New field, new farmer

[Betterwhale]

Hello. I have just acquired myself a Farmall H, runs great, field ready(except maybe some tires soon). My property has 4.5ac of crop field, traditionally rented out. My wife and I want to take it over. We are starting small with just doing pumpkins and maybe some corn(lots of empty space). This is central Illinois with nice black dirt. I was wondering what equipment I need? The field has been a corn and bean field. I have a 494A JD planter that needs a little work but all the chains function. My H has hydraulics. The 494A has a tine cultivator on it. I also have a single bottom plow for my cub.

TLDR- have farmall H, 494A planter with tine cultivator, and a Farmall cub with a 1 bottom plow, what else do I need to plant and grow corn

 

[504]

You will need a disc, and a drag harrow would help smooth things out. A harrow pulled corner to corner makes seeing the planter markers easier.

 

[504]

Hurry a lot of corn is in the ground in western Illinois now. Of course the 3 inch rain over Friday and Saturday will slow things down for a week

 

[paul]

Typically one wants:

Heavy tillage, a plow or chisel plow.
Medium tillage, a disk (lighter soils) or a field cultivator (clay wet soils).
Light tillage, a harrow or drag.

Planting - a planter for corn, beans, pumpkins, etc. or a drill, for small grains, grasses, clover and alfalfas.

Weed control - row crop cultivator for stuff you planted with the planter. You can hope weeds aren’t too bad in crops planted with the drill.

A hoe for small areas. A sprayer for bigger areas.

Locally you do heavy tillage in fall, then medium tillage as soon as you can get into the field after snow melt, then light tillage to kill the weed seedlings and plant. Many crops you can again do light tillage just before the crops emerge from the soil. Then kill weeds with the row crop cultivator every 7 days or so. If you see ankle high weeds, you have a mess, controlling weeds early is the biggest thing and most new farmers don’t understand that….

Lots of things can be done differently, but you need to know what your goal is and what to expect and what your conditions are if you are doing something differently….

Paul