How long to till 15 acres?

[MNBobcat]

Hi Guys,

I've never owned a farm tractor before last fall so please go easy on me.

I've got 15 acres of grass/weeds on sandy soil. I need to get this field very smooth and get rye and fescue grass seed planted. I talked to a fellow this morning who recommended tilling the field, then going over it with a pulvarizer (I'm assuming something like a harley rake) and then dragging followed by seeding with a brillion seeder. The field has no rocks and was in alfalfa years ago. Soil is all sand.

I can rent a 70 inch tiller. I have a John Deere 3020 diesel tractor which I think is about 70 hp. I would like to hear from some experienced people before I rent the tiller and try and tackle this job. Could I till 15 acres in a weekend? How many acres/hr do you think I might reasonably be able to get done?

 

[crusty 1]

I can only say that a friend has a 90 hp tractor with 6.5 foot tiller in loam he can till at a walking pace so I,d guess yes you can.:thumbsup:

 

[beenthere]

Burn it off first.

If you stay at it, then you will complete the tilling job over the weekend. Might even get a chance to sleep a little bit. Figure to cover 5' at a pass. That would be about 25 miles of tilling. At 3 mph that would be roughly 8+ hours non-stop, if my calculations are right. Couple acres per hour.

But I can't imagine you will need a Harley rake after tilling. A good 4-5 section drag should do the necessary finish work.

Or to start with a good tandem disc twice over at different angles, followed by a drag would be cheaper. Being it is sandy soil, I don't see a need for the tiller. But you are there, and I'm not.

 

[LRTX1]

I agree with beenthere.

My question would be how rough or unlevel is the field now? Are there big holes? A lot can be done with a disc and drag. If all you can get is a tiller that should be fine too.

 

[MNBobcat]

Originally the field was very, very rough due to gophers. Last summer I rented a gopher getter and put down poison and that helped. Then an 80 year old gentleman stopped by and asked if he could trap the gophers. I gave him $2 a gopher and the County paid him that, too. He trapped a 190 gophers. Afterwords, I dragged the field and got rid of a lot of the roughness.

I'm going to fly an ultralight off of the field. So I need to be able to travel up to 30 mph with 10 inch tires and not be shaking the ultralight to death.

I just got off the phone with a friend of my dad's and this fellow has been farming the area all his life. He suggested I spray roundup, wait 3 - 5 days then plow with a moldbord plow. Then he said immediately after I should disc. Does that sound like a good plan? Could I get the field as smooth disc'ing and dragging as I could if I used the soil pulverizer/harley rake?

 

[flusher]

Hi Guys,

I've never owned a farm tractor before last fall so please go easy on me.

I've got 15 acres of grass/weeds on sandy soil. I need to get this field very smooth and get rye and fescue grass seed planted. I talked to a fellow this morning who recommended tilling the field, then going over it with a pulvarizer (I'm assuming something like a harley rake) and then dragging followed by seeding with a brillion seeder. The field has no rocks and was in alfalfa years ago. Soil is all sand.

I can rent a 70 inch tiller. I have a John Deere 3020 diesel tractor which I think is about 70 hp. I would like to hear from some experienced people before I rent the tiller and try and tackle this job. Could I till 15 acres in a weekend? How many acres/hr do you think I might reasonably be able to get done?

A tiller is slow and, depending on how slow you go, will turn that sandy soil to powder. Is that what you want?

I'd use a 7-ft wide offset disc and make a few passes over the field in several directions. I chain old tires behind mine to till my 6-acre hayfield. The white things are 120 lb concrete weights to make the disc bite better hard soil.







Sounds like you don't have any tillage implements and want to rent instead of buy. You might be able to find a disc cheap in your area. My neighbor gave me that old disc and I got the tires free. I had to replace a few of the pans (disc) but otherwise didn't spend more than about $75 on it.

