Help flatten our fields!!!

[FoxTailsManor]

Please forgive our new-ness to both TBN and farming in general...

We recently purchased a large parcel in VA and plan to produce our own hay (orchard grass). We've gone through all kinds of soil testing and have added the proper nutients to support this crop.

As a bit of background, we have approx. 30 tillable acres to be used. Previously (as in up to one year ago), this space was planted in soy bean. As we are wanting to convert to pasture (for horses) and hay, we would like to eliminate the "ridges" left from prior planting.

We've spoken to everyone under the sun (it seems) about the proper implements for smoothing our fields. We've been given mixed signals, with some folks saying the best route is a roller (but will that hard pack?) and some pointing more towards a cultimulcher (to prepare more of a seed ready surface). Any ideas???

We are currently operating a 50HP Kubota, so any implement would need to be small enough to be run off of this...though we'd all love fewer passes!

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

 

[dynasim]

I would use a disk. Definitely do not use any sort of packer, as nothing of use will grow for a long time(the roots need air, and water flow, which a packer eliminates).

I have seen small disks for your tractor size at rental stores if you want to rent one, or you could buy one at your local urban ag store for ~600. However, if there are farmers in the area, they will likely do it for not much money. For a 100 hp tractor, it is less than 4 hours per pass, with maybe 2 passes, with the correct equipment.

When farmers plant in tilled ground, the land is normally very flat, and all of the previously crops ridges are gone. You would want to go through the same process that they do.

good luck.
Chris

 

[FoxTailsManor]

Thanks! We have a disk and plan to continue using that (agressive to less agressive) to turn the soil prior to planting. Our issue is the level-ness factor...there are still ridges. Might a drag harrow be a viable solution, following the less agressive disk passes?

 

[Duffster]

Thanks! We have a disk and plan to continue using that (agressive to less agressive) to turn the soil prior to planting. Our issue is the level-ness factor...there are still ridges. Might a drag harrow be a viable solution, following the less agressive disk passes?

A harrow otherwise your disc needs to be adjusted.

OTOH it doesn't need to be perfectly level or smooth.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

The task at hand is ideal for a disc. Get a decnt one that your tractor can handle, cut once, then again at a different angle. On that second pass, pull some sort of drag behind the disc to create a good level seedbed. Plant, then use a cultipacker to firm (but NOT "pack") seedbed. Grass doesn't need, nor does it like a deep, loose, fluffy seedbed. With that in mind, a disc working @ 2" to 3" will give you a more than acceptable result.

 

[MMagis]

We've been given mixed signals, with some folks saying the best route is a roller (but will that hard pack?)

Definitely do not use any sort of packer, as nothing of use will grow for a long time(the roots need air, and water flow, which a packer eliminates).

There seems to be some confusion as to just what a cultipacker does. It certainly won't create hardpan, and it won't eliminate water or air flow. As mentioned, a fluffy seed bed is bad for a variety of reasons. A cultipacker simply firms the seed bed, as well as creating ridges that help minimize erosion and retain some moisture.
The disk/harrow combo sounds like the best plan. If possible, perhaps disking perpendicular to the ridges may help smooth things faster.

 

[flusher]

Please forgive our new-ness to both TBN and farming in general...

We recently purchased a large parcel in VA and plan to produce our own hay (orchard grass). We've gone through all kinds of soil testing and have added the proper nutients to support this crop.

As a bit of background, we have approx. 30 tillable acres to be used. Previously (as in up to one year ago), this space was planted in soy bean. As we are wanting to convert to pasture (for horses) and hay, we would like to eliminate the "ridges" left from prior planting.

We've spoken to everyone under the sun (it seems) about the proper implements for smoothing our fields. We've been given mixed signals, with some folks saying the best route is a roller (but will that hard pack?) and some pointing more towards a cultimulcher (to prepare more of a seed ready surface). Any ideas???

We are currently operating a 50HP Kubota, so any implement would need to be small enough to be run off of this...though we'd all love fewer passes!

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

I'd use the Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto) with my wheel disc (13-ft tandem reduced to about 10-ft wide by removing some of the outer pans so the 5525 can handle it) and attach 5 or 6 tires to the disc to drag the soil smooth.

Then firm up the soil with my 10-ft cultipacker.

Paid $600 for each of these implements. Tires were freebies from a neighbor.

 

[FoxTailsManor]

Excellent! I think we're on the right track now. Thanks so much!

 

[tessiers]

Depending on how high and wide the ridges are I have had little to no luck discing my property with the same problem, what I end up with after many hours of discing and scaping is a high hard spot and a low very soft spot. I tried rototilling 1 acre and got better although not perfect results. The best luck I have had is to plow and the harrow the entire area and then grade and or drag to levelness I then had to harrow the entire area a second time and then went over it wit a cultipacker. Mine was previously potato rows and some of the ridges were quite high but I have gotten most of it back to pretty good condition. How good it needs to be depends on the size of your equipment and your intended use. If you are going to hay it with big equipment it needs to be reasonably flat, if its just pasture it will probably work as is.

I only have about 100 hours per acre in mine, hope you have better luck. LOL!!!

