dixiedrifter
Silver Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2004
- Messages
- 206
Bout a month ago I decided to renovate a couple of my pastures... two of them have not been worked or limed in at least 15 years. It was starting to go primarly to broomsedge and weeds with a little bit of fescue in the spring time. The big first field's pH had gotten so low that fertilzing in the spring didn't do any good as it would all get "locked up"... the second smaller field across the road which I tested a couple years ago called for 2.5 tons of lime to bring the pH up to normal so thats what I'm hitting both fields with.
So, needless to say a good plowing and liming was in order. First step was to run over it with a disc mower set to "scalp" and then bale up as much grass possible (sorry no pics). Then, sit back and wait for it to rain to soften the ground up enough for it to be worked.
About two weeks after I got it cut it finally started raining off and on for about a week. The day after it finished raining and soaked in I tried running an 8' tufline disc with notched discs over the field to cut up the sod. That idea didn't work worth a dern... the disc would go maybe an inch or so deep and mostly wiggled back and forth... kinda like a squirrel on crystal meth playing in the road waiting to get run over by a car.
So I ended up using my spring tine cultivator and section harrow. Its a pretty sweet piece of machinery and works better than any disc as long as there is not enough residue to get caught up on the shanks. I welded a couple of angle iron brackets on the back and drilled a couple holes in them so I could use a quick link to attach the section harrow. When it comes time to move the section harrow it can easily be hooked back up and the harrow moved with the 3ph.
Man, the ground on the first field was HARD. The M9000 has 4WD and the back tires filled and it was all the old girl wanted in 4th gear with the cultivator about half way down in the ground. There were several occasions where my tractor started to get a little bit warm and I had to stop every couple rounds and let it cool back down... (didn't help that my radiator needed some cleaning either). When I went to take the spring tine cultivator off I noticed that Cat I pins were noticably BENT and the points needed to be flipped over. It took me 3 days of plowing and discing to finally get the field below looking as good as it is in the pic below. I think it done a pretty dern good job myself all things considered.
Now if I can just get the local fertilizer dealer to bring out a load of lime and get another rain on it, it'll be ready to plow, cultipack and plant in wheat for the winter. He has been dragging for the last two weeks, and when he tried to get to it earlier this week his spreader tore up on him. I'm giving him till the end of next week, and if it ain't limed I'm gonna call someone else... three weeks is BS!
In the spring I plan on having a neighbor combine the wheat in the spring leaving the spreaders off on the combine, bale up as much straw as possible, do another soil test an apply any more lime that it might need and sow in bermudagrass.
So, needless to say a good plowing and liming was in order. First step was to run over it with a disc mower set to "scalp" and then bale up as much grass possible (sorry no pics). Then, sit back and wait for it to rain to soften the ground up enough for it to be worked.
About two weeks after I got it cut it finally started raining off and on for about a week. The day after it finished raining and soaked in I tried running an 8' tufline disc with notched discs over the field to cut up the sod. That idea didn't work worth a dern... the disc would go maybe an inch or so deep and mostly wiggled back and forth... kinda like a squirrel on crystal meth playing in the road waiting to get run over by a car.
So I ended up using my spring tine cultivator and section harrow. Its a pretty sweet piece of machinery and works better than any disc as long as there is not enough residue to get caught up on the shanks. I welded a couple of angle iron brackets on the back and drilled a couple holes in them so I could use a quick link to attach the section harrow. When it comes time to move the section harrow it can easily be hooked back up and the harrow moved with the 3ph.
Man, the ground on the first field was HARD. The M9000 has 4WD and the back tires filled and it was all the old girl wanted in 4th gear with the cultivator about half way down in the ground. There were several occasions where my tractor started to get a little bit warm and I had to stop every couple rounds and let it cool back down... (didn't help that my radiator needed some cleaning either). When I went to take the spring tine cultivator off I noticed that Cat I pins were noticably BENT and the points needed to be flipped over. It took me 3 days of plowing and discing to finally get the field below looking as good as it is in the pic below. I think it done a pretty dern good job myself all things considered.
Now if I can just get the local fertilizer dealer to bring out a load of lime and get another rain on it, it'll be ready to plow, cultipack and plant in wheat for the winter. He has been dragging for the last two weeks, and when he tried to get to it earlier this week his spreader tore up on him. I'm giving him till the end of next week, and if it ain't limed I'm gonna call someone else... three weeks is BS!
In the spring I plan on having a neighbor combine the wheat in the spring leaving the spreaders off on the combine, bale up as much straw as possible, do another soil test an apply any more lime that it might need and sow in bermudagrass.
