What equipment for tillage?

[TXZane]

Im from se MN and I’m new to planting and raising
crops. Mostly familiar with baling native grasses for
hay. But I would like to start planning for about 20 to
40 acres of tillable ground. I am not familiar with
equipment required for preparing the ground for
corn and beans and etc. I have a farmall 450 so I
am limiting myself for the time being to smaller
equipment. I have a good disc. I am thinking of
buying a coil tine digger that’s for sale locally. The
ground is too shallow for a chisel plow so I don’t
want anything deep to dig up rocks. What else do I
need to do to prepare a good seed bed?

 

[DeltaSteve]

Moldboard plow firstfor sod/hay/pasture. Then disk and spike tooth harrow.Later after a year you can go with a chisel plow

 

[paul]

Your area is a little different than here south central minnesota. You never got the glaciers, your soil profile is different.

Here we want heavy tillage in fall, moderate tillage in spring, and fine tillage to prep the seedbed. Sometimes the moderate and fine tillage are combined, a field cultivator or disk with a harrow attachment.

So, a plow or chisel plow or coulter chisel in fall. A ripper goes really deep, you sound like you Wouldn’t want that. Chisel plows your size are basically selling for scarp iron these days, might as well snag one at a sale.

In spring a disk (we don’t like disks in our wet clays, but likely fine for your area) or a field cultivator.

And a harrow.

Paul

 

[TXZane]

My soils are right on the edge of the deep soils. The majority of the field I’m looking at has about 6-8” of soil on top of a thick layer of limestone. There are lots of areas with a lot less soil on top. I was thinking the coil tine digger could be used in place of a chisel so I could stay above the rocks. I was also thinking a field cultivator wouldn’t be a bad idea either before the disc.

 

[Paul swpa]

If your just planting, don't need any heavy duty leveling of the field, I would research the viability of no-till for your area. Just need a good sprayer (or some other way of killing off what's there - roller, heavy grazing livestock, etc.), a planter, and harvesting equipment. Paul

 

[DeltaSteve]

If you have rocks,a disk plow might be preferable. A disk plow can slice the sod but bounce off the rock. We use em here in the rocky mesa areas where a moldboard plow would be destroyed by rocks.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

A 450 IH isn’t a very big tractor for sure, but during the period they were built, there were chisel ploughs built for tractors of that size. I have an old Graham chisel plough, really looks more like a very aggressive cultivator. It has long thick points, only about 11 if I remember correctly. It is a trailed piece of equipment, and has a hydraulic cylinder to raise and lower to control depth. Put all the way down, I am sure it would bring your 450 to a stand still, but set right, or with a couple outside teeth taken off, your tractor could pull a piece like this. For best results, chisel the field after the hay has been taken off. Too much crop residue will plug up. And also wait until ground is soft after a good soaking rain, and your chisel plough will go in easier. Rip up the field one direction, then cross on a slight angle the next pass. Making as many passes as necessary to turn the ground black. My advice would be to burn the field down with something like Round Up, gives you a huge advantage on eliminating things like twitch grass, and other grasses that will just say thanks for stirring up the ground and transplanting us. With minimum tillage you loose the advantage of cut and cover given by the traditional style plough, but fewer stones to deal with, and no dead furrows either. There are always trade offs

 

[fastfarmall]

If you want a light digger[cultivator] the no 45 Vibra shank will work for you, they go cheap also,but you wont use that until you break the sod up,but with a harrow behind that, it would make a nice seed bed, mostly a spring time cultivator. About all you want for the 450 is a 12.5 foot or maybe a 13.5 foot wide

 

[fastfarmall]

The one thing i forgot to mention, the 18.5 foot cultivator was real popular in the 1960's, if you take the wings off or fold them up you can make them a 12.5 foot wide, and them you have some spare parts !

 

[JDIH]

I was going to comment that you'll get as many different opinions as you do responses. Looks like I'm right lol. If you're new to this I'd check with the neighbors to see what practices work. This is really a question for locals as conditions, soil types, equipment available vary greatly across the country. As for the field cultivator, I pull a 14' vibrashank 4500 with points with 75hp. Often that's not enough hp. Sweeps pull harder. Again, soil types and hills vary so this may not be the case in your area

 

[rrlund]

I think you're overthinking this thing. I don't know why you'd need the coil tine. Get a 3 16 trailer plow, you already have a disc, with the two of them, you're good to go for now.

 

[David G]

No till it

 

[Case Nutty 1660]

I have to say the comments here for some part are so predicable,, the man asked about Tillage,, oh I know some here think that word is so bad,, and for YOUR area it may be but sure is not every where and many places you do nto grow crops with out it and that is a fact. For tillage you can use like some said, a plow,disc and or a chisel plow with points and then later sweeps to control growth, on those small acres and what power you have for it at this point I would suggest the chisel plow for the main tillage tool,, but I see you are concerned with pulling up rocks,, that is going to happen with a disc also to a point,, and in most ground a disc is a packer,, not so bad in dry ground but work it a bit to wet and you will pack big time,, the chisel plow with points and sweeps needs not set so deep you bring up a lot of rocks,, 3-6" deep(in several passes getting deeper is best) which is where a disc will get you to should not be much worse in bringing rocks up than the disc for the fact that if you jump over every rock like a disc does you are not loosening up the ground for proper ground prep. if you have real sandy soil to work with a disc can be used to a point but again it will turn ground to powder and that again causes packing and erosion, aka all things that bring down crop yields, if the no-till method is used you again need a good sprayer and have to deal with all that goes with using chemical farming,, all of these are just what I have learned over the past 50 plus years I have farmed, its totally up to you how you proceed I am just posting what I have found in that time produces the best crops for my area,, and yes I hold the high production records of grain and hay production in dry land farming in my State, I wish you Well in your farming it is not a easy job with out huge risks but can be very satisfying as well.

I use no chemical to control weeds other than canada thistle,, all weed control is done by tillage,, these crops were raised with less than 3" from sept 1 2019 until harvest in august 2020,, they produced 1/3 of my normal production when I get average H20, without summer fallow there would have been zero production this season

 

[TXZane]

Thanks for the help guys. I guess I am more of a fan of tillage than no till. We live in a karst region and the sprays go directly to the ground water surprisingly fast. I worry about chisel plowing but I will try it shallow at first. My grandfather farmed the field next to this one for years without a chisel plow. Then when he retired the neighbors chiseled it and brought up nothing but rocks. They farmed it one year and now it’s in permanent crp because of it. The ground is shallow but extremely fertile.

 

[GordoSD]

Talk to your neighbors. One of them will have the right equipment to get the field in shape for the first planting, After that all you will need is a good disk to handle residue, and a good no til planter. I sell my crop to Custom combiner. Disc in spring after the right rain I am in SE SD and average 55 bu beans, and 160 corn, dry farming with an older JD conservation planter. For beans I plant in two passes 90 degrees different
I do have modern Farmall 95 for most field work. But a SMTA I restored to go out and show off on, LOL