What size disc?

[Big mac@112954]

My Ford 861 is finally ready for field work. My small acreage is mostly southern Iowa clay. How much disk can this tractor handle? The field is hay ground that slopes. There are some nasty wheel ruts that need work before I fertilize and reseed.
Thanks in advance for any advise that that you want to share.

 

[DanielW]

Hmm, you've asked a common and tough-to-answer question: Lots of factors to consider, and what works for one person might not work for another. If it's a standard finishing disc, you could probably handle 10' just fine. But with your heavy clay and if your hay ground is plowed and has a lot of alfalfa roots and you're cutting deep, it might be a tough slog. And obviously the weight and number of blades on your disc will make a substantial difference. For older or lighter finishing discs, a (very rough) rule is 5 HP for foot. I know this likely isn't what you're thinking of, but for comparison: A heavy offset disc in hard land would need closer to 15 HP for foot. You can obviously get by with less HP by cutting shallower and making more passes if required.

If you only have a few acres to do per year, I'd opt for an 8' if I could find one. The 861 will pull it dandy. No reason to tax the old girl to her limit for the sake of saving an extra pass or two with a wider disc. But decent discs smaller than 10' seem to be hard to come by. If all you can find is a 10', you'll probably do fine with that. And if all you can find is a 12' or larger, you wouldn't be the first person to torch off the outer discs on either side to reduce the effective cutting width and get by with a lower HP tractor.

Hard to give an exact answer, because there are huge regional variations in what kind of tillage implements you can pull: I've seen lots of videos online of folks pulling a 4x14 plow with a 50 HP tractor, or pulling a 10' disc with a Farmall H. Around here a 3X16 plow will bring any of our 65-70 HP tractors to their knees in some of our land, and it's all our Super W6 or 45 HP Kubota 4x4 would want to pull and old IH 10' finishing disc.

 

[Big mac@112954]

Thanks for the great reply to my question. You give me a lot of things to think about. The hay ground is mostly timothy with very little red clover and alfalfa. With a large percentage of weeds. It should have been worked over last year but I couldn't find anyone that did custom work. This year I will do it myself

 

[Ultradog MN]

Your 861 should pull an 8'.
I pulled an 8' Ford 201 disc behind my Ford 3000 for a number of years. It was quite a bit behind that small tractor but it did okay.
Your 861 has a few more ponies than a 3000 but the 3000 is a bit heavier. It wasn't so much a horsepower issue as it was traction
You will definately need rear wheel weights or fluid in your tires to be real effective. I had pie weights on mine - about 600 lbs/wheel.
You'll learn to lift the disc a bit to make tight turns.
I upsized to a 3 cylinder 4000 a couple of years ago and it handles it much better but your tractor - with added weight - will "getter done" for you.

 

[ss55]

My Ford 861 is finally ready for field work. My small acreage is mostly southern Iowa clay. How much disk can this tractor handle? The field is hay ground that slopes. There are some nasty wheel ruts that need work before I fertilize and reseed.
Thanks in advance for any advise that that you want to share.

Alfalfa can be tough to reseed in an existing stand. To renovate this hay field will you moldboard plow, disk and reseed with a cover crop like oats? If you have the equipment, a year in corn with the right herbicides can reduce weed problems. Match the herbicides to control the weeds you actually have in the field.

 

[Texasmark]

Your 861 should pull an 8'.
I pulled an 8' Ford 201 disc behind my Ford 3000 for a number of years. It was quite a bit behind that small tractor but it did okay.
Your 861 has a few more ponies than a 3000 but the 3000 is a bit heavier. It wasn't so much a horsepower issue as it was traction
You will definately need rear wheel weights or fluid in your tires to be real effective. I had pie weights on mine - about 600 lbs/wheel.
You'll learn to lift the disc a bit to make tight turns.
I upsized to a 3 cylinder 4000 a couple of years ago and it handles it much better but your tractor - with added weight - will "getter done" for you.

I always raise my disc on turns...cuts down on disc replacement. I run 13.6 wide tires on the back of my 3000 running my 6' and have no weights on the tractor but 500+# on the disc for better penetration. Depending on the terrain, tractor weights might be in order. Would I have a problem with an 8'? I doubt it considering how well the 6' runs. Weights???? would have to see. I'm in heavy clay soil. I don't know the relationship between sandy loam and clay in terms of traction vs tractor weight. Hard clay is pretty resistant to wheel slippage.

