My first day of plowing

[mrutkaus]

boy i spent a few hours on a new ridgetop garden with a KKII 5' tiller last few days. garden only about 60'x45'.

many rocks and roots. only thing i've used before is a 3.5hp rototiller, 45 years old (on smaller space).

used 30hp Kioti ck30hst.

i tell you, i would not have wanted anything smaller!!! roots, rocks, ever tilled before. went over it again and again, really slow.

the more i learned the slower i went.

mike

 

[Kendrick]

I hear ya mike. Im gettin ready to put in 2+ acres of never tilled rough rock(maybe i should call boulder) strewen land. im goin to have a hoot with my bh pulling out the foot locker sized rocks...

 

[Birdbrain]

3. If I turn, the plow goes the opposite.

I assume you lift the plow when you turn?
Bob

What I meant by that was that my attempts to straighten out the furrow only made it worse. My past experience was with a pull type plow. If the furrow is a little crooked, I could adjust by driving to the inside or outside of the furrow in the part that was going astray. The plow followed along to the minor steering adjustments.

So I tried the same adjustments, but now using a 3ph mounted plow for the first time. But then I learned that if I steer slightly to the left, the plow reacts by going to the right until I straighten out again. Winds up making the wiggle in the furrow worse. Eventually, I gave in and plowed a wavy line.

Glen

 

[Birdbrain]

We had some issues getting it mounted. First, the right coulter hit the lower arm. So we had to break it loose and turn it inward a half inch. That required WD40, borrowed socket set, and lots of grunting. Then the end of the frame rubbed against the vertical part of the arm (sorry, don't know the proper name...still learning). Adn trying to shorten the top arm so the plows were level made this worse. We thought this was going to be a show stopper and were considering getting out our ancient set of pull type plows. But after doing a couple other things, I came back and realized that I could tighten the turnbuckle on the left, pull the plows over so they would clear. This improved the situation, but it was still a very tight fit and the end of the frame would rub the knuckle that held the pins.

Questions:
2. There seems to be about 3" extra frame beyond the bolts holding the coulter. Can this be burned off to avoid the conflicts?

Glen

Last night, I cut about 2" off of the end of the frame. Over the weekend, I want to try it out again.

I have a new area to work up that will be a berry patch (eventually hoping to make our own jam/jelly). This area was my grandfather's garden many years ago, has sometimes been tilled with the field, has sometimes been mowed as part of the yard.

Wednesday night, I had the middlebuster attached to run rows in the garden. I ran 3 passes through the area to see how hard the ground was. It passes through easily, probably 4-5" deep. Now I want to see what the plow will do.

Glen

 

[LabLuvR]

N80,

I promise you that with fescue you will want to burn it with Roundup or a similar product first. Take it from a guy who learned the hard way. Mow, and then burn, is the only way to go. Otherwise you will spend all of your life trying to get the ground ready. If you need it sprayed let me know.

 

[N80]

Well, apparently he just ran the disk over it and then planted. There's a scarecrow out there now. I don't think the scarecrow is going to be very busy.

There are still clumps of fescue everywhere. I just don't see how that's going to work. But then again, I'm not going to say anything, there's a reasonable chance that he knows more about it than I do and in 90 days there will be head-high sunflowers and flocks of doves.

As for fescue, you are probably right. However, burning has been a problem around here in the past year because of the drought. More manageable now maybe, but would still need fire lanes etc. I don't think my B-I-L (who owns the land this guy is planting) would allow a burn. He has barns and stuff right next to this field.

In any case, I've had success with a turning plow. It turns the fescue 'sod' over and most of it dies. Then I disk it. Some still pops up here and there but it isn't too bad. But as you suggest, it is never really gone this way.

 

[LabLuvR]

Sorry for not being clear. By burning, I meant to burn the plant using Roundup, not burning as in the normal sense. If you don't kill the plant with Roundup you will pay in time and cost trying to do it any other way. On my land I had 5 acres of the crap to eliminate, finally I listened to others and used Roundup. The roots system of fescue acts like a claw to hold the soil, Roundup kills the plant releasing the soil in the meantime. This in turn makes it a whole lot easier and less timing consuming to work the dirt.

I doubt he will have a field of any kind if we get rain. Money and time down the tubes would be my bet, but I hope I'm wrong for his sake. But again, the only way to really have any chance of eliminating it is through Roundup or equivalent. I love tractor time, but plowing fescue got old fast. My time was much better spent prepping ground for food plots.

With dove fields they have to be kept clean of any weeds or grasses. Doves cannot scratch like a chicken or turkey. That is why most people who have super dove fields hold all the birds. They are providing the right kind of habitat.

 

[N80]

You were clear, I just misread.

I'm just going to ride this out as a spectator this time. If its a big flop, which it sounds like it will be, I'll offer advice and assistance next year. My B-I-L has a big boom sprayer and he would not mind spraying as long as someone else bought the chemicals, so that might be the first move next spring.

 

[slowzuki]

Pigeons (aka Doves 1st cousins) are the bane of our farming! Any tips for getting rid of them? We've been chicken wiring every nesting place, shooting them and smashing all the eggs we see to no avail.
Ken

With dove fields they have to be kept clean of any weeds or grasses. Doves cannot scratch like a chicken or turkey. That is why most people who have super dove fields hold all the birds. They are providing the right kind of habitat.

 

[LabLuvR]

If you ever find the secret to pigeon eradication you will be a millionaire!

Seriously, I don't know anything about pigeons except they poop everywhere. Almost as bad as geese.