Rough Acreage Help

[blackbird]

Does anybody have some advice for smoothing out the yard. About 8 acres worth. Running a 3720 with 72"mmm. Even though it has air ride seat I still get beat to death. Has anybody had any luck with the rollers? If so what time of year did you roll it and how often. I can't really do it when the ground is wet with the 3720(it just sinks) but could do it with the X485 but I don't know if it would handle a fully loaded roller. All suggestions appreciated. Thanks guys.

Chris

 

[Egon]

For a rough yard you sorta have two choices to make it smooth. Add material to level it or cultivation and leveling.

Just aint no easy way out.

 

[kennyd]

Egon is correct-there is no easy way out of this...rolling will have NO effect at all.

 

[RollTideRam]

I would like to have a disc and a cultipacker and see how that would work on my rough yard. For now I just go slower. JC

 

[AKfish]

Well.. adding a couple of inches of topsoil to the existing grass (grass with grow thru it) is alot easier than disking, rototilling and cultipacking and/or rolling - IMO.

You'll still need to pack the added topsoil, too. And the deeper depressions will need a couple of treatments -- topsoil, roll, wait. Topsoil, roll, wait.

What the heck... that's why God made cupholder's on tractors for --- seat time!

AKfish

 

[RalphVa]

Rollers are only for pressing grass seeds down into the dirt so they make firm contact with the soil. Plowing/discing off high areas and filling in low areas, as others suggested, are the ways to level out the ground.

Ralph

 

[AKfish]

I'm guessing that you've been around the yard and on the back 40 too, Ralph. So, you can most likely appreciate that rarely, in life, is there ONLY one way to do anything...

I would agree that, if the entire 8 acres required leveling, the better approach would be to disc the high spots to level and replant.

But if it's only a small number of locations that are troublesome; add some dirt, roll with a small roller (didn't he have a 485..) and wait for the existing grass to come sprouting back up. I've done just that very thing; and the grass with come right back up thru the top dressing of dirt as long as the dirt is only a couple of inches or less.


Regards;

AKfish

 

[BayouMan]

I have leveled out several yards and lots over the years. The easiest method is to get a sandy soil mix and use a bionic blade to spread this material around. Discing the high spots and filling the low spots is an option, but you have a lot of grass with roots to deal with. Grass will grow back up through the sandy soil in no time.

Mike

 

[Engine66]

Once you figure out your best course of action and decide to roll later on down the road, your x485 will handle a roller easily. I would recommend the largest you can get...like the 24" x 48" metal water filled type. There's 2 "economy" ones out there...Agri-fab (910lbs filled)and Ohio steel (860lbs filled). You can put sand in them as well...as long as it's dry and you have the time to pour it through the small fill hole. Water will expand in winter so empty it before it's too late. The water in my roller froze near the fill hole and I could not get the plug out. I made the mistake of taking care of a laundry list of things to do and forgot to bring it in the garage or heat the plug area right away...the roller expanded apart from the shaft...need to repair it now. I found a lot of uses for the roller, but like the others have already said, it won't level ot your land...just will help push down or compact some particular areas. I used mine on my crushed rock driveway, compacted some fill soil, flattened out some sod, pushed down some tracks made in wet soil, etc. Have fun, be patient...you have a lot of acreage to dress up. Post a pic too...you'll get some more ideas from some people with similar projects.

 

[kennyd]

and use a bionic blade

I have heard of a Bionic Woman, and a Bionic Man, but never a Bionic Blade