Plowing Food Plot with Box Blade

3RRL · Oct 3, 2006

This weekend was the start of my first "real" farming attempt using my tractor in the food plot preparation. I have used it for a million things other than plowing. I have to tell you up front how jazzed I am about it....both Loretta and I. Last year's food plot was very small, maybe a 30' x 60' piece where we tried to grow clover. It was near a shady part of the meadow and didn't do too well. So we're gonna try it again.

This year, after having quite a successful dove hunt over the meadow, we decided to do almost all of the meadow. The growing area we chose is just over an acre, and there is about another acre surrounding the meadow that has some Oaks sparsely growing in it before the thicker Oak forest starts. On the other side it is bordered by a gully with real steep slopes and most of the meadow is on a minimum of 10° slope, with some areas of it approaching 20°.

I had brush cut the entire area before dove hunting season but really needed to scrape it flat, removing all rocks and debris and also cutting of the top layer of weeds and natural plants. I decided to scrape the entire 2 acres including in between the oaks, since I will be brush mowing the entire area in the future. This is an area in between some of the Oaks that border the meadow. I did everything with my trusty box blade. It is truly a multi functional tool and performed admirably.
I still don't have a real plow, but look forward to getting one after working in the field like this.

3RRL · Oct 3, 2006

Neither Loretta nor myself knows a darn thing about farming...growing the food plot. Only what we've learned on the net and from different forums. The first thing Loretta did was take soil samples from several places and check the Ph levels and for nutrients. We want to grow some grains to attract birds and maybe some deer. Even if we get this wrong, it is still a lot of fun and we both got a lot of self satisfaction from working the field.

The testing kit she bought showed that the Ph level was between 6 and 7 and the nutrients were all near the medium to high levels. With that in mind, we decided to try planting it this year without addition fertilizers or soil preparation. We have some concerns about the native weeds and grasses coming up again so we may have to till it back up anyway to get rid of them in this area.

I decided to scrape the meadow in 2 directions filling some uneven spots and making it easier going over the natural swales in it. This photo shows a different view of the scraping. It felt really neat thinking about those guys who prepare all those giant fields we pass on the way up to camp. It was great to see the 55hp Kama working like that.

3RRL · Oct 3, 2006

After I got the entire meadow scraped relatively smooth, we picked out the area for the new food plot. There is an area not shown on the left of this photo that goes right up to the camp road but that's where there are Oaks growing sparsely. Enough to clear and mow in the future, but might have too much shade for the food plot. This shows the meadow after scraping ready to plow up.

That smaller narrow area to wards the right is where the old food plot was...in the shade and it did not do so well last year. This picture also shows the slope of the meadow. When I started smoothing and even worse when plowing, the tractor wanted to run off course. I had to keep adjusting where I was going.

3RRL · Oct 3, 2006

We bought winter wheat, oats, peas, and soy beans with a little sorghum (Milo) mixed in with that. 50 lbs. of each. We decided not to plant the soy beans and sorghum this fall and wait for Spring to do that. Apparently it needs warmer weather than the others.

Well, this is where the plowing starts. I've read where guys plow with the rippers and that's what I had to do not having a real plow. I used the 7' Howse box blade that I modified to add the hydraulic rippers. I lowered the rippers on my boxblade so they stuck out about 4" below and then tilted the box forward slightly to get the scarifiers down about 5" or 6". Then I set the position control to only bury the scarifiers and rip the ground that way. I wasn't sure how that would turn out because in the past, I always ripped dirt for the purpose of moving it...not just "plowing it.

This is a close-up picture of how I did set the box blade to plow. It turned out pretty good and I was pleased. The new hydraulic side tilt cylinders sure came in handy when I had to adjust for dips and slope. I'm glad I made all those hydraulic modifications.

3RRL · Oct 3, 2006

I continued until I got all the area that we intended to seed. Over the meadow, there were several areas that dipped up and down so I had to constantly adjust the position control to keep from dragging a bunch of dirt with me as I was plowing. I wish I could have used the draft control better, but with that lever all the way down the 3pt just goes all the way down too. So I had to use the position control to keep the implement at the proper distance above the ground and the draft lever fully up. I guess leveling wheels would really come in handy for this.

I mentioned that the slope pushed the tractor down so I had to watch where I was going too. That was the tricky part...looking back wards to make sure the box blade was not too deep while trying to drive forward in a straight line. Some areas I could not turn a circle to start the next row. There was either the gully or the trees in the way so sometimes I backed up to the start spot.

This is a photo where I'm almost done plowing. I've got the last pass to do. It was pretty dusty. I also plowed the furrows so they ran across the slope instead of up and down to avoid creating a natural run off for the rain.

3RRL · Oct 3, 2006

Loretta told me that the peas had to be deeper in the ground than the wheat and oats. After plowing the field, we planted the peas in an area by themselves and also spread them throughout where the wheat and oats would be. She told me the deer like to eat grains and legumes in the same field. It is better for their digestive system?

Anyway we do not own a spreader so we got 5 gallon buckets filled with seed and walked down the rows. We had a coffee can that I scooped full with seed and then flung it to cover fairly evenly. For the pea area by themselves, it was seeded more heavily.

This pictures shows how the plowing with the box blade rippers turned out. The peas were strewn while the furrows were open. You can see my Kama sitting in the background waiting to smooth out the furrows.

3RRL · Oct 3, 2006

After sowing the peas, I took the tractor and tilted the box blade way back wards to allow only the rear blade to smooth out the dirt clods and furrows. That buried the peas. Then we took the oats and the wheat seeds and sowed them in the same fashion. They were not mixed up and we kept them separate. They only needed a little bit of covering to keep the birds from eating them. So I went back over the field again with the boxblade just lightly covering them up.

This is what the field looked like after everything was planted and covered up. I thought about using the harrow and would probably use it next time. Trying to control a 1,000 lb box blade to just lightly touch the ground on uneven surfaces is harder than you think.

So we are hoping our planting will produce some wheat and oats and peas...at least a little. We were very happy after a full days work.
The next morning I walked the border of the field and it was a pleasant sight to see all that dirt work and planting. It's a good feeling to see it like that...there's freedom in it.

Later that day as we were preparing for the long drive home, it started to sprinkle. We planted just in time. We were hoping for the rains to start gradually and we couldn't have been more fortunate. Now I hope we get enough to make it all sprout while it is still fairly warm...not freezing that is.

scott_vt · Oct 4, 2006

Mornin Rob,
Well very interesting ! You are definitely getting your moneys worth from that boxblade!

The soil conditions seem very dry. Are you coming into your rainy season now ? Just curious, it seems like you will need a fair amount of rain for your plantings to do well.

I will be following your progress as things start to sprout !

EddieWalker · Oct 4, 2006

Hi Rob,

You sure did a nice job on your field!!!

Before I bought land and a tractor, I never appreciated how nice dirt can look. It must be a learned appreciation, because I sure have it now. I'm so bad that I'll pull over along the road to look at a construction job just to see how they did there drainage or watch an operator level out a field.

My first food plot was with my box blade too. It didn't do as nice a job as yours, so I bought a 5 foot disk that eventually does the job. Just takes lots of seat time and something good to listen to. Not to mention a nice cushion on the seat!!! hahahaha

Thanks for posting and sharing the pictures. Please keep us updated as I'd love to see how it progresses.

Eddie