Disc harrow to Buy?

[livefree]

I need to get a 6' disc harrow, I think, to disk up some filed which have been regraded and dozed prior to reseeding, and to do food plots for wildlife at theforest edge. I may also use to reseed or renovate my 10 acres of hay from time
totime over the years. Right now there a a few acres on the hillside to reclaim from the weeds which I bulldozed last year. I Want to keep the cutting width to about the same as my 6800 for manueverability in or near the woods

I checked out the dealers and they all have Uniteds and JBars for $700-$900 with 20'' blades in general, and they weigh around 600-700lbs.

I see that Monroe Tuf-Line has been heartily recommended here. They weigh 1000 lbs, use 22" blades at 9", and even have a fold over frame to permit heavy mounding if desire, or so they say.

The issue is simple. They cost $1600. While it strikes me that the extra weight is a good thing, I have no experience to help me judge whether the extra money is well spent, or if these lighter Uniteds do the trick. All the local farmers use much wider disks around here.

I am a part time farmer only, with no row crops, just hay and a love of wildlife Maybe I will have an orchard someday.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I use my disc harrow for a lot of the same reasons you state. By all means you need the versatility of the fold over version. The big reason is if the ground cover is heavy you can fold over the rear section and pu extra weight on fewer discs and do a much better job of cutting the ground. I used mine for that yesterday. After the initial cutting is done you fold the rear section back down and straighten the angle of the gangs some and smooth out the somewhat ridged surface.
Good luck
Greg H

 

[livefree]

Het Greg H, how hard, BTW, is it to fold the frame over? On a harrow which weighs 1000 lbs, it would seem to be a bit difficult.

Chris

 

[W5FL]

Chris,

You might want to consider a different approach. A Disc harrow needs weight and soft ground and significant power to pull it if it is really turning deep.

A tiller will do the job of a disk followed by hours of leveling after you get through all in one pass and do a 10X better job. The only drawback is the tiller is not real cheap and it is slow, but the job it does is beyond reproach. After tilling you are ready to plant hay, coastal or any other crop and the ground will be SMOOTH enough to mow later on. You really can reclaim the land from the weeds.

My dad used a disc until he got tired of getting bounced all over the place after planting and finally gave up and bought a 6 ft Long tiller last year. I have a disc that sets most of the time because the tiller does everything much better.

 

[roysallis]

I agree with WEN. When I can afford it I am going to get a tiller and probably get rid of my disk.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Levefree, It is not too difficult to fold over the rear section. You just have to be inventive. It can do great work with a little experience on your part. You better be careful on the tiller issue. It can be a great device but not if you are blessed with rocks and roots as my place is. Tillers are expensive to fix and sooo slow to run. Just my 2 cents
Greg H

 

[W5FL]

I drop the 8 scarfiers on a 76 inch 1000# boxblade and run over the area with that first. It is a much cheaper rock puller than the tiller and I guess it would get roots if I had any trees.

A good tiller should have a decent service life. Mine takes a beating because I have so many rocks and they have a way of multiplying and making more big rocks. While tilling at 1 mph may be slow, there is no other way that leaves as good of a seed bed in less time and leaves the area level and clod free and ready to plant.

 

[gordon]

If the ground was pretty rock free how fast do you think that a tiller could be run and still do a good job? I know that alot of things come into play--hardness of dirt etc.

I don't own a tiller and have never used a large tiller before. Thanks for any input.
Gordon

 

[Bird]

Gordon, the hardness of the ground really is a factor in how fast you can go, but I think about 1 mph is about right. My tiller is one of my most used implements and it's really taken a beating for over 5 years now and so far no repairs or parts replacements except that I did open the gear case on the end once (need to do that again), cleaned it and repacked it with grease and used a new gasket when I put the cover back on. I've used it to start garden spots on ground so hard that it bounced up and down, I've hit small stumps and roots, and I even discovered an old brick patio once that was about an inch under ground and tilled up several bricks. In fact, I'm just amazed that I haven't broken a tine or shear pin yet. For ground that you intend to plant in, I don't know of anything else that will do as good a job. I've also used it just to loosen up dirt, break up clods, etc. so I could then use the front end loader to move the dirt, spread it, etc.

Bird

 

[CraigM]

Livefree: the guys are right, a tiller is going to give you the most even surface, but they are expensive also. The farmer that cleared the weeds and planted hay on our place used a heavy disc to break the weed sod. The Monroe disc sounds heavy enough when folded up to do this job. From what I have seen of the Monroe, it looks farm duty. If you can afford it, you would probably not regret it. The disc is a tool and you should Never buy a cheap tool as you will always regret it later.
Another solution to your problem may be to find an old plow and disc. In my area, plows are about $100/bottom and discs go for $300 and up for 3-point mounted ones, less for drag types. There are lots of them around. If you have stumps and roots, you may need to get a plow with the trip feature so it can jump over them without breaking something. My B2150 will pull a 2 bottom, 14 inch plow with some concessions to only having turf tires, and a 20 blade disc with no problem. My disc is an old JD model KBA, drag type, about 6.5 feet wide. It is simmilar in weight to the lighter ones you have been looking at. It will not break sod, but does a nice job of smoothing and leveling. Drag a piece of chain link fence behind it on the last pass and the result is pretty impressive. Look up my past post on plowing with turf tires in the Kubota owning discussion if this applies to you.

Craig
Hershey PA