 

[Rara Avis]

Get yourself a Martens...
Products

Harrow Uses
Gopher Mounds Before

Gopher Mounds After

 

[Ken45101]

There are "land levelers" that will flatten/smooth things out.

Two things I've used: drag a section of old chainlink fence with a couple of lengths of telephone pole chained on top of it (cheap solution).

Also, a landscape rake does a good job (better, but not as cheap).

Ken

 

[budlite]

I have a similar problem on about 2 acres and dont' have a disc. I was intending to use a box blade to try and cut the ridges down and fill the low spots. Will this work?

 

[Ken45101]

I have a similar problem on about 2 acres and dont' have a disc. I was intending to use a box blade to try and cut the ridges down and fill the low spots. Will this work?

Depends on the soil and your patience.

 

[kthompson]

Bud I would agree with Ken with one other comment, also depends on what is possibly growing there now. If much of anything you will probably find box blade to be at best slow.

FoxTailsManor, you can use a heavy board, rail road iron or old pump pipe being pulled by chain from the disk. Will not be able to back up with this unless you place the board on the disk. You can also use a real heavy chain hooked to each side of disk making like a loop behind the disk. Also try varying the depth and speed of disking and playing with the depth of front of disk compared to rear of disk. All of that can affect how smooth a surface is left. Also be sure level from left to right side. I like to get a 3 pth disk level on drive way where I know it is level.

 

[clutchcargo]

cultipackerstore.com

 

[RAF]

From what I've seen and read a grader scraper should do what your looking for and you can use it to take care of the drive way to. When funds are a little better going to order one from this company. DURA-GRADER spreader/grader You could always try it. They have a 90 day satisfaction guarantee.

 

[JoeinTX]

FoxTails, you've gotten good info here.


The same tool that made those ridges/terraces is the tool you need to use to get rid of them.......a disc plow. From your description of the property it sounds like the place may have been "terraced" as some point in the past to control errosion. This has been done for everything from field crops to orchards to control water flow and they use a single-row of disc gangs mounted at an extreme angle to throw as much dirt in toward the center of the plow over continuous passes to build the ridge/terrace.


While you're new owners I'm not sure if you are new to tractors/equipment/farming. Do you understand the way that a tandem disc unit's gangs angle? Most adjust to allow soil to either be pulled-in or thrown out from the plow as you pass over a strip of land. Many of the newer 3pt mounted discs have fixed gangs but most older and especially the pull type units have angling gangs.

To deconstruct these ridges, take your disc and angle the centers of the front set of gangs as far back as the will go. That throws the max amount of dirt out and away from the plow on each pass. Angle the rear gang center's as far as they'll go as well. This throw the least amount of dirt back toward the center of the disc on each pass.

Imagine looking down from above, front to back, and your disc gangs should look like this..........> |......or as close as your disc will allow that. Make pass after pass over each ridge until the ridge is leveled out sufficiently. Once all are reasonably done, set the gangs back to normal and make regular, circular patterns in the field to level the field out.


Hope I didn't get too "Inside Disc Plows" or anything but.....

 

[jcaron2]

... Any ideas??? ...

I had the same problem, but my land had been planted in tobacco. Massive rows a foot or more high spaced at around 6 feet.

They look small in the picture, but my 50HP Kubota straddles one row with a tire in each furrow. I worked a long time with a 20-disk harrow, a landscape rake, a box blade, and various drags. I was able to improve things enough that I could drive the tractor perpendicular to the rows, but no matter what I did I was unable to completely get rid of the ridges. I'd hate to guess how many times I disked or dragged those fields going every different direction. After months of work I had it looking like this, a major improvement, but definitely still not flat:

Anyway, enough about what didn't work and on to what did: I finally ended up using a 3-16 bottom plow to turn the soil. I went perpendicular to the old rows (I don't think that made much difference though).

As you can see, that completely changed the topology. I wish I had done this in the first place. I let it sit for about a month or so after that to help kill the weeds that were there, then I disked it to break up the large dirt clods and level things out. With the ground broken up by the plow, the disk worked much better now.

Finally, I dragged it with a special "implement" that I have. It's a 20-foot wide chunk of a crane boom that was rusting in the woods when I bought the property. It weighs around 1000 pounds and does a great job of smoothing and leveling once the ground is nicely broken up. You can see it sitting in the background of this photo:

I'm sure a good heavy I-beam or a chunk of railroad iron would do just as good a job. If you don't have to deal with the rock hard clay I have here in North Central NC, you may be fine just disking it or maybe going over with a cultipacker or pulverizer.

Anyway, after leveling I planted with a seed drill. You can see how smooth the surface is compared to the rows that used to be there. The ridges from the drill go away after a season of freezing and thawing and raining.

Good luck!

 

[jcaron2]

Anyone else having trouble seeing my pictures above? Only one of them seems to be linking properly. They were working this morning.

If others are having issues too, I'll repost the pics as attachments.

 

[cowboy357]

Anyone else having trouble seeing my pictures above? Only one of them seems to be linking properly. They were working this morning.

If others are having issues too, I'll repost the pics as attachments.

Only the 1 is showing for Me also jcaron2 . Bob