N80
Super Member
I'm slowly learning what most of you already know. But, it is through trial and error. Mostly error.
This weekend I went down to my place to prepare my little food plots for the fall. I plant oats and I use my boxblade to scratch up the ground and then a homemade harrow to cover it all up. I've done this about two years in a row. The plots are small (no more than 1/4 acre) and the soil is awful ranging from dense clay to sandy clay with rocks. But, with the right amount of lime and fertilizer the oats do okay.
The problem this weekend is that since I've been fertilizing these plots for two years they had a pretty dense covering of fescue and weeds. More than ever before. In the past it has just been dirt and a few scruffy weeds. The boxblade was fine for roughing up the dirt. But, it was terrible with all that grass and junk, even though I had mowed it very close. It clogs the boxblade teeth and it won't dig. After an hour of thrashing around in it I realized I had a big problem. I could scrape all the grass away but it would take the topsoil with it. I had a real mess.
So I stopped and stood in the shade and pondered and it occured to me that I needed something that would turn that turf over. That's when the light went on. So that's what a plow is for!! But then I thought about what you'd do next. It would all be turned over but still in big clumps. Then the next light went on. A disk would do a good job with that! And of course after trying to push a yard fertilizer spreader around in that rough stuff it also occured to me that a tractor mounted spreader sure would be nice.
That night at supper I was lamenting to my B-I-L (who is a rancher) how I'd suddenly discovered the tools I needed but that they'd cost around $2000 which I don't have. Then he tells me he has a plow I can use. I didn't get real excited because usually when he says something like this I find whatever object he is referring to half buried and more rust than metal.
The next day as we were feeding and moving cows he points to a big pile of rusty junk and says the plow is in there. Well, after digging through briars, sheet metal, barbed wire and pickup truck rear ends I find it. It isn't a plow at all but it is a largish middle buster. It is a rusty, homemade looking piece of junk that looks like it has been repaired half a dozen times. One of the hitch pins is bent into an 'L' shape and the top link bracket is splayed apart.
I pulled it out and asked him if I could fix it and give it a try, warning him that I was sure to break it again. After a lot of WD-40 I got the rusty hitch pin out and put a new one on it. I banged the top link attachment closer together with a sledge hammer and presto, I've got this:
Well, in a nutshell it worked like a charm. It took me a few passes to get the angle right and a few more passes to get the speed right, but I was amazed how well it works. I did hit some dense, rocky hardpan about 5 inched deep that it would not cut through, but everywhere else it was fine. In 4wd and 3-lo I had the speed right. Turned the sod right over. It caught on a few rocks and actually pulled a small lighter knot right out of the ground but the tractor kept going and nothing broke. I set the 3 pt hitch with a little side to side play.
Not having a disk yet, I broadcast the oats and dragged over them with a homemade harrow. Not ideal, but a step in the right direction.
So next year I should have this down. I'll turn everything over a few times with the free middle buster (a real plow might be better, but free is free) a few weeks ahead of time. Then I'll disk (I hope to have one by then). I also hope to have a spreader by then too.
Live and learn.
This weekend I went down to my place to prepare my little food plots for the fall. I plant oats and I use my boxblade to scratch up the ground and then a homemade harrow to cover it all up. I've done this about two years in a row. The plots are small (no more than 1/4 acre) and the soil is awful ranging from dense clay to sandy clay with rocks. But, with the right amount of lime and fertilizer the oats do okay.
The problem this weekend is that since I've been fertilizing these plots for two years they had a pretty dense covering of fescue and weeds. More than ever before. In the past it has just been dirt and a few scruffy weeds. The boxblade was fine for roughing up the dirt. But, it was terrible with all that grass and junk, even though I had mowed it very close. It clogs the boxblade teeth and it won't dig. After an hour of thrashing around in it I realized I had a big problem. I could scrape all the grass away but it would take the topsoil with it. I had a real mess.
So I stopped and stood in the shade and pondered and it occured to me that I needed something that would turn that turf over. That's when the light went on. So that's what a plow is for!! But then I thought about what you'd do next. It would all be turned over but still in big clumps. Then the next light went on. A disk would do a good job with that! And of course after trying to push a yard fertilizer spreader around in that rough stuff it also occured to me that a tractor mounted spreader sure would be nice.
That night at supper I was lamenting to my B-I-L (who is a rancher) how I'd suddenly discovered the tools I needed but that they'd cost around $2000 which I don't have. Then he tells me he has a plow I can use. I didn't get real excited because usually when he says something like this I find whatever object he is referring to half buried and more rust than metal.
The next day as we were feeding and moving cows he points to a big pile of rusty junk and says the plow is in there. Well, after digging through briars, sheet metal, barbed wire and pickup truck rear ends I find it. It isn't a plow at all but it is a largish middle buster. It is a rusty, homemade looking piece of junk that looks like it has been repaired half a dozen times. One of the hitch pins is bent into an 'L' shape and the top link bracket is splayed apart.
I pulled it out and asked him if I could fix it and give it a try, warning him that I was sure to break it again. After a lot of WD-40 I got the rusty hitch pin out and put a new one on it. I banged the top link attachment closer together with a sledge hammer and presto, I've got this:
Well, in a nutshell it worked like a charm. It took me a few passes to get the angle right and a few more passes to get the speed right, but I was amazed how well it works. I did hit some dense, rocky hardpan about 5 inched deep that it would not cut through, but everywhere else it was fine. In 4wd and 3-lo I had the speed right. Turned the sod right over. It caught on a few rocks and actually pulled a small lighter knot right out of the ground but the tractor kept going and nothing broke. I set the 3 pt hitch with a little side to side play.
Not having a disk yet, I broadcast the oats and dragged over them with a homemade harrow. Not ideal, but a step in the right direction.
So next year I should have this down. I'll turn everything over a few times with the free middle buster (a real plow might be better, but free is free) a few weeks ahead of time. Then I'll disk (I hope to have one by then). I also hope to have a spreader by then too.
Live and learn.
