What to use instead of a tiller?

[Arc weld]

You can bend a light weight disc by adding weight but everything depends on the type of soil you have. If it's really hard packed, you may need to rent or get a neighbor with bigger equipment to dig it up. Once you get it dug up initially, all you'll need is a disc. Tiller's are great but you have to go slow and every few years you need to dig up the hard pan created under the tilling depth. 1 acre is pretty small in the overall picture so going over it a few times wouldn't take long at all.

 

[jeff9366]

Jeff- just looked at the disc harrow primer. As everyone said-very nice. So now I know my disc, which is originally a Cat 0, uses 16" smooth discs.

We are planning to plow sometime between the end of deer season and the first deep freeze, and let her lay for the winter. (This is zone 7 in Western Ky) Should we disc then or let her sit until Spring?

Plowing is normally done in the Fall. Over the winter the freeze/thaw cycles and rain break down the clods produced when turning, reducing the time needed to disc in the Spring. The Disc Harrow, of course, is used to break up the clods and knock down the furrows.

So, for food plots, when to plow is mostly a question of your time and some diesel at the margin.

I plant my plots in alternating strips. Spring/Summer seed mix in March or April, then a strip of Winter seed mix in September or October. Occasionally I interchange the strip sequences.

 

[Egon]

Here's the situation. Next year's food plots will be 1 acre or larger, on new ground (not worked in 40 years). We have an old JD that won't go slow enough for a rotary tiller, and a compact Yanmar that may not have the HP for even a 4 footer, if it's heavy duty. We plan to plow this fall and leave fallow over winter. Then what? This is rocky ground, as well. Have a small disc suitable for the Yanmar, but no down force on the cylinder. Can enough weight be put on the disc (and pulled with 20 HP) to break up the clods? What about a cultivator or something similar? Or we can pop for a bigger disc for the JD, I guess.

Also, if we could somehow get the ground to the point that it could be tilled, what works on the Yanmar, with 18 HP at the PTO? For my small plots I have been using an 8 HP 2 pt Cub Cadet tiller, and it works OK I guess. Just slow, narrow, and taking a beating from rocks. A rock rake is in the plans but you know how a new crop of rocks can grow. All said and done, I need a small 3 pt tiller, don't I? And isn't 4 foot pretty much

Thanks.

You got it all worked out The disk worker well for breaking down turned sod. Might want to think about adding a drag harrow.

 

[jeff9366]

So... a disc harrow is what they just called a disc back when I was a kid, right? I have 42" tandem, with space for concrete blocks on it, and adjustable pitch, angle, or whatever you call it. A Brinley, I think, and yes it's just angle iron. I have never used it but I don't think it's wide enough to cover the tracks.

But hey, it's a food plot, not a cash crop.

I have an old converted horse drawn 10" single bottom plow for the Yanmar, and we just got a double bottom for the JD. I used the single a couple months a go and it worked Ok until I broke the tip on a root. My fault- I knew it was there. It's since been welded. I have to say, it made OK furrows but didn't seem to turn the soil too well because the fabricated 3 pt hitch holds it vertically. So...traditionally, one would plow, then disc a new field, and it sounds to me like the overwhelming opinion is still the same. Use the 2 bottom, though. I'll keep the single for my 1/4 acre plots.

I can also use that weight on the disc maybe. Again, the cylinder on the Yanmar 3 pt is only single acting, so no downforce can be applied that way, and the disc doesn't weigh much.

There are all kinds of Harrows: Disc Harrows, Drag Harrows, Rotary Harrows, Spike Harrows, Swamp Harrows, Offset Harrows, etc. We try to be precise with terminology here on T-B-N or the Threads deteriorate into confusion. Yes, your Brinly is a Disc Harrow. I would not weight an angle-iron Disc Harrow myself, because I would be aftraid you might pull it apart.....but that is me. Snug the nuts/bolts before discing; do not let angle-iron frame "work."

Here on T-B-N where so many, including myself, own Recreational Tractors, some go to extremes in preparing food plots so they can enjoy more seat time. That is OK. As for myself, open the soil with a Disc Harrow, seed generously, (Fifty pound sacks of Fall Deer Plot Mix are <$20 in Florida.) roll with the Cultipacker, pray for rain. (I have rock-free, sandy-loam. Nice stuff to work, zero water retention.)

No tractor comes with hydraulic down force on the three point hitch. Your rear wheels provide traction. If you had down force on the three point hitch it would raise the rear wheels, reducing traction to zero, rather than force the implement into the soil.

All three point implements rely on weight/gravity to function. In 99% of situations implement weight is your friend, so long as your tractor can pull the implement. The great invention that made tractors practical is the three point hitch. It was invented and multiple international patents issued to Anglo-Irish Harry Ferguson in the 1920's. The three point hitch transfers implement weight to the rear wheels through the two Lower Links, and to the front wheels through the Top Link, providing crucial incremental traction.

