Thank you all for the responses! :thumbsup:
A few things:
I do not plan on spraying glyphosate on this field. In my opinion, that is over used and not necessary in this situation. I do use glyphosate in certain applications, but not for this.
I desire to plow the field mostly because that is what I know. Turn the soil over, to put the vegetation into the ground to decompose and feed the soil, while loosening the hard pan and bringing new soil to the surface. In the Palouse (google it if you don't know what that is) I managed a dry land wheat farm for several years. Every fall, we plowed all the fields, cultivated them once, again in the spring just before seeding. The row crop fields where I grew up in the Columbia Basin got plowed about every 2-4 years depending on what we were growing. Someone mentioned plowing a hillside will increase erosion. Yes, absolutely! If not done properly. Again, google the Palouse to see the types of fields I have plowed. You typically plow uphill, as in, the moldboard puts the dirt on the uphill side of the plow, never downhill, unless you simply cannot make that happen. Over the course of cultivating and erosion, the soil will 'fall' back to its original position. And this field will likely get plowed this one time and probably never again for a few decades. So, not really a concern.
In my opinion, plowing is like hitting the reset button.
I do understand that there maybe better, faster, more effective ways. I have run chisel plows, disks harrows, etc without plowing, and it works. But never seems to work as well as a plow. But, I am open to these types of suggestions!
Also, hiring a farmer to do the initial plowing. Fantastic idea! I could advertise this locally and see what comes up (or the land owner could), and we may indeed go that route. But there is something I also left out of my original post: I do have plans for the implements after I am done with this field. Those plans include using a plow.
So, if I need a plow for my own uses, why not use it on this land too? Yes, it will take some time to get it done, but then I will have a plow!
About the only implement I would need to acquire for this project that I do NOT have another use for is a finish mower, like a batwing 15ft, cut low and fast mower. I simply dont have another use for it, yet. The only implement I currently own for mowing is my POS rotary mower, which sucks at cutting grass. I could, for my uses, get and use a fail mower with Y blades. I could then use that to mow this grass, but that would take a long time to mow as well.
I would need to acquire just about all the implements to do this job. Yeah, expensive! But I do have uses for them in the future. Except for the batwing finish mower. That is still undecided.
My initial questions were about pulling a plow with a compact 45hp tractor with R4 filled tires over rough terrain and a steep hillside. What plow to use? I am convinced that the 2 bottom, spring trip plow would be best for me. Any recommendations?
In detail, this is what I am planning on this field:
-Get the backhoe out there and make the creek drain a bit better. Currently there are some low areas that turn to mud sink holes. This may include the addition of drain tile. TBD
-Mow, using the rotary mower as close to the surface as I can.
-Plow the field
-Disk the field pulling a cultipacker (ring packer, roller, etc) to smooth the field in preparation for seeding. This will likely happen a few times in different directions.
-Take soil sample for nutrients for fertilizer application
-broadcast spread a mix of grass seed and fertilizer, pulling a cultipacker behind the spreader to push the seed into the seed bed.
-Once established, mow on regular basis.
-fertilize and spray for weeds on a regular basis if required.
Time frame to get this done: TBD. We are in no rush to even start. This could happen this fall, or 3 years from now. The sooner the better. But I do always plan on either plowing in spring or early fall.
The process is not complicated. About the only complicated aspect is knowing what my tractor can do with the tilling. So far, as far as tilling goes, my tractor has only run the rototiller on small plots. It does it very well, but not practical in this situation. If I had a larger tractor, like I have run before, this would not be a thread.
Someone once mentioned that people (I assume like myself) buy these little sub-compact/compact tractors and try to do big boy farming with them, end up hurting their tractors, biting off more than they can chew, and making mistakes. I agree. This tractor probably is not ideal for pulling tillage equipment though the ground. And when I bought my tractor, I never thought I would use it for such an application. Hence why I need to purchase these implements. But here I am.
