pasture rehab

[have_blue]

Fill the ruts with sand and forgetaboutit. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

No disking, dragging, tilling, or leveling is necessary. The sand will self level.

 

[BigGary]

How about a roller?
If there is a paving co. in your area they may do the job for short $.

 

[cowboydoc]

Yes discing will take it out real quick. If you already have good grass going just fill in with some good dirt, compact it, and plant seed.

 

[Varmintmist]

Plow would work. Plow then disk then make yourself a drag out of lumber.

If its good soil, fill it and seed, a whole lot eaiser /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Currmudgeon]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( would a box scraper with teeth be able to be pulled through the roots and rocky new england soil with the 48 HP. )</font>

It should do. If not, a cheap subsoiler from TSC will do a great job of ripping up the roots. The tines on your box, extended through the bottom, should be able to pick up a lot of the mess and move it to the burn pile. Otherwise, I'd use a landscape rake, but that will move a lot of dirt with the roots.

I used a subsoiler and a landscape rake to do what you're suggesting. The rake did a pretty good job of rough grading. If you already have the box, you'll have the tool to grade it out, and can make the determination from the seat.

Continued mowing will do a lot to suppress the crap and encourage the grass.

I may still disk my whole pasture, drag it flat, and reseed it, but it's good enough for now.

 

[JJT]

I use a tiller. If the ruts are really bad, tiller then box scraper.

 

[txdon]

<font color="red"> "...about the same time I got 4 to a real question about real use of tractor and land." - BigGary
</font>


I can answer a real tractor question too. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

This is the way I did it.

I had 10 acres of mesquite that were about 2 to 10 inches. I hired a bulldozer to root plow the mesquite and then rake them into piles. I burned the piles and picked up as many thorny bushes as possible. Then the bulldozer guy with a really large disk disked everything in.

Then it was ready for the 40hp CUT with a smaller disk and a railroad rail to smooth things out. This was done twice. Then native grass seeds were planted and rolled in. Now this was done before I got my tractor or found TBN. Here are some photos of my Dad using his tractor, doing real tractor work, helping me reclaim my field from the mesquite and the resulting grass field the following year.

Can you smooth it with a box scrapper? - probably depending on the size of rocks you have. but I would also try to drag something to pulverize the clods and smooth the rough spots. I found dragging several old cattle panels to work pretty good. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[jimgerken]

I would like to comment on your "us vs them" statements, and I feel compelled to do so because I am apparently in the "them" camp since I bought a 20 hp CUT. In defense of the 20 hp CUT, I will have to point out the following: I farmed with my dad for 20 years, and he still farms now, so I can use whatever size tractor I want for the job I have at hand. He owns five or six, thru 150 Hp. But, there is always a best size tractor for the job. If I want to mow, the 20 hp is about the heaviest thing I want on the lawn or airstrip. If I am hauling loads of silage, the 460 or 560 IH are the fastest. To do heavy tillage, the biggest tractor is best. However, larger is not always better. Try using a post hole auger with a large tractor, then with a 20 HP CUT. You can manuver the auger into places so fast with the smaller tractor, you finish drilling before the larger tractor can be moved into position. And drilling takes practically no power anyway. You seem to imply that 40-50 HP is a large tractor. Not where I come from! And you seem to insult the smaller tractors. Too bad you can't work manually a while with no luxury tractor at all, then you'd appreciate just how productive a small tractor can be, in the hands of the right operator. I venture to say there is no tractoring job a 20 HP CUT can not do, if you are patient and skilled with it. To address the issue of you receiving only four or so serious replies, while the footwear post had more relies: Fewer TBN people are interested in what you are doing than they are in the footwear issue. Its that simple. Actual real farmers who do pasture rehab seriously are not sitting around reading the internet, they are out doing it. If they are serious, and need it to be productive soon, they know they have to use serious equipment. Most of them do not have days and days to spend using a small (40-50 HP) tractor on the job. They would use the big horse and be done before lunch. And those serious guys would laugh at your little 40 HP tractor, just as you seemed to be laughing at my 20 HP tractor. No funny little face needed here, this post is serious.

 

[MMM]

I agree and disagree. When I was row croppping a 90hp 4020 was a utility tractor. Probably 150hp these days.
But to say a 20hp CUT can do anything that 4020 could do, just slower, is.......well...... a little far fetched.

 

[jimgerken]

Well, what you are doing with your 4020 was once done with two horses. Just a bit slower. Not that long ago either really. Two generations ago basically. Horses dont have hydraulics or anything either. What do you think my Grandpa, in his early 20's, would have done if you'd have given him a 20Hp CUT?