Tiller Thinking about buying a tiller an holding off on the disk.

[Baranx4]

I had been leaning toward a disk harrow but haven't found great pricing on one, and now am thinking of waiting til I find a used one at a fair price even if it takes till next year or longer. I can't justify the cost of what they're asking for new disks and think you get your moneys worth out of a tiller.

I was at TSC and have to say I was impressed with the KingKutter tillers there. They look like a stout unit and the price wasn't outragous. My only concern is how long it's going to take tilling over plowing and disking. I know my garden will be much better with a tiller.

 

[Bird]

Naturally, type of soil, amount of moisture; i.e., ground conditions can make a difference with either one, but I'll just venture a guess that the tiller will take about 3 times as long as pulling a plow. In other words, about 1 mph vs. 3 mph. However, you'll have a much better seed bed ready to plant with the tiller.

I've had lots of experience with a tiller, but only a little bit with the plow, so maybe someone else knows better than I what the difference will be.

 

[Baranx4]

Most people make several passes when disking whether they plowed or not so thats what I was thinking about when you combine the time for plowing and multiple passes disking.

 

[pitt_md]

I was asking my dealer this same question when I bought my tiller. The answer is it depends...if you have to make more than one pass with the tiller it would be faster with the plow/disk. I did a 7 acre field with a 6' tiller and it took some time. For me a lot of the time was for stopping and loading rocks into the bucket. I like the offset feature on my tiller but I think it would be better to just have a bigger tiller to cover your tracks.

 

[Glowplug]

There ARE a lot of variables but I guess one of the most important questions that would need to be answered is how much land you are talking about working?

 

[Baranx4]

Right now we have 35-40 acres of field. I'm not planning on tilling it all only 10-15 each year.

 

[deere755]

My son planted around 20 acres of wild life plots this spring. He was going to use a tiller but found out soon it was to time consuming and bought a disc. Its true a tiller leaves a better seed bed but for the amount of acres you are talking about I would go with the disc. I assume you will be using some sort of planter on that amount of acres and it would work fine behind a disc. I think your savings in fuel alone would pay for a disc. He was able to disc 2 acres an hour while tilling less then an acre an hour.

 

[randy41]

tilling 10-15 acres is a lot of tilling. especially if its sod. it would be hard to get a nice seed bed with just one pass. what are you going to be planting?
i would plow and disc. even if you have to disc multiple times you can go pretty fast and enjoy the ride.

 

[Glowplug]

If you were doing an acre or two a tiller would be good. If it were me and I were doing 10-15 acres I would use a plow and disk. 15 acres of tilling is an awful lot creeping along at 1mph. Plowing and disking at 3-4mph would be some fun seat time!

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Want a well tilled, deep seedbed?  Plow THEN till.  You can USUALLY get by with a single pass with the tiller after plowing.  Discing usually requires 2 or 3 trips over the field.  You're still talking double the time with the tiller, but with only 10 to 15 acres, you aren't talking an eternity.  I did 45 acres of corn ground one year like that.  A second pass with the tiller can be at a shallow depth and higher ground speed if one time over doesn't leave the seedbed you're wanting.  A word of caution though.  Be carefull not to OVER-WORK the soil.  Tillers and multiple passes will turn dry soil into talcum powder.  NOT the ideal seedbed for MOST crops, and you'll end up causing compaction issues that way.  King Kutter II tillers are tough customers!  That's what I used on the 45 acre field.  Mine has 7-1/2 HARD years on it and is still in great condition.