Field cultivator as tiller?

[Daddytron2.0]

I have an old pasture that I want to break up and level out, I have an old Deerborn 12' disc, but it can't get through the top layer, would a field cultivator break through this or should I be using a plow?

Using a Ford 9N

 

[MJMJ]

Plow

 

[flying belgian]

Plow

X2 for plow.

 

[Graysonsutton]

A plow

 

[DRussell]

I have an old pasture that I want to break up and level out, I have an old Deerborn 12' disc, but it can't get through the top layer, would a field cultivator break through this or should I be using a plow?

Using a Ford 9N

Your 9N is pulling a 12 foot disc?? A 12 foot disc should be getting through the top layer. Do you have the disc all the way down? Because you can't pull it all the way down?

Sure, a plow will do it better than a disc, but a disc should do it too, especially this time of year.

 

[Timmycornpicker]

Your 9N is pulling a 12 foot disc?? A 12 foot disc should be getting through the top layer. Do you have the disc all the way down? Because you can't pull it all the way down?

Sure, a plow will do it better than a disc, but a disc should do it too, especially this time of year.

Sounds like he has the Dearborn wide single gang disc. I never understood the concept of one of those. Only one gang and not very heavy, what does one use it for?

 

[jwal10]

Single gang disks will work summer fallow or after plowing first. A lot of horse drawn plows were single gang. 2 horses could pull it. Old disk blades get dull and will not cut, they made a crimper tool and grinders to sharpen disk blades....James

 

[jwal10]

If the ground is wet a field cultivator may scratch sod and then disk it. May take several passes and time for sod to die between passes. Probably faster with a plow in the end. I work my garden in the fall with an S-tine cultivator and again in the spring. I have dug my spring oat patch in the fall and again in the spring to plant the next spring with it too. But if my disk won't dig it the cultivator won't either, but I have sharp disks on it. We don't use a disk here in the spring IF it is wet, too much compaction....James

 

[Russ from MN]

When we use our disc to break ground we put a lot of weight on it, but if you do that you might not be able to pull it.

 

[DanielW]

I doubt an N would have the HP to pull a cultivactor through sod (essentially using it as a chisel plow). And unless the ground is uber-soft and the cultivator a newer model with heavy/reinforced teeth, you'd probably break off every tooth in the first 20 yards. A heavy primary tilage disc might break through, but those lighter drag-type Dearborn disc's aren't going to do it. There's no way a 9N could pull a heavier disc anyway. You might even have trouble pulling the Dearborn once you get it plowed and it starts digging in. When it's just skimming along the sod it won't be pulling hard, but once it starts to dig in and work properly it'll take a lot more power.

Not much for it but to kick it old school: Plow, disc, cultivate, harrow, broadcast seed, harrow again, pack (some of the harrowing/packing may not be necessary, depending on how perfect you want your results). Still lots of us who don't no-till doing things that way.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Plow it or use a chisel plow . The chisel plow will make you wonder what you did that for when you go to work it down though it will tear it up for you to get a new stand on. I think if you want to dig it up you need more tractor or hire a neighbor to rip it loose for you.

 

[Texasmark]

When I first bought this farm, a city boy transplant to the country, I bought a tractor and several implements, one if which was a 3 pt. narrow toothed cultivator. The soil is Houston Black Clay and in the summer it is hard as a rock, in the winter just goo. The soil hadn't been worked in years and had lots of animal traffic previously helping to pack it down. The cultivator just bounced across the top of the soil.....totally useless.

I have learned that with clay you have to catch it between its wet and dry stages to initially work it....actually to work it at all. Moldboard plows don't work here because there is a "gum up" problem with them and they are no where to be seen. The preferred process on soil that hasn't seen steel in decades, is first a narrow shank subsoiler to cut ruts in the subsoil and starting to loosen it up. Then a tandem disc plow.....a disc harrow (essentially a plow in its usage) with a lot of weight on it and adequate blade diameter to get some depth with gangs set to a forward and reverse V...the forward to cut and the reverse to throw the loose dirt back where it was. Then a couple of trips with the disc harrow ( can be the same implement or one without added weight, and then a spike toothed harrow to smooth everything out.

If I am going to fertilize, I do it in the middle of the harrowing to get some soil over it and reduce the opportunity to evaporate to the atmosphere...Urea is popular to get the Nitrogen but evaporates quickly if not covered or watered.....aka best to fertilize just before a rain if you can't cover it right after application. A 3 pt. conical broadcast spreader does that.