(The exceptions are towed Disc/Offset Harrows and towed Cultipackers which work better with all the weight on the implements, rather than the tractor, but are not for small fields because they require too much room to turn.)

Correctly adjusting a plow is a tricky proposition, nearly a lost art in these days of "no till" ag.

3,640 PLOW ADJUSTMENT LINKS:

https://www.google.com/#q=adjust+plow+site:tractorbynet.com

 

[nybirdman]

Unlike my garden.My food plots are not plowed under in the fall.The whole idea is to leave feed for the winter.I do ten acres of field corn,soy-beans and experiment every year with some thing new.I have tried oats,wheat,sunflower,buckwheat and turnips.Best over all for me in this area are the soy-bean/corn food plots.The secret to soy-beans is planting large enough plots that the critters don't destroy before it matures.Standing corn in Jan./Feb. is a magnet for wildlife.
New plots we;bush-hog,round-up,bottom plow ,roto-till and cultivate.We have more rock than dirt and things grow well if the weather co-operates.

 

[orangeandgreen]

I have used only a plow and disk on my food plots for several years and had good results. Bought a tiller this spring, and although I spent a lot more time riding the tractor and the ground lookes nicer when planting, The corn and "wildlife mix" didn't come up any better. Probably back to the 4 -16's and disk for next year.
+1 to what nybirdman said about the plot being big enough, added a plot to another corner of the farm this year but didn't make it big enough. The corn looked like it had been mowed about a foot high, every stalk.. Going to try doubling it for next year.

 

[Daver1963]

I have an old converted horse drawn 10" single bottom plow for the Yanmar, and we just got a double bottom for the JD. I used the single a couple months a go and it worked Ok until I broke the tip on a root. My fault- I knew it was there. It's since been welded. I have to say, it made OK furrows but didn't seem to turn the soil too well because the fabricated 3 pt hitch holds it vertically.

I don't want to ask the obvious, but on the converted plow can't you adjust the angles to make it turn soil better by using the top link and adjustments on the lift arms?

Here is a tiller that specs at "up to 25hp" and is for compact tractors.

Rural King also has that same model of tiller.

And here is a video.

 

[nybirdman]

Difference between a tiller and a disc(at least one for a compact) one pass on the roto-tiller and maybe four or five with a disc for the same results.

 

[longrangelarry]

Both discs look pretty good. Got teeth. Heavier than mine and wider, too. Cost a lot more, though, and look why the second guy is selling it (to buy a tiller, which he will not be able to do for the price of the disc!) There is a used implement place in Waterloo IL that I can get to any time. They are cheap because it's mostly a hobby to the owner, but you have to watch out for junk. I learned the hard way! Not their fault- it was my ignorance (see my post about Yanmar tiller for the ugly story). But if you can tell surface rust from damaging rust, and especially if you can weld (I can't) you can eventually get what you need, but you gotta move fast! It's fun to keep looking around, and I know I can always find whatever I need somewhere within a year. Except maybe a 4 ft tiller I can afford.

 

[longrangelarry]

Daver, I see what you mean about those tillers. Maybe I have not been reading carefully enough and sometimes see an "up to" (i.e. maximum) HP as the minimum HP? Also, "subcompact" to me means Cat 0, but again I am not well versed. So I didn't look at those. The KK is pretty heavy so if the Yannie can handle it, it can handle others- I would have choices after all. Now about that price tag...

About plowing, I had given it very little thought because I didn't think I'd be doing much of it. Obviously there's a lot to it. Right away I can see that my poor turning of the soil is probably due to not running the tire in the last furrow, which leaves my plow "flat" (vertical). Heck, I didn't even think about which way to traverse (left/right) relative to the plow. And of course I don't know the terminology at all. So, basic advice is all I will be able to absorb, or probably need. Again, since it's just food plots, perfection is not a goal. Interesting stuff, though.

The soil is low organic matter and very rocky. I was hoping to emphasize bird food next spring on any land more than a bow shot from a stand (my buddy does not gun hunt and the new plots are his). With the 8 HP tiller I have had to make 5-6 passes on my established plots, so I was not looking forward to working new ground with it, even after plowing. ( I run it in 1st or 2nd of 9 speeds) Since I have that baby disc harrow, maybe I ought to next purchase the cultivator this winter, then the rock rake. That way I have options and we can see what works best, all for $600-700 in purchases (hopefully).

Not to change the subject, but I am thinking millet of 2 types, sunflowers (no luck with them at all this year- planted too deep I think) and maybe Chufa, in strips alternating with fallow ground. Should attract songbirds, turkey, and doves. Well, and deer. Near the trees with stands will be wheat, turnips & rape, and those new radishes which seem to be working well this fall- but just planting those plots in the fall. Can't tell if the chicory is working at all- haven't been there in 2-3 weeks and I have to keep looking up pictures of what it looks like so I can tell if it came up.

THANKS