Disking up an old field

[Yander]

Years ago I had a 5 acre lot with no tractor and was borrowing my parents walk behind tiller to till about an acre at a time and seed it. I bought a boom sprayer and sprayed it with round up before tilling it. At one point, I had sprayed roundup to get a kill on the yard and then waited for the round up to work {7-10 days) during that period we were getting a lot of rain so I couldn't till until it dried up a little.

I left the grass in my seeder since I was using it regularly and one of my young sons found the seeder and decided to seed a long strip of that soil before I even tilled it. In fact, I didn't even know he did it.

A couple weeks later I saw this very nice stand of grass in a very long strip about the width of my seeder and I knew what had happened.

My point being, grass will grow with very little to no surface tillage at all. It needs a weed free environment so not competing and water. It will grow. There are even people who plant right on top of a late snow, say late March, and let the snow melt and create a moist cool environment for cool season grass to germinate. I've not done it but it seems like it would work.

 

[jaxs]

If tillers were the best way of preparing seed bed you would see farmers using Green 500 horsepower tillers instead of chisel followed by disc and harrow. As for Roundup before plowing,tilling or discing,it depends on what is growing at the time and how mature. In soil that's worked annually ,most vegetation will be immature annuals that will be killed by discing. For scattered perennials ,spot treating requires less Roundup and burns less fuel. Rye,Millit and such can be seeded with little or no soil prep and using more seed. Planting Winter pasture over Summer pastureland I drill directly unless it's low fertility soil. I broadcast seed followed by liquid N injected behind narrow chisels dragging chain harrow. It isn't worth owning,borrowing or stealing a dedicated implement for a small field but you can do a creditable job with 55 gallons liquid N sitting on a box blade with hoses behind rippers and blade just tipping surface to spread loose soil a little. There's little need for mold boarding unless you have heavy standing cover crop , inordinate amounts of trash OR YOU HAVE SPREAD COMPOST FIRST,in which case a tiller might be a better option.

 

[two_bit_score]

Years ago I had a 5 acre lot with no tractor and was borrowing my parents walk behind tiller to till about an acre at a time and seed it. I bought a boom sprayer and sprayed it with round up before tilling it. At one point, I had sprayed roundup to get a kill on the yard and then waited for the round up to work {7-10 days) during that period we were getting a lot of rain so I couldn't till until it dried up a little.

I left the grass in my seeder since I was using it regularly and one of my young sons found the seeder and decided to seed a long strip of that soil before I even tilled it. In fact, I didn't even know he did it.

A couple weeks later I saw this very nice stand of grass in a very long strip about the width of my seeder and I knew what had happened.

My point being, grass will grow with very little to no surface tillage at all. It needs a weed free environment so not competing and water. It will grow. There are even people who plant right on top of a late snow, say late March, and let the snow melt and create a moist cool environment for cool season grass to germinate. I've not done it but it seems like it would work.

It seems like for me grass grows everywhere I don’t want it and very few places I do.

But you’re 100% right one thing about grass...it will grow!

 

[Yander]

If tillers were the best way of preparing seed bed you would see farmers using Green 500 horsepower tillers instead of chisel followed by disc and harrow. As for Roundup before plowing,tilling or discing,it depends on what is growing at the time and how mature. In soil that's worked annually ,most vegetation will be immature annuals that will be killed by discing. For scattered perennials ,spot treating requires less Roundup and burns less fuel. Rye,Millit and such can be seeded with little or no soil prep and using more seed. Planting Winter pasture over Summer pastureland I drill directly unless it's low fertility soil. I broadcast seed followed by liquid N injected behind narrow chisels dragging chain harrow. It isn't worth owning,borrowing or stealing a dedicated implement for a small field but you can do a creditable job with 55 gallons liquid N sitting on a box blade with hoses behind rippers and blade just tipping surface to spread loose soil a little. There's little need for mold boarding unless you have heavy standing cover crop , inordinate amounts of trash OR YOU HAVE SPREAD COMPOST FIRST,in which case a tiller might be a better option.

A tiller, even a large one, is too slow for farming large acreage. We aren't talking about conventional farming here. That is an entirely different conversation. I assume you are talking about 45 in liquid form. You can also buy that in granular and broadcast it but not on newly planted grass.

