Advice on smoothing, leveling a field

[airbiscuit]

 

[Number15]

Number15, what do you think you eill end up doing? Your grass looks too good to till uo and start over, yet you dread mowing it,​

Let the farmer roll it and see what happens?​

Tillit it up and leve and re seed it?​

Top dress it?​

Or ,,,?​

​

Maybe the problem is mowing it with a zero turn. Ypu have a 55hp CUT with a cab. Why not buy a batwing mower and call it a day?​

I mow that area with the tractor with a RC or flail. Not sure what I am going to do yet. Trying to absorb as much info as I can before I make a decision

 

[JerryG]

If you really want to level 60 acres or even a large portion of it it will be very expensive. It looks like given you said that one contractor wanted $2000 an hour your serious. I have done a lot of leveling over t he e years but this is to much for your tractor or even any light equipment. You need a contractor that does large areas such as building like poultry houses etc. They will have graders, bulldozers, scapers and road graders. They would use this equipment to get you where you want. Get you an estimate for such a contractor.

 

[jeff9366]

one contractor wanted $2000 an hour

$2,000 per day.

 

[shooterdon]

Wow, I did not realize you had to do 60 acres. And once you have it levelled you want to mow it regularly...That is a lot of seat time.

Maybe step back and think about what you want to do with that much land.

Back when I was a kid we had 240 acres. One parcel as a 100 acre farm we rented out and the other 140 acres was mostly woods with about 40-50 acres in fields. Our neighbor next to the 140 acres was a farmer and my dad let him use the land for crops. I think he charged the farmer $100 a year to use the land and the farmer did a great job.

But we had no use for the land except for hunting, so it was a win-win.

If you have no use for the land, spending a lot of money/time to make it look nice does not make a lot of sense. Maybe someone close by needs more acreage and can utilize it for crops.

 

[Number15]

Wow, I did not realize you had to do 60 acres. And once you have it levelled you want to mow it regularly...That is a lot of seat time.

Maybe step back and think about what you want to do with that much land.

Back when I was a kid we had 240 acres. One parcel as a 100 acre farm we rented out and the other 140 acres was mostly woods with about 40-50 acres in fields. Our neighbor next to the 140 acres was a farmer and my dad let him use the land for crops. I think he charged the farmer $100 a year to use the land and the farmer did a great job.

But we had no use for the land except for hunting, so it was a win-win.

If you have no use for the land, spending a lot of money/time to make it look nice does not make a lot of sense. Maybe someone close by needs more acreage and can utilize it for crops.

It's 60 but I am concentrating on the front~20 right now. Of that only the portion on 1 side has those ruts so its not like the whole 60 acres looks like that.

Also I agree about stepping back and thinking about it all. That is partly why this thread exists, so I am not making decisions in a vacuum.

 

[Cougsfan]

Leveling your 60 acres, even just 20 acres, on a 50 hp tractor seems like a pretty daunting chore no matter what implements you use. Particularly on steep ground. If the soil is heavy clay base, the chore will be even harder. The biggest thing you will need is a lot of patience.
Not trying to talk you out of it, but just suggesting it is not a few days or even few weeks job.

 

[Number15]

So I went to the co-op today (so funny to me that I say that)* and they pointed out something that should have be obvious to me. I need to see how deep my topsoil is. I might be in a situation where I can't really move to much of the topsoil and expect to grow grass. I will be digging some test holes today. I will also send a sample off as Jeff suggested.

Their opinion was to use a box blade or a land plane and a landscape rake providing I have enough top soil.

Leveling your 60 acres, even just 20 acres, on a 50 hp tractor seems like a pretty daunting chore no matter what implements you use. Particularly on steep ground. If the soil is heavy clay base, the chore will be even harder. The biggest thing you will need is a lot of patience.
Not trying to talk you out of it, but just suggesting it is not a few days or even few weeks job.

I have patience and time. I retired early and as of right now this property is one of my only jobs so to speak.

* I say that as a person who grew up in NYC. Growing up if you had asked me if one day I would own a tractor and belong to a co-op I would have looked at you like you had 3 heads

 

[TractorGuy]

I was working a patch today. Till, rake, drag,,,, till, rake, drag.

Tried tying my drag to my rake this morning. Worked pretty good. One more round of tilling and raking and it should be good enough.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I see a wiper in one pic and that means a cab maybe AC too. What is all the complaining about? Use this old Long 510, or this 58 Power Major and when you get back in your comfy climate control rig it won't seem quite so bad.