Disc's not breaking up the thick rooted swamp grass -- Tiller needed ?

[Dave5264]

I too worry about it balling up in a tiller, a decent tiller costs $3800 here, thats alot to find out it doesnt work. I spoke to a neighbour farmer, he wasnt convinced a tiller would work, he describes the stuff as bubble gum and chicken wire mixed together, simply awful

im going to try a few things further:

1) wait until it rains again, been very dry, and disk it again
2) use my old diamond drag harrows to try and pull it all to one spot, may be burn it as suggested
3) My buddy in the next town just told me he ordered a new 8' tiller, he would lend it to me, or ill rent it off him to try
4) failing all that ill leave it fallow another year and let it rot, ill keep discing it so stuff doesnt take root again,maybe plow it again in the fall

for future years i need to find some spray equipment

 

[super55]

Heavy sod in clay soils always seems to equal a ton of work. If you plowed and disced multiple times and it's still not breaking up I'm thinking a tiller is going to be your best option. A weighted cultimulcher (some people call it a crows foot cultipacker) might work but Im guessing that sod would probably just laugh at it and let it roll right over it with little to no results.

If you do get a tiller I would till as shallow as possible to get your desired seedbed for planting. If that soil has as much clay in as I am thinking it's a perfect candidate for hard panning from deep tillage from a tiller.

Personally I would only till about 3" deep and keep tilling until I got my desired result than cultipack it and then seed with the mindset that i will have to probably do an aggressive herbicide management to keep that nasty stuff from coming back.

 

[Egon]

Hundred HP tractor. Load up the disk, figure out the proper speed that gets depth and turnover and keep the area black. Good things will happen.

 

[Farmer495]

What are the plates like on the disks? If they are wore out they don't cut as good as they should.

I've been harrowing some freshly plowed sod in clay with a drag disk with fairly decent plates and it will slice up the sod.

Rotor tiller is likely going to dig up sod if you run it more than 3-4" deep....

 

[jeff9366]

Thanks, I have plowed it (3 furrow plow, over 6 months ago, it sat fallow through the cold snowy winter), its been disc'd with 2 different sets of disc's, both are 4 axle, X type, set as aggressive as possible, one had serrated discs the other smooth, I put 400lbs of extra weight and disc'd faster, but no luck, the disc's just roll over the swamp grass sod like its carpet.

Your replies are imprecise.

What size was your Moldboard Plow? Was it a Cat 2 plow, matching the Cat 2 Three Point Hitch on your tractor? What width are the rear tires on your McCormick?

The plow width has to make a furrow wider than your right side tires, so your right side tires CAN RIDE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE FURROW. No compromise here, if the right side tires are not in BOTTOM of the furrow, the plow will not invert soil.

A plow must be sized to the tractor's rear tire width, the Three Point Hitch and the plowing depth desired. Plows are pretty inflexible.

Did you mow the grass SHORT before you used the Moldboard Plow? Did you have coulters on the plow?

Are you experienced with plows, so you know how to properly adjust the plow to invert soil? You can run a plow through a field and accomplish almost nothing effective. Plowing is an advanced implement skill.

What diameter are the pans on the two Disc Harrows you used? Disc Diameter is the key metric for Disc Harrows.

You have to be careful not to overwork wet soil with your 10,000 pound tractor or it will be brick, with no oxygen for roots. (Swamp grass is adapted for low oxygen, muck conditions.) If you overwork the soil, chances are the low oxygen adapted swamp grass will spread.

The easiest and perhaps least damaging process would be to Roundup/Glycophosphate the undesirable grass, then plow and disc when the grass is COMPLETELY DEAD after ten days, being careful NOT to work the soil until is is nearly dry. If the swamp grass is completely dead you can disc after plowing. Unless you aerate the areas where the swamp grass is now growing, more desirable pasture grass will not be able to grow.

Almost all fields benefit from being plowed or aerated in some other form every six to ten years, depending on local conditions.

Keep in mind that a plow and a Disc Harrow perform different task. The plow slices and inverts soil.

Disc Harrows are one form of soil mixing tiller. A PTO powered roto-tiller is a second form of soil mixing tiller. In field conditions it would be unusual for a roto-tiller to mix soil better than a properly adjusted, correctly sized, Disc Harrow, in correctly moist soil.

 

[Egon]

Need the proper mouldboard for turning sod..

The rear wheel does not have to fit in the furrow.
[video]https://www.google.ca/search?q=large+plows&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-ca&client=safari#imgrc=kX5lWNwdc1dabM%3A[/video]

 

[stuckmotor]

That photo is impressive, Egon. Imagine going out to plow and having five Gators full of people come out to watch.

 

[jeff9366]

With a Three Point Hitch mounted, three-bottom plow, the right side tractor wheels must reach to the bottom of the furrow. Otherwise, the two level/B] lift pins will not orient the plow to invert soil.

 

[Egon]

Lift arm levelling

[video]https://www.google.ca/search?q=three+point+hitch&client=safari&hl=en-ca&prmd=ivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9iNuT2frMAhWDyoMKHUtsCecQ_AUIBygB&biw=1024&bih=681#imgdii=BaENrkz4A7dGQM%3A%3BuMKO8J8he7PToM% 3A%3BuMKO8J8he7PToM%3A&imgrc=uMKO8J8he7PToM%3A[/video]

 

[Soundguy]

Might have been a good place for a bog harrow