 

[Plow Guy]

Hey bobcat, I have a 55 hp tractor and a 6' tiller from tractor supply.
I tilled up 5 ac. of sandy soil in about 8 hours. Thats in low range 3rd gear, which is kind a fast. I do till in low 1 when I am making my rows, which makes it really smooth.. I have tried to till in low 4, but the tractor out runs the tiller.

I like the others guy's here, can say you should be able to do it , but you will have some long days.

 

[deputy11]

I agree with beenthere.

My question would be how rough or unlevel is the field now? Are there big holes? A lot can be done with a disc and drag. If all you can get is a tiller that should be fine too.

IMO a tiller is overkill. You'll waste a lot of time and fuel stirring up several inches of dirt the seed doesn't care about. The disc and drag idea is much better. You will need to run some kind of packer over it after the seed is spread to get good earth-to-seed contact and hope for rain.

 

[jenkinsph]

Hi Guys,

I've never owned a farm tractor before last fall so please go easy on me.

I've got 15 acres of grass/weeds on sandy soil. I need to get this field very smooth and get rye and fescue grass seed planted. I talked to a fellow this morning who recommended tilling the field, then going over it with a pulvarizer (I'm assuming something like a harley rake) and then dragging followed by seeding with a brillion seeder. The field has no rocks and was in alfalfa years ago. Soil is all sand.

I can rent a 70 inch tiller. I have a John Deere 3020 diesel tractor which I think is about 70 hp. I would like to hear from some experienced people before I rent the tiller and try and tackle this job. Could I till 15 acres in a weekend? How many acres/hr do you think I might reasonably be able to get done?

You should be able to till this with a 6' tiller in 16 hours, with a larger tiller in about 12 hours. You could disk and harrow this in about 12 hours or so. If the ground is rough it will be more comfortable using the tiller.

I would consider pulling a drag harrow behind the tiller to make it a one trip job to prepare the seedbed. This is tilling at 1.5 mph for 21 miles and calculate with some overlap running 24 miles at 1.5 mph= 16 hours. This is for a Powershift 3020 in 1st gear for a syncrorange figure 2 mph and 12 hours tilling a little more shallow.

 

[Bigkrank]

width of cut in feet X mph / 10 = how many acres an hour

 

[Ford850]

If there is a lot of weed growth, grass, or debris growing now then a plow and disk would be better. If you can mow it very short first, a tiller at 2 or 3" max would be my choice. Either way I would spray first, as your farmer friend suggested.

 

[MMagis]

IMO a tiller is overkill.

I agree, it's not worth nearly that amount of time and fuel just for fescue and such. Disk/drag and plant before a rain.

 

[clemsonfor]

My first response was why, then you said why, so i have changed my answer. Now im going to ask, since you said you want to land/takeoff your ultralight, why not just do a "air strip"? What i mean is just till plant and pack the area you will use, it will save you a lot of time, fuel and wear on your tractor. Till a 30 ft wide or whatever by 1/4 mile long or howeverlong you need and make that the spot that you land and take off. This area will stand out as it will be green and well maniqured like a lawn so you should see where it is from the air. If you have trouble seeing it get some plastic cones or markers to line it with that you can take up to mow.

This is what i would do before i would consider tilling 15 acres.:confused2:


Also think that a tiller makes soft fluffy dirt behind it if done correctly, this will sink in and make ruts as you drive over it if you dont pack it. A disk can leave large clumps if not gone over enough times and still is soft, where your tires will sink and get caught in forrows if not dragged and packed.

You also need to constider how you will pack it? Will you drive your pickup across the landing area, 20 times to pack this soft dirt or will you let it settle out with rain and time and not use it for say a year or more?

-NAte

 

[charlz]

Also think that a tiller makes soft fluffy dirt behind it if done correctly, this will sink in and make ruts as you drive over it if you dont pack it. A disk can leave large clumps if not gone over enough times and still is soft, where your tires will sink and get caught in forrows if not dragged and packed.

You also need to constider how you will pack it? Will you drive your pickup across the landing area, 20 times to pack this soft dirt or will you let it settle out with rain and time and not use it for say a year or more?

