Leveling a 3% sloped area with a Box blade

[Glass]

Hi,

I have read quite a bit on the forum about box blades being the best for leveling work. Please help me determine if a 4' box blade works with a 24HP Kubota B2420 for my scenario.

A piece of my farmland that I intend to level is about 10 acres and has a slope of 3% along the length (12 m over a length of 375 m). There are also some undulations along the breadth. The soil is medium and works okay when slightly moist - certainly not hard clay.

I am looking to level this piece of land into a number of long strips that reduce soil and water runoff. Some of my considerations are not to disturb too much fertile top soil and also keep the costs as low as possible. Normally large tractors with rear ploughs and front dozers are put to use for such work in my area, but I am hoping it may be economical to chip away at it myself since I can stretch the project over many months.

Questions:

1. Is the leveling idea over 10 acres reasonable?
2. Could this be accomplished with a 4' box blade with my 24HP tractor? If so, I would buy the box blade.
3. At the moment, I have no weights on the tractor - would I need to get some?
4. I am thinking this should mean marking some plots/strips of land first and creating bunds along their borders, then ploughing within each plot and dragging the soil with the box blade bucket top to bottom. Does this make sense?
5. Is it possible to make the bunds with the box blade?
6. Any clue on how many hours it might take for this kind of work?
7. Would a box blade help to make some swales too?
8. Are there any simpler ways of accomplishing the leveling?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jenkinsph]

I have been doing alot of this same work this year, that is grading for single slopes on irrigated farm land. I am currently building a new pull type boxblade with two laser guided receivers for automatic machine control. This work can be accomplished with a single slope laser and a stick too but is much faster and less of a pain with machine control. Borders can be made a few ways but most use a border disc in my locale, gathers the dirt on each side and builds up the middle for the border.

I have a 24hp garden tractor with a 4' boxblade and 4' landplane for smoothing, works great for little jobs in tight spots. No way would I consider this appropriate for what you intend to do. Way to inefficient as far as your time and the amount of fuel you would use. What you describe would be better accomplished with a larger dozer equipped with machine control laser grading. Probably cheaper too.

For what I do small plots averaging 3 to 6 acres normally I am using a 60 hp compact now but suspect I will need to move up to a larger tractor and considering a 5115 M Deere for this. I don't think it is economically feasible to do this yourself for a one shot deal, the equipment cost is too high. You would be better off to contract this job out imo.

 

[Glass]

Thanks jenkinsph, makes perfect sense.
Do you have any indication of how many hours such a job might take with your 60hp per acre?

 

[xzcVAbc5]

You might want to check the permies.com forums on what would be best for conservation of the soil + most cost efficient for what you're trying to accomplish.

 

[Glass]

Thanks for the link, checking it out right now.

 

[Piston]

I have been doing alot of this same work this year, that is grading for single slopes on irrigated farm land. I am currently building a new pull type boxblade with two laser guided receivers for automatic machine control.

Steve,
Do you have a thread on building the pull type box blade?

 

[jenkinsph]

Thanks jenkinsph, makes perfect sense.
Do you have any indication of how many hours such a job might take with your 60hp per acre?

It varies quite a lot, depends on the amount of yardage you have to move to bring it into specs.

 

[jenkinsph]

Steve,
Do you have a thread on building the pull type box blade?

Gathering materials right now, wan't to have everything on hand before I start assembly. I will pm you when I start the thread though. The boxblade is reasonable but the machine control products are expensive.

 

[Piston]

Gathering materials right now, wan't to have everything on hand before I start assembly. I will pm you when I start the thread though. The boxblade is reasonable but the machine control products are expensive.

I imagine laser leveling equipment is pretty pricey, but will more than pay for itself when you line up some contracts. Looking forward to your build thread, I've always been intrigued by the pull behind box blades. :thumbsup:

 

[CLinton_in_FL]

Gathering materials right now, wan't to have everything on hand before I start assembly. I will pm you when I start the thread though. The boxblade is reasonable but the machine control products are expensive.

I would be very interested in this as well. can you add me to the PM list?

Thanks