Fall tillage with a Utility tractor???

[BobinIL]

I am thinking about farming some small acreage. I would be using a John Deere 5410 MFWD 65hp for planting and spring tillage with 14ft impliments. My question is fall tillage. I would like to either use a chisel plow or a ripper. Is there a company that makes fall tillage equipment for tractors under 80hp?

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I'm not sure you're going to find a wide assortment of ripping/chiseling implements in that size range, especially in new equipment. But never fear. What I did several years ago was to find an 8' (9 shank) chisel plow and remove the outer shanks to end up with 7-shank, 6' width to use with a 60(+)hp tractor. Used chisel plows, especially smaller ones usually sell cheap. Removing shanks gives you a few "spare parts".

FRED CAIN Co. makes a 6' chisel plow that I'd actually consider more of a heavy duty field cultivator.

 

[BobinIL]

I have thought about that. The John Deere 1600 chisel plows are easy to find and cheap. They are like a heavy duty field cultivator also.

 

[scott_vt]

Hi Bob,
Off topic but have you ever owned an IH 240 utility tractor ???

 

[BobinIL]

Yes I have.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Unverferth, in their Town and Country Ltd. "Freedom Line", makes a 2-shank ripper/subsoiler, very solidly made and capable of going deep, that would be about right for your size tractor. I have seen the one shank version and it is solid. The shank is a parabolic curve which uses less hp than a simple straight shank. They are shear bolt protected too, not like the cheapo stuff at chain stores.

Worksaver makes a nice 1-shank subsoiler with similar features, but I imagine you would want a 2-shank.

Baltic (A/S Baltic Korn of Denmark) makes a chisel plow in sizes from 5 to 15 shanks, with spring trips and 3pt mount, called the Baltiboy all purpose plow. Based on their brochure you would probably want either the 13-shank version (10'8") or 15-shank version (12'3").

In my area both these lines are available from virtually any tractor/implement dealer that sells real farming equipment, though they often aren't stocked but just special order from the distributor.

 

[radman1]

I would go with the used chisel plow idea. Pull type chisels plows are really cheap for the weight and what they do. They often will sell for $400-500 at auctions. Farmers just don't want them anymore. In my area, Krause was a common brand name. JD and others make them as well. 12-14' is a common size. Remove a few of the end shanks to go down to 8' which is probably what you can pull. You can put on straight shanks, twisted shanks or wider sweeps. Strait and twisted shanks can go 5-6" deep, if you can pull it. You can chisel at different angles if you want and loosen it up more. Rippers can go deeper but in most cases probably over kill. I have a JD 5310 MFWD and I fabricated a HD single shank ripper and it can stop the tractor in it tracks. A ripper is very slow going and you can maybe pull 2-3 rippers. The ground can also be very rough after ripping.