I am thinking the guy who recommended the pulverizer meant the version that is like a cultipacker but with notched wheels versus smooth. This would break up any clumps (not likely in sandy soil) but also do some firming of the soil.

 

[paulinkansas]

Whatever you decide to do, do not cut it and then spray with Roundup. You also do not want to disk/plow it, and then spray with Roundup.

However, you can spray Roundup first, wait for it to do its thing, and then follow with cutting/plowing/disking.

 

[flusher]

IMO a tiller is overkill. You'll waste a lot of time and fuel stirring up several inches of dirt the seed doesn't care about. The disc and drag idea is much better. You will need to run some kind of packer over it after the seed is spread to get good earth-to-seed contact and hope for rain.

Yep. I have a 10-ft cultipacker on hand for that use.





This one is in real good shape--paid $600 for it. Haven't seen one this size much cheaper.

 

[Stargazer]

Hi But remember roundup etal only works on active growing plants. If in MINN think might be early for stuff to be popping. Forecast says some snow NW IA/sw mn this weekend

 

[wingbone]

Originally the field was very, very rough due to gophers. Last summer I rented a gopher getter and put down poison and that helped. Then an 80 year old gentleman stopped by and asked if he could trap the gophers. I gave him $2 a gopher and the County paid him that, too. He trapped a 190 gophers. Afterwords, I dragged the field and got rid of a lot of the roughness.

I'm going to fly an ultralight off of the field. So I need to be able to travel up to 30 mph with 10 inch tires and not be shaking the ultralight to death.

I just got off the phone with a friend of my dad's and this fellow has been farming the area all his life. He suggested I spray roundup, wait 3 - 5 days then plow with a moldbord plow. Then he said immediately after I should disc. Does that sound like a good plan? Could I get the field as smooth disc'ing and dragging as I could if I used the soil pulverizer/harley rake?

What kind of ultralight do you have? I had a Phantom for a few years but ended up selling it. I agree about just preparing a strip. 15 acres sounds like a lot just to land an ultralight, especially if 30mph is your take off/landing speed. We used to land in a long driveway.

 

[Canada_CT230]

I till 7 acres with my Bobcat CT230 and my 60" tiller. Takes me about 4-5 hours using MED range. I can till and full speed in the MED range.

 

[MNBobcat]

Wow! Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'll try to answer all of the questions.

I fly a powered parachute. Its a 3-wheeled cart with a pusher prop on the back and a parachute for a wing. Its critical with these that you always land and take off into the wind (unless you like tipping over). By making the whole 15 acres a runway, I can always take off or land directly into the wind rather than being constrained by a runway. Its a convenience more than anything. I could get by with two perpendicular runways but the big field would be a whole lot nicer.

I went out this evening with my old Farmall H and did some dragging. I discovered that by going over an area multiple times with the drag that it brought up a lot of sand and did a pretty fair job leveling. In some areas, you couldn't see any grass any more.

After seeing how the drag was able to work up the sand, I'm convinced that I could probably use a disc followed by a drag rather than tilling or plowing.

One of the concerns that I have is that my JD 3020 (which is what I mow with) is pretty heavy. If I loosen up the soil too much by tilling or plowing, then get everything level and the grass growing nicely, I'm worried the first time I mow the tractor is going to rut everything up. Whereas, if I lightly disc the top, drag and seed, I'm wondering if the ground won't be more solid and less likely to rut when I mow?

I do plan to spray round-up but not until after the grass in the field starts to green up. My farmer friend explained that round-up works by getting into the roots and only works when stuff is growing.

Lets say I do disc and drag....I was planning on seeding with a brillion because I can't find a no-till drill. The brillion does require really loose dirt (sand) to work, doesn't it? Would I need to go over the field with a cultipacker after using the brillion?

I'm sorry about all of the questions. I'm trying to educate myself and do things right. I'm going to get soil samples tomorrow and drop them off at the local feed store.