Box Scraper Smoothing a Bumpy Pasture

[rsallen]

Then shoot yourself in the head.
You gonna play tennis on it? You gonna play polo on it? You gonna make a baseball diamond on it? You gonna play soccer on it? How about croquet?
Are you gonna to anything but mow that dam grass?

Biggest waste of time and energy modern man has ever invented. Maintaining mown lawn to no good purpose.

 

[jseebold]

@jeff9366: Thanks a lot for the link to SMOOTHING PASTURE threads! I like the sound of this one... "Ive had luck with a set of disc's set non agressive, as straight as possible, north -south then east-west to make "sod squares" then squash it with a heavy roller. If that wont smooth it then you try a long term method like plow, till, grade then seed."

This sounds like a slightly less aggressive approach, something I can try first, before discing it more aggressively.

 

[jseebold]

Thanks for your excellent ideas Jenkinsph! Your property is AWESOME!! Where are you located? What type of grass did you use? What is a landplane?

 

[jseebold]

Thanks pmsmechanic! That sounds like a good idea and also the least expensive and least aggressive. It sounds like something I could do as a matter of routine maintenance until it gets evened out.

 

[jseebold]

Thanks a lot Brandi, great reference with excellent pics! Hey, I have a cat named Brandi!!

 

[jseebold]

I "reclaimed" about 14 acres with a bottom plow, disk harrow and then a chain harrow. Worked well and now, three years later, I have a 14 acre lawn. I really worked the area with the chain harrow so now its smooth & flat as a pool table.
Saw a field that was top dressed. The top dressing soil was just "different" enough from the native soil to make the grass grow in stripes & patches. Ended up having to redo the entire field and mix all the soil for one even soil type.

Great input oosik! "Flat as a pool table", eh?! That's great!!

 

[jseebold]

get a mower for the 9n, mow with it no the Garden tractor, after or during the building process of your house, work the surrounding ground you want to be a lawn up with a disc or tiller the remainder fence for pasture and mow with the ford.

Your situation is none too different than mine way back in 1995..... I made 2 acres a lawn which I know mow with a zero turn to the rest is pasture grass mown with the Kubota

Thanks a lot for you thoughts!

 

[jseebold]

Then shoot yourself in the head.
You gonna play tennis on it? You gonna play polo on it? You gonna make a baseball diamond on it? You gonna play soccer on it? How about croquet?
Are you gonna to anything but mow that dam grass?

Biggest waste of time and energy modern man has ever invented. Maintaining mown lawn to no good purpose.

HA!!! Point taken! I agree that it's a huge waste of time, but I grew up in suburbia, it's in my DNA to have a "respectable" lawn. Actually, I just want to get it smooth enough to roll on it without out loosing my teeth or kidneys. I don't plan to do any putting on it!

 

[El Wood]

I'm in the same boat. I have about 7 acres of old farm land land I'm building on. I plan on planting about 7 acres of grass. I also have deep ruts in the soil from years of farming. My plan is to disk the soil and then use a chain harrow for final smoothing and covering of seed.

Later today I will be picking up a soil testing kit. Based on the results I'll use that type of grass that is recommended.

 

[jeff9366]

Thank you very much Corl and Jeff! It looks like the general consensus is disc first, chain harrow next, and then seed.

Be sure to acquire a Disc Harrow with 20" diameter pans. I would recommend 22" diameter pans but I doubt gearing on the 9N would let you pull it fast enough to be optimally effective.