Then to plant a crop, after the field is prepared, the broadcast spreader followed by a spike toothed harrow will work but control....even application.....is iffy, or a "drill" which has a hopper for the seed, a toothed, adjustable volume toothed shaft, and coulters that cut a trench in the loose soil. The machine drops in the seed at a predetermined rate you determine with the width of the volume adjuster, and there are several steel loops on a short chain at the back of the drill that flop around and cause dirt to cover the seed. Then a good rain. Then after a week or so, you little plants will pop their heads up and away you go. This is what works for me over the last 40+ years of trying to learn how to farm.

 

[Timmycornpicker]

I doubt an N would have the HP to pull a cultivactor through sod (essentially using it as a chisel plow). And unless the ground is uber-soft and the cultivator a newer model with heavy/reinforced teeth, you'd probably break off every tooth in the first 20 yards. A heavy primary tilage disc might break through, but those lighter drag-type Dearborn disc's aren't going to do it. There's no way a 9N could pull a heavier disc anyway. You might even have trouble pulling the Dearborn once you get it plowed and it starts digging in. When it's just skimming along the sod it won't be pulling hard, but once it starts to dig in and work properly it'll take a lot more power.

Not much for it but to kick it old school: Plow, disc, cultivate, harrow, broadcast seed, harrow again, pack (some of the harrowing/packing may not be necessary, depending on how perfect you want your results). Still lots of us who don't no-till doing things that way.

If he had a 5 shank Ferguson-style 3-point field cultivator that so many companies have cloned over the years, he could do it. But an N would be helpless with a pull type cultivator.

 

[sandcastle1]

I have an old pasture that I want to break up and level out, I have an old Deerborn 12' disc, but it can't get through the top layer, would a field cultivator break through this or should I be using a plow?

Using a Ford 9N

I would not think a 9n would move a 12' disk.

 

[Daddytron2.0]

The one I have no longer has the 3point hitch attachment, but I have about 500lbs of concrete on the trays, the 9 has no problem pulling it... I was going to measure up the hitch and build a 3 point for it... But it finally snowed here

 

[Daddytron2.0]

When I first bought this farm, a city boy transplant to the country, I bought a tractor and several implements, one if which was a 3 pt. narrow toothed cultivator. The soil is Houston Black Clay and in the summer it is hard as a rock, in the winter just goo. The soil hadn't been worked in years and had lots of animal traffic previously helping to pack it down. The cultivator just bounced across the top of the soil.....totally useless.

I have learned that with clay you have to catch it between its wet and dry stages to initially work it....actually to work it at all. Moldboard plows don't work here because there is a "gum up" problem with them and they are no where to be seen. The preferred process on soil that hasn't seen steel in decades, is first a narrow shank subsoiler to cut ruts in the subsoil and starting to loosen it up. Then a tandem disc plow.....a disc harrow (essentially a plow in its usage) with a lot of weight on it and adequate blade diameter to get some depth with gangs set to a forward and reverse V...the forward to cut and the reverse to throw the loose dirt back where it was. Then a couple of trips with the disc harrow ( can be the same implement or one without added weight, and then a spike toothed harrow to smooth everything out.

If I am going to fertilize, I do it in the middle of the harrowing to get some soil over it and reduce the opportunity to evaporate to the atmosphere...Urea is popular to get the Nitrogen but evaporates quickly if not covered or watered.....aka best to fertilize just before a rain if you can't cover it right after application. A 3 pt. conical broadcast spreader does that.

Then to plant a crop, after the field is prepared, the broadcast spreader followed by a spike toothed harrow will work but control....even application.....is iffy, or a "drill" which has a hopper for the seed, a toothed, adjustable volume toothed shaft, and coulters that cut a trench in the loose soil. The machine drops in the seed at a predetermined rate you determine with the width of the volume adjuster, and there are several steel loops on a short chain at the back of the drill that flop around and cause dirt to cover the seed. Then a good rain. Then after a week or so, you little plants will pop their heads up and away you go. This is what works for me over the last 40+ years of trying to learn how to farm.

Wow, thanks. There's alot of good info there! I'm in Manitoba, we have some HEAVY gumbo, but I'm in an area with a good sandy loam I also have a box scraper with cutter teeth, but no real weight to it, might have to give that a go in spring