Something that hasn't been mentioned as an option, if it has been mowed previously, how much grass is already there. Maybe you just go spray some broadleaf herbicide and then broadcast some granular nitrogen to help the grass and keep mowing it until you have just grass. If there is almost no grass there now, I would probably go with the suggestion that @LD1 had early, roundup and slicer seeder.

 

[nova3930]

My point being, grass will grow with very little to no surface tillage at all. It needs a weed free environment so not competing and water. It will grow. There are even people who plant right on top of a late snow, say late March, and let the snow melt and create a moist cool environment for cool season grass to germinate. I've not done it but it seems like it would work.

Down here in warm grass land, I'm convinced Bermuda grass will grown on concrete with enough water. It will sure enough send runners over 6-8 feet of it to get to more dirt....

 

[jaxs]

Down here in warm grass land, I'm convinced Bermuda grass will grown on concrete with enough water. It will sure enough send runners over 6-8 feet of it to get to more dirt....

A business black topped a lot overgrown in Johnson Grass next-door to my office and the grass busted chips the size of 25 cent pieces and kept right on growing.

 

[LHF2019]

Having bought my neighbors 8 acre field, one that adjoins my own, I:d like to disk it up and replant in pasture grass. This field had one horse for maybe 5 years but that was 20 years ago and has sat since in other than being mowed.. My tractor is 30hp but I don't own a disk. I could buy a new one, as used implements around here means very big like 100HP stuff and larger. I think a 6ft disk would work for me but which one would be suitable on todays market and at what cost? I know this ground has some rocks so I'd rather not plow it up if possible, but if disking it 4 inches or so this might be what I need. I talked around to have it done for me but custom guys want a lot of cash for such a small field, I can't blame them though but in reality I'd rather do it myself being retired now with lots of time. Any ideas on a disk?

Wow, lots of great ideas from so many. Thanks a bunch for all the input ideas. I may end up ripping with my boxblade, drag off any rocks then rototill it all as I have those implements already. I can pick a small area to try out, see how it goes.

I see a couple people asked and I don't see a response to why you want it tore up other than in your original post to replant.

Is it rough? If rough and you want it smooth then tear it up.

What is already growing? If broad leafs and you only want grass then spray and maintain and grass will grow. Much Much more inexpensive than going through the entire tillage and reseeding plan.

What are you going to use it for in the end? If pasture and field is a little rough does it really matter.

There is much more than rip it up and reseed if you are looking for good results. Soil sample, fertilizer, lime if needed. Very expensive not to mention purchasing the seed and tillage/fuel cost.

Whether going to use for hay, pasture, or just to mow and look nice consider mowing at 4-5 inches high on a 20-30 day interval. Spray for broad leafs if needed. Soil sample and apply what may be needed per your budget which appears rather large considering what you want to do to 8 acres.

Very rough estimate here for doing 8 acres $400/acre. That would be for everything from tillage to reseeding.

 

[3gunr]

Last yr i turned a 10 acre crop field that had not been planted in 2 yrs into CRP. I thought about having someone prep the soil but decided to do it myself, I sprayed it with gly 3 times over a 6 month period to kill all weeds and grass which was thick and tall , I then mowed it as low as possible, I started with my 6ft tiller but it was so slow going i switched to a 6 ft disk , added some weight and went at it, It took me 2 full weekends to get it disked and drug smooth but it worked great and the crp came up beautiful. The key was killing of all the vegetation and mowing down as low as possible, The disk is an angle iron disk with notched disks, I added about 150 of weight to it and it actually cut to good, ended up taking the weight off. It took some time but i enjoyed it and saved myself some money.

 

[MoPops]

Interesting thread. Glad I found it. I have a 6’ cheap disc built on angle iron, and a 27hp Bobcat tractor. It’s 4 wheel drive, but does not have ag tires. I’ve got a small 3 ac field that’s grass and poison ivy. I’m going to try and plant some clover, and anything else that might attract deer. I was going to spray, put down fertilizer and lime, disc up what I could, then broadcast some seed. Drag some
thing over it, maybe a cultivator. And just see what comes up. The field hasn’t had any livestock on it, but hasn’t been worked in 50 years. After reading through this, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t try to find someone to plow it first.

 

[Fueler]

While it goes against the DIY code I am in the hire a farmer group. Cost of diesel, a couple of hours of field time and cleanup might be less expensive. If you time it for the time of year the farmer is actually using the appropriate tools makes it the much easier for them to take the job on.