Need Advice on Smoothing Field

[i7win7]

If your land leveling needs are heavy duty here are some interesting tools.
Hoelscher Commercial Products - GR Grader
Hoelscher Commercial Products - RB Scraper

Good for shearing off mole hills and flattening runs. Have larger tractor when I really want to "make it work"

 

[bmaverick]

First, let me point something out. I am working on a patch of about 10 acres of hay field, so although it is not ideal to use a heavy roller due to compaction issues, it is better than the alternatives to get a smooth field so that hay can be taken off without damaging expensive equipment. Also, when I get this field done, I have another 250 acres, which about 50 of needs smoothing.

Disc Harrow, front gang notched, back gang round. Add weight to your liking to get the high spots loose to fill in the low spots. Next, with a WIDE straight blade, travel forward with the blade in reverse. This will SMOOTH the high spots and fill in the low spots along with grading it all nicely. See my cheesy image ... The C is the blade in reverse.

|O--O\---C

These are the tools used after an area has been logged and the stumps ripped out leaving these gaping holes like a semi-truck tire in size.

Disc harrow will not compact the soil, instead it will open it up and allow nutrients over the winter to be added. It's a great tool for food plotting for animals as well.

Been doing this since the land was logged and cleared. Works really well. Have not needed to use and dragged tools either.

 

[alexebdra453]

I'm 100% no before here, but we have some crp that we sprayed and planted onto, and we've been struggling with rougher and rocky fields. What's your suggestion on how to make things better this fall or next spring? My tools for tilling are slender. 24ft disk, a cultimulcher, too. Never before had Habe had a field cultivator? Don't want to spend a lot, because a lot of it won't be used. 130hp is the biggest tractor. Thanks,

 

[Creamer]

First, let me point something out. I am working on a patch of about 10 acres of hay field, so although it is not ideal to use a heavy roller due to compaction issues, it is better than the alternatives to get a smooth field so that hay can be taken off without damaging expensive equipment. Also, when I get this field done, I have another 250 acres, which about 50 of needs smoothing. I have pulled a 10ft drag over the area multiple times, and it is not the answer. Yes, it helps get the excess thatch out, and yes it helps aerate the soil, but it will not smooth the ruts, depressions and high points. Top dressing 10 acres is also not an option, at least not around here. The cost of the amount of top soil you would need is just not economically feasible. So, turf specialists Dave Minner, while I respect and agree that it is not ideal to roll a yard due to compaction, I do think it is an option for acres of hay fields. Also, after the field is rolled and smoother, I will run a core aerator over it hopefully this fall and again in the spring. To till up all these acres, destroy a good mature crop of established orchard grasses, and start over, although I originally thought was the answer, I have now concluded it is not.
So, my plan is to roll this field out so it is reasonable to mow and bale at 4-5 mph, aerate, slit seed, which will hopefully provide a hay field that will be productive. This will take substantially less time, get the field smooth, increase production, eliminate the need to destroy an existing mature stand of crop, and provide a better crop sooner.

The roller company is Grahl Manufacturing. 1-888-732-7789 Ask for Jerry. He is the owner, American made, small business owner. Very helpful. I ordered a 36” by 72” roller. They also have spiked rollers for aeration, but I prefer core aeration.

A lot of the solution depends on the problem and you need to use the right tool for the problem. If your problem is underground activity, i.e. moles, gophers, and the like rollers packing it down will be very helpful. The thing you have to remember is that nature loosens the soil with roots, frost heave, and other mechanisms so that if you overpack certain areas they will bump back again after a good winter. If the problem is mounds from digging animals then you have to cut those off and distribute with a blade, land plane or other earth moving device and then smooth it with a drag or something similar. If the problem is holes from tree or rock removal or the digging for whatever reason then you are going to have to fill them either with dirt from around the area via cultivation or hauling it in. General roughness can be caused by the type of grass that bunches making it very rough for a small tractor, or previous use as a pasture where hooves during wet weather may have roughened it. These type of defects will often work themselves out with a little help by being mowed short and drug with a weighted drag, use of a verticutter or other mower that will top a mound ( a friend of mine always said his lawn was smooth because the first time he mowed every spring he put a set of old blades on his Grasshopper and set the deck very low where it scalped the high spots but not enough to kill the grass and then he mowed normally the rest of the season).

 

[Creamer]

Disc Harrow, front gang notched, back gang round. Add weight to your liking to get the high spots loose to fill in the low spots. Next, with a WIDE straight blade, travel forward with the blade in reverse. This will SMOOTH the high spots and fill in the low spots along with grading it all nicely. See my cheesy image ... The C is the blade in reverse.

|O--O\---C

These are the tools used after an area has been logged and the stumps ripped out leaving these gaping holes like a semi-truck tire in size.

Disc harrow will not compact the soil, instead it will open it up and allow nutrients over the winter to be added. It's a great tool for food plotting for animals as well.

Been doing this since the land was logged and cleared. Works really well. Have not needed to use and dragged tools either.

Don't kid yourself - the disc lifts and moves the dirt and there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words the bottom edge of the disc is packing what is below it and will create a hardpan. Any tillage that lifts the soil will have this same reaction and will create the hardpan. The hardpan is not a good thing but if it is only done one time or one season to get it leveled, the roots will eventually go thru this hardpan and break it up and life will be good.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have this harley rake and have fields as the op describes that I would like smoothed out. It would not be my tool of choice. It would be an unholly mess of sod, rocks and clods. I would run a disk over it a few times before using the Harley, IF that was my plan anyways.

You can only realistically windrow material so much and then you need to collect the debris. Even with equipment, it's an insane amount of work. I did this for removal on one job.

 

[bmaverick]

Disc Harrow, front gang notched, back gang round. Add weight to your liking to get the high spots loose to fill in the low spots. Next, with a WIDE straight blade, travel forward with the blade in reverse. This will SMOOTH the high spots and fill in the low spots along with grading it all nicely. See my cheesy image ... The C is the blade in reverse.

|O--O\---C

These are the tools used after an area has been logged and the stumps ripped out leaving these gaping holes like a semi-truck tire in size.

Disc harrow will not compact the soil, instead it will open it up and allow nutrients over the winter to be added. It's a great tool for food plotting for animals as well.

Been doing this since the land was logged and cleared. Works really well. Have not needed to use and dragged tools either.

 

[copytmpmzl]

Turf specialist Dave Minner says it would help to alleviate this issue by re-establishing a healthy, dense grass. But if the idea of digging the yard up and planting a new lawn sounds overwhelming, by spreading a half-inch of top dressing each year you can gradually build it up.

You could go out and top dress all of that mixture with compost, with sand and soil, with sand and compost, and you just basically keep filling it," Minner says."
"Don't absolutely bury the grass, but about half an inch is about the most you'd want to put on at the same time, and the grass grows right through it."
"Scalp the grass as low as you can and then all the bumps can be seen," says Minner. "And spreading the materials and dragging them around and leveling them is better. If the grass is 2 1/2 inches thick, you should not drag the half-inch of material around because it just gets stuck in the grass down there."
Try using it as a simple way to pull the material from the high spots and drop it in the low spots if you have access to a drag system that can be hooked up behind a lawn tractor. This is also a good time to check the dirt, Minner says, and drag the plugs around too. Trying to flatten the yard with a heavy roller is one thing you do not want to do. It can take care of some of the roughness, but by compacting the dirt, it also destroys the turf, which is what you are trying to prevent.

I agree with you.