rolling baskets

[flying belgian]

Do those rolling baskets pack the ground as much as I think they do? As much as they look like they would? Everyone always tells me don't use a disk, packs the ground, but I can't see it. A disk just cuts the ground, lifts it and moves it over 10" and drops it down. Yet they are putting those baskets behind every piece of tillage equip., spring or fall. What gives?

 

[fastfarmall]

All i know is they make a nice place, to seed corn into, or any of the common crop's!

 

[JMS/.MN]

I guess it depends on how wet the ground is. If dry, they should break up the clods. I still like the tine harrows. Depends on soil type as well.

 

[rustred]

don't know what u mean by a basket? but around here they used to pull those spiral packers behind the seed drills. and also the same deal with harrows... called packer harrows. a disc is a good seed bed preparer. hardly see that done anymore with these zero till operations.

 

[Wicksfield]

I pull an Unverferth rolling basket behind my disk. Does an excellent job and no it doesn't pack the ground. I believe also that if one is not out in the field when it's too wet, then a disk will not cause compaction.

 

[Willow Lane]

The disk packs the ground under what it's flipping over. If your disk is running 4" deep, you are packing the ground under that 4", think about the weight of the disk and all of that weight setting on just the edges of the disks

 

[showcrop]

Belgian, if you are standing in your field and you pick up a big handful of dirt and move it over ten inches and set it down, during the time that you were picking it up and moving it over you were pressing down on the ground, by the amount that the dirt weighs.

 

[fastfarmall]

Agreed,that's why they use a disk, when they pack a road from the bottom up!

 

[flying belgian]

Ok I get that but why would it be worse then a field cultivator? Isn't the weight of the cultivator being held up by the shovels?

 

[SVcummins]

I like rolling baskets I have an extra Lely basket i want to make brackets to mount it behind a international 45 vibra shank. Around every pass with a disc packs the soil harder and harder it makes a nice alfalfa seedbed

 

[JD Seller]

A disk compacts the ground in two ways. The lower compaction is from the shearing action the disk blade does when it cut the ground and moves it over. This puts a compaction layer just under the tillage depth. This layer is less with larger diameter blades. The second way of compaction is just the side ways movement of the soil. If you think of it the disk blade creates a wedge effect in the soil it moves. This is why a disk will reduce clods other than just cutting them. When the soil is wet this wedge effect will compact the soil. Think of the slivers a disk will throw in really wet ground. Just like you picking up ground and making a mud ball.

As for rolling baskets or harrow compacting the ground??? Not really. The main reason is just physics. The rolling baskets and harrow do not weight near as much as a disk or other tillage equipment. Most tillage equipment fluffs the ground up. This is just air pocketed in the soil. A rain or time will let the ground "settle". The rolling baskets will firm the ground or even level it some in the case of a chisel plow or field cultivator.

All tillage tools can cause compaction if the conditions are correct for that to happen. A disk is bad because it can run in those conditions while leaving the ground looking good. Your not seeing the real damage under the surface.

 

[SVcummins]

That?s the difference between horizontal tillage which is a disk and vertical tillage which is a cultivator or ripper or chisel . The disk smears it and the chisel Just lifts it even vertical tillage will cause hard pan if you operate at the same depth year after year

 

[paul]

Disks left here in the 1970s. Pack too much, ground comes out clods.

Those bar rollers came in the 2000s or so, and left 3 years later. We heard they were a good idea, and probably are somewhere, but not here. Most discussion I heard about them ended up being how fast you had to roll them down the gravel road to get the mud to fly out of them.....

We have high clay soil here. We have real wet soil here most of the time.

Paul