the mix. If there are, we either pluch them out afterwards (a few) or need to before (many) so we get good results.

 

[radioman]

Okay what is the difference between tilling and cultivating.

you guys will laugh at this- the way I see it is cultivating is flipping the soil with a pancake turner to smother vegatation and smooth out small bumps. Tilling is using a blender to churn the dirt till its all blended out and into fine peices.

Now I am hungry. BRB!! :laughing:

 

[Qapla]

OK what is the difference between tilling and cultivating.

Around here most people use tilling, plowing or disking as something that is done before planting to prepare the ground for planting.

Cultivating is done after planting between rows to remove weeds/grass and keep the soil ready to receive water, fertilizer, etc.

 

[jonyyuma]

radioman, about right...Pulverize the soil with a tiller. It sure makes the rain easy to soak up into the garden...I traded hours of Cultivating for Tilling, but it make cost me in wear on the blades? Time will tell the tale, but i grin anytime I need to use the hoe on weeds..

 

[dlauffenburger]

I think you will find there are many operations that till 15 or (many) more acres of land. I use a five foot tiller and can till an acre in about 2 hours. One pass is all thats needed. With a forward rotation tiller, the tiller usuallly just walks over rocks (but I do not till in an excessive rock condition).

You dont say what size tractor you have (HP) or size tiller contemplated....or type of soils you are working....or where your located. So answers here are lots of guesswork.

Foggy1111,

Thank You for the info. I originally did not provide any particluars to our situation because i was just wondering outloud.

Our current tractors are a Case 1070 (107 HP) and a Farmall Super M but i am looking at trading off the Super M for a LS 5030 or some other 50-60 HP 4WD tractor, as we get older the Super M is just to much work to operate (NO PS, 3PT, etc).
We are located in the Alleghany Mountains of NW Pennsylvania, so the soil is a clay based soil. We try to clear the rocks out of the fields as we find them but the rocks seem to grow as fast as the crops so we continually find new ones.

Your comment about "Forward Rotation" tillers was a surprise, I thought all tillers rotated aft and threw the work soil out the back of the machine. What tillers use a forward rotation and what would be your recommendations.

Thanks again for your reply.

David

 

[dlauffenburger]

Tilling breaks down the soil's microstructure (too much pulverization) which is not beneficial. One pass with an offset disc set aggressively with some sort of drag attached to the disc gets the cultivation job done. I use this method to plant about 6 acres of Kanota oats on my little hayfield (gravely loam soil). One pass to cultivate, one pass with the 10-ft grain drill gets the planting chore done.

Flusher,

Thanks for your reply and the attatchments. From the sounds of your reply you replant the same fields every year so the aggresive disc break up the soil for you. We rotate our crop fields with hay fields so they only get plowed for crops every 4 or 5 years, so using discs only is not an option, after 4 years of hay the fields need to be plowed in order to prepare for crops.

Thanks again for your reply.
David