Best way to smooth this out? Tilled land.

[bigtiller]

I have pulled a 6 food wide JD blade turned backwards for final leveling out of rototilled & bulldozed ground.

It works out very good but there will still likely be some settling out after year or two and some spots may need revisiting, unless compacted well!

View attachment 667578

That's how I would do it also. I like to shorten up the top link to get more curve-of-the-blade to engage the ground.

 

[Maddog10]

Seems to me you have the right strategy but just needs time to settle since it was tilled so deep. I think I would just keep grading it. Blade it, let it settle a few days, hopefully get a good steady rain (but not a gulley-washer), let it dry, grade it again, let it settle again, etc.... Just however many times it takes to settle in nice and smooth.

 

[RalphVa]

My neighbor just did a field he has along the creek the old fashioned way: plow, disc and then harrow. That's the way we did it 64 or so years ago.

You'd want to skip the plow, as it might go deep enough to catch on some stumps that didn't get cut low enough. Disc and harrow. The neighbor did his in about 3 different directions. The field's not very big.

Ralph

 

[g8erh8er]

My neighbor just did a field he has along the creek the old fashioned way: plow, disc and then harrow. That's the way we did it 64 or so years ago.

You'd want to skip the plow, as it might go deep enough to catch on some stumps that didn't get cut low enough. Disc and harrow. The neighbor did his in about 3 different directions. The field's not very big.

Ralph

I'm starting to think this will be my only option. I tried a few things this weekend, included my landscape rake turned backwards and tilted as far forward as possible to keep the tines from digging in. The rake just sank and ended up pushing a load of dirt in front of it.

I then tried back blading the non-compacted soil with the loader. The trouble is there are a ton of Bahia rhizomes that end up clumping and overall not providing a smooth finish when dragging the bucket.

The best results I got was when I retilled a portion, pulling the wetter soil to the top. I then drove over the section multiple times, compacting all of it with the tractor tires. I then back bladed the compacted soil. This method isn't ideal because I'm not redistributing any soil to fill in low spots, and it's very time consuming.

At this point I think my best bet will be to drag everything multiple times with a chain harrow to even things out. That should serve the purpose of compacting the soil with the tractor as well as evenly distributing the top soil. At least that's the hope.

I hate the idea of not being able to lift the harrow and back into corners, so I will be getting a lift as well. I know you can re-purpose booms and the like to do the same thing, but I'd rather buy one made for the purpose.

The Priefert PICH48LK is what I have my eyes on. Chain Harrow w/Lift Kit

 

[g8erh8er]

Seems to me you have the right strategy but just needs time to settle since it was tilled so deep. I think I would just keep grading it. Blade it, let it settle a few days, hopefully get a good steady rain (but not a gulley-washer), let it dry, grade it again, let it settle again, etc.... Just however many times it takes to settle in nice and smooth.

I agree with you. The issue is the Bahai rhizomes. They just keep growing in the tilled soil, so the longer I let it sit, the more they proliferate and the harder it is to get a smooth finish with the box blade. Lots of clumping going on. I guess I really should have killed everything prior to tilling but I was hoping to cut down on the amount of seed needed.

 

[Doug62]

You can also use your bucket turned down with the loader lever in the float position. Works pretty good for smoothing and filling.