How can I level a field with large holes

[Qapla]

... some other type of drag. An I beam or a piece of RR iron might work as well. Just something to shift the dirt from the high spots into the holes.

As long as the object you drag (I-beam, RR iron, Utility pole, RR tie) is heavy enough and as wide or wirer than the tractor it will help.

I would also suggest that you attach a length of chain link fence to the drag object about 7'-10' long that will trail behind. It will do wonders for leveling a field.

 

[boggen]

i rarely seen them. and have been tempted to myself. is add some bolt on "wings" to the outside edges of a rear blade. in essence just a couple pieces of metal one on each side, and you get a make shift box blade.

granted a rear blade the cutting edge, is not designed like a box blade cutting edge to cut down into the dirt. but... if you have a tooth bar or like on the FEL or some sort of 3pt hitch implement, that could tear up the dirt before hand. it would most likely allow a rear blade with wings to really move some dirt around and level things out.

many areas on this farm have been dug into, over the years, with just a FEL (front end loader) and heavy duty bucket. and then took dirt to other areas to fill in holes and like. and then just "back dragged" with the FEL bucket. to roughly smooth things out. you can get a descent flat ness, but for myself i still end up with some ugly bumps here and there. and may toss the disc on. and run over the area any were from couple times to a dozen or so times pending on how compacted the dirt is. and hit a higher gear. and let the dirt fly. to smooth things out with a disc. it may not be the best idea in the world. nor the easiest. but do what ya gotta do.

 

[yelbike]

What about a box blade with scarifiers or a land plane? Its like a reason to justify a new purchase rather than hiring someone.

 

[flusher]

Around here in the North Sacramento Valley we have tens of thousands of acres of orchard (almonds, olives, pistachio, English walnut). Old orchards are continually being taken out by large equipment that pull the trees out of the ground roots and all, leaving big holes to fill in. Generally, field is ripped by D9 Cats



disced and then leveled using large land planes. My neighbor is using this large plane to level one of his 10 acre irrigated alfalfa fields.




Good luck.

 

[dkocian]

Never seen a land plane work. That is one cool piece of equipment. However, hiring a dozer and the land plane as well would make it cost prohibitive. Still trying to figure out how to do it with my own equipment. Put the grandkids on the tractor and get some use out of them (these are 25 year old grandkids). I think I'll try the plow/disc/harrow method, going crosswise first and then up and down, and see how it goes. I have seen the chain link fence drag work, but only for land that needs to be smoothed out, not for filling holes and leveling. Never tried dragging an ibeam, but that has some possibilities as well. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[bcp]

Make a grader like this guy did:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/184854-homemade-pull-behind-grader.html

 

[boggen]

what flusher and bcp are noting in pictures. is much like a "motor grader" as in the actual machine. you might have seen on some old gravel roads. but instead of being a dedicated machine, you are seeing a 3pt hitch type of doing in the pictures they posted.

and for most part work much like a rear blade or a box blade. but they tend to have much further distances between the blade itself and tires in front and behind the blade. and most likely also have extra hydraulics to adjust the blade in multi directions.

the longer distances between blade and the wheels behind it and in front of the blade. = less hassles of trying to deal with little hills and valleys that can happen. when operating say a rear blade or box blade. over long distances, like in a field.

 

[schmism]

rip and push dirt with a dozer.

nothing short of that will be adequate unless you count the plan to haul in dirt and drop it in the holes.

nothing short of full size ag tractor (150+ hp) pulling a pan will cut it. (or back to the dozer idea)

 

[crowbar032]

Given your description I suspect that my field wasn't as bad as yours, but I just made a hay field out of a slightly sloped field that was used to grow tobacco for years. Over those years a moldboard plow was used and "holes" were plowed into it. There was also a 2 ft ridge built up where the slope started. I plowed the field trying to leave the dead furrow on the ridges. I ran a 3-pt tiller across the field first, then I borrowed a drag disk with a 12 ft steel I beam trailing about 10 ft behind the disk. The I beam weighed over 200 lbs. On the high spots, the I beam would load up with dirt. When the I beam had the dirt behind it, I cut across the dips and the dirt filled them in. You'll have to go across the field many times using a criss-crossed and an S pattern. Overall it worked well, I got the ridge and holes leveled out. I don't think it would have worked as well if I hadn't tilled it before dragging the disk across it.

I've never seen one in use or used one, but a bog disk might work too.

 

[lutt]

Around here in the North Sacramento Valley we have tens of thousands of acres of orchard (almonds, olives, pistachio, English walnut). Old orchards are continually being taken out by large equipment that pull the trees out of the ground roots and all, leaving big holes to fill in. Generally, field is ripped by D9 Cats

View attachment 282876

disced and then leveled using large land planes. My neighbor is using this large plane to level one of his 10 acre irrigated alfalfa fields.


View attachment 282877View attachment 282878

Good luck.

That is how we do every year behind watered crops.Except we use tractors instead of dozers. Down in the delta we water soybeans,corn and cotton down the middles. Rice we water by flooding lands. That is a older version of land planes. Those do a really good job. They are nothing like a road grader, the dirt goes back and forth down the blades and is discharged off to the side. If you drag one down the road,they will level it, but displace your gravel on the side of the road causing the road to get lower,because you moved the gravel off to the side. In the field you come back around and pick up you bead of dirt on the next pass and roll it over down the blades,effectively filling in holes and ruts as you go. The field is always disced or a scratcher is pulled over before the land planes. LUTT