Plowing with LS

[Avenger]

I am actually dreading asking this question, but I need some advise.

I need to plow a large field.

*sigh* What size plow should I get?

:mur:

I know, it depends on all sorts of things. Soil types, moisture, weight of tractor, HP of tractor, hills, tire types, size of moldboards, etc. Here is what is going on:
I have been asked to maintain a large field of... weeds. I am being "contracted" for this work. Thats not important here. The owner would like me to turn this field to dirt, get the roughness out, plant a grass mix, and "maintain it like a lawn." Its just under 10 acres. First things first, I need to turn it to dirt, and in doing so will take out much of the roughness.

I have a 6ft rototiller, but it only goes down about 5 inches and will take several passes. The tiller is great for smaller areas, like a garden plot or food plot. Not a field. Here is my plan that I have come up with.

Plow the field, disk the field with a pull type disk (looking at the DHP Pull Disc Harrows - Bush Hog), use a spreader to seed the field, then run it over with a cultipacker. Maintain the grass with a boomless sprayer and finish mower.
Fist things first though. Gotta plow it.

The general rule of thumb for plowing is 20hp per moldboard. But that SOOOO depends (see list above) but following this rule, I can only pull a 2 bottom plow. Here is my exact situation: LS gear tractor with 45hp, Filled R4 tires. I am crossing about 10 acres of rather steep hills, some of the terrain is dry (southern facing steep hill side that does not hold water) but in the valleys, it is mostly wet (damp in the early fall). I am guessing some rocks, but this was a wheat field about 10 years ago, so hopefully not many rocks. A 2 bottom, 14in plow seems like the solution. Plowing 7" deep, 28" per pass. It will take forever, but faster than rototilling and I only need to do it once. I am worried though, that it will be too much plow for my setup. Thoughts?

And do you have any recommendations on plows? Have you plowed with your LS? How did it go?

I have plowed fields before. The largest was a 9 bottom plow working in dry land wheat fields. The smallest was a 4 bottom roll over plow that pulled a cultipacker in the row crop fields. I have experience plowing. But not with this tractor.

 

[CobyRupert]

Strange that the “rule” is on a H.P./moldboard basis. Seems like it should be on a tractor weight /moldboard basis.
I’d rather have weight than H.P. ....and then have the H.P to plow faster.

 

[mred2]

What I plan on doing with my fields, one at a time. Spray to kill weeds and brush. Wait for weeds to die. Mow it down as close as I can. Run the sub soiler to break hard pan. Disc at least 3 times, from different directions. I hope to have most of the set out of the disc for the last time. Depending on how it looks, I may drag the field. Run cultipacker to firm the ground. Seed it and run cultipacker again. I do not plan on a plow as I do not want to bury what little top soil I have.

 

[Cataclysm]

I did this a couple years ago with my LS4155HC. I opted for a spring chisel instead of a plow. It worked out great even though my hydrostatic drive isn't the "right" choice choice to "plow" with. After the chisel I ran a disc over it and it was really smooth. Those fields are now hay fields.

I ran a wheeled chisel so I could limit the depth to keep from killing my tractor. I had some roots and a few rocks and from past experience I knew the chisel would work well with that. I picked the chisel up cheap at a farm auction. Nobody seems to use a chisel much anymore in this area. You could probably get your money back out of it if its a one time use deal.

Don't be afraid to buy a 9 shank. You can pull shanks until your tractor can handle the load depending on soil and depth ect..

 

[airbiscuit]

I'm thinking you will be jamming the differential lock most of the time.

 

[nybirdman]

I have a similar sized Kubota L4240 HStC;I have run a 2x14 bottom plow;you don't want any bigger.Most farmers today don't deep plow for a lot of reasons.

 

[Walter L]

Avenger what i would do is first bush hog grass then disk with a good HD disk (i have a hyd cyl on my center hookup) i generally raises the back disks Up to load the front of the double disk then double cut (over half of original cut) after doing whole field i then come back with both front and rear disc . I then use my tiller to smooth out completely & loosen the soil. This has worked for me as the tiller alone just cant seam to break through the soil very well without the disk.

 

[Darryle]

Going thru the same decision making process for the hay field. I decided on a heavy duty subsoiler, tiller or disk and rolling field aerator. I was surprised at the amount of soil break-up between passes with the subsoiler going down 14" or so. I drive over the the first pass so I wind up with about a 18" spread between passes.

I have a hunting buddy that has a custom metal work business, he just bought a $1m laser cutter, he's going to order me some AR 4" wide plate material and cut blades to mimic these, without the knife edge. I already have the propane tank to make the aerator drum out of

 

[3gunr]

I have used my 28 hp tractor to pull a 2 bit plow before and it did fine, but i would not want to do 10 acres. I agree with the chisel plow idea . i dought an 11 shank one for 100 bucks a few yrs ago. Itis to much for my 2538 but raising 4 shanksdid the trick.

 

[super55]

This might be one of those situations where it might be better to look for a farmer with larger equipment to do the plowing. Hard to justify spending $$ on something that will be used just once but plows can be bought pretty cheaply at auctions these days. As you know from experience, If not done right you can spend more time trying to level a field after plowing than the problem initially if done incorrectly. A large tractor with multiple moldboards is going to give you a much more level field then a smaller tractor ripping at various depths and widths. Those first few runs discing after are brutal from having the smaller sized tires of a compact tractor.