Tiller Bringing back an old field

[Grayson Klassen]

Any idea how rooted the ground is because it will impact disc performance. If you have a 3pt you might find a root cultivator and rip it up first.

 

[bp fick]

There is a reason that farmers have quit mould board plowing.

Many farmers no longer plow in the conventional way to save fuel or for moisture retention. Still, plowing has its place in many applications.

 

[spruce Deere]

That is true, while the 'no-till practice is common place anymore, with a piece of ground as the O.P is describing, One time plowed under and worked conventionally may be just the ticket... soil type, weed control, incorporation of amendments.... wow, thems big words

But for food plots, probably won't need such aggressive tillage..... light disking or somthing to expose some soil to let seeds be covered by harrowing may just be just the ticket also

 

[jenkinsph]

I am not sure if a Disc will break up the ground due to how long it has been untouched. Thoughts?

AS said alot depends on the disk and tractor. If I were you I would drag the existing disk across a test strip and see how many passes it takes to break it down. This would answer alot of your questions. Usually if you make enough passes it will eventually cut to the axles. Can you furnish more details about the tractor and disk you have?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

A disk will usually do OK if you kill the vegetation first, and give it some time to break down

You won't get a smooth seed bed if there is a lot of turf built up.

Even if you use a bottom plow you'll still need to disk to level it, since clover only needs to be about 1/4" deep

 

[ZDB]

The farmer I bought my 14' WB John Deere disk from had used it to renovate an 80 acre farm. He did a roundup burn down then disked it several times and seeded it with plots of different grasses for hay crops and grazing of his sheep.

He also did a soil sample first to determine amendments to add.

His fields looked amazing after only 1 year and with no plowing.

 

[Carykong]

Food plots and clover can be overseeded after running a disc. Plowing and tilling for your objectives is a bit of unneccessary work. In fact,food plots attract more game if the food plot crop is intergrated with the natural grennery in the pasture. I over seed my pasture with red clover after one pass with the disc set at an aggressive angle.

 

[Barry Bowen]

Hi All,
I have a 5 acre field that has been bush hogged every year but other then that no other maintenance has been done to it, Here is what I am thinking ( I'm all new to this) Turn the field over with a moldboard plow, put down my fertilizer let it sit for a couple weeks then go over the field with a tiller, finishing it all off with a Cultipacker. Please as I said I am new to this. Any and all help/suggestions are welcome.
Thanks
Jordan

Farming is not so much about what you do to the soil, as it is understanding how your soil works. Your soil is as much a living, breathing organism as you or your plants. If the ground is covered in weeds this is a sign that you have problems with soil compaction and biology or better said lack of biological activity. You cannot do just one operation and "fix" everything and all will be fine. Moldboard plows are starting a come back as the no tillers are learning how much damage they are doing to their soil in the long run. What part of the country are you in? Manyparts of the country have a serious lack of calcium in the soil. Now I am not talking lime to balance pH, as pH is not relavent to the amount of calcium available to your plants. I will give you a link here for the Growers Mineral Solution web site. Please go to it and learn about lime and calcium before you do anything else.

Growers Mineral Solutions- liquid nutritional plant food and livestock mineral supplement, non toxic plant food


Depending on your soil, especially for the food plot part you may need 5 to 10 tons on high calcium lime, do not use high magnesium lime. This is usually a good starting point for ground that has not seen calcium for years.Apply the lime and then plow it under, disc, and then pack the surface. You can roto till as needed for planting and weed control. I have been using Growers and lime for several years now, and the difference in quality of product has been amazing. Last year a friend of mine did pumpkins, and you know how hard they are to get them to keep any length of time. Him pumpkins looked as good in February as they did when he harvested them. That was the result of giving the plant the calcium it needed along with some fertilizer. Check out growers website and see what you can learn.

 

[JG2940]

AS said alot depends on the disk and tractor. If I were you I would drag the existing disk across a test strip and see how many passes it takes to break it down. This would answer alot of your questions. Usually if you make enough passes it will eventually cut to the axles. Can you furnish more details about the tractor and disk you have?

Tractor is not that big only a Kubota B3030 no disc at this time still waiting to see what every one is saying..

 

[ZDB]

We have had good luck mixing oats and clover. Oats out compete the weeds that try to grow, after mowing the oats you end up with a weed free clover patch.

Of course if you do a roundup burn down you won't really need to worry about the weeds!