 

[Big mac@112954]

I found a 2 bottom plow that is 3 point. The neighbor told me it had not been in the ground for 50 years and he was going to scrap it. Being free at least the price was right. What could go wrong? I never considered needing wheel weights. Can someone help me with the pros and cons of bolt on Vs liquid?

 

[Texasmark]

I found a 2 bottom plow that is 3 point. The neighbor told me it had not been in the ground for 50 years and he was going to scrap it. Being free at least the price was right. What could go wrong? I never considered needing wheel weights. Can someone help me with the pros and cons of bolt on Vs liquid?

I have both. Problem with liquid is if you have punctures. Makes a big mess trying to get it fixed......reliably. Problem with weights is that they are heavy. Makes mounting a hassle working alone especially on big tractors....but you do what you gotta do......Oh, weights are expensive and usually hard to find....fluid isn't either of these problems.

 

[DanielW]

I prefer cast weights (or no weights) for 90% of my tractors. Fluid is fine if you keep everything maintained, but if you have any leak and don't do a thorough job of stripping it down and properly cleaning, calcium will rust away your rims. You can get different ballast fluids that aren't as corrosive, but even that's not perfect: If you run tubes (which I prefer), when the tubes are loaded you get condensation between the rim and tube which also accelerates rust. For newer and/or larger (100+ HP) units used for heavier tillage it makes sense to load them. But I no longer load any of my older/smaller tractors.

For your 861, if you're just using a 2-furrow plow and 8' or smaller discs, I'd think you'll likely get by without any weight. Even with a 10' set I'd certainly be tempted to try it before loading my tires. When looking for discs, it can be hard to find 8' trail models. But there are oodles of the smaller 6' three-point models out there. You definitely wouldn't need weight to handle one of them, and if you're only covering a few acres a year one of them would be a great unit for you.

 

[k. Stodtmeister]

My Ford 861 is finally ready for field work. My small acreage is mostly southern Iowa clay. How much disk can this tractor handle? The field is hay ground that slopes. There are some nasty wheel ruts that need work before I fertilize and reseed.
Thanks in advance for any advise that that you want to share.

You can use the old formula- 10 hp for every linear foot of disc. In heavy soil best use 15 hp per linear foot.
Example ( a 10' disc requires approximately 100 hp tractor )

 

[DanielW]

You can use the old formula- 10 hp for every linear foot of disc. In heavy soil best use 15 hp per linear foot.
Example ( a 10' disc requires approximately 100 hp tractor )

That would have to be for a heavier primary tillage or offset disc. For conventional finishing discs, it's more like 5 HP per foot. And older, heavier tractors can do better still. Loads of M's and Farmall 350's/400's all over the globe were sold and paired with 10' IH #37 discs. I'm all for having more HP than needed - especially if you're burying the gangs deep in plowed land. But 10 HP per foot for a standard finishing disc is rather excessive. Even the smaller Ford N's, Ferguson TEO20's, etc., were sold and paired with 6' three-point discs

 

[showcrop]

Understand that your nasty wheel ruts will still be there after three-four years because the "fill" dirt will slowly compact unless you get it all loosened down to the bottom of the ruts.

 

[Texasmark]

Understand that your nasty wheel ruts will still be there after three-four years because the "fill" dirt will slowly compact unless you get it all loosened down to the bottom of the ruts.

Hello "Hay King" pasture renovator!

 

[k. Stodtmeister]

That would have to be for a heavier primary tillage or offset disc. For conventional finishing discs, it's more like 5 HP per foot. And older, heavier tractors can do better still. Loads of M's and Farmall 350's/400's all over the globe were sold and paired with 10' IH #37 discs. I'm all for having more HP than needed - especially if you're burying the gangs deep in plowed land. But 10 HP per foot for a standard finishing disc is rather excessive. Even the smaller Ford N's, Ferguson TEO20's, etc., were sold and paired with 6' three-point discs

No one said that you were using the disc for harrowing. For primary tillage the rule of thumb is10 hp per linear foot of disc. In heavy soils you better use 15 hp/ linear foot. And if you live in Northern Nevada you better use 20 hp. Why don't you use a spring tooth harrow instead of a disc? I use a 6', 3 pt disc for corners and fence lines and it's all a 9520 Zetor can handle.