Which implement ? Disc/chisel/cultivator

[will-max dairy]

Agree.

And my takeaway from this is... with respect to the tiller, it works for me... I've also been on farms since I was born in this same area, and read a few books put out by Cornell Cooperative Extension... so maybe I have the experience to tailor fit my solution. But... I don't live where the OP lives, and I've never worked their ground. I would certainly pay heed to what an extension service in that local area says.

One of the other reasons that I recommend a tiller in the OP's situation is their continued use plan. 20 acres total, but only 2 acres in continuous tillage (if I understand correctly). This is similar to my situation. I don't seed 40 acres of hay ground every year with my tiller. I use it to till up rutted patches in the hay fields...to level them and reseed them. Or to maybe till up a couple acres of new ground on some rented land that grew up to berry and rose bushes... bush hog first... then till and seed. On these small patches, to me, it pays to use the tiller that I have for my continuous garden purposes to adapt to seeding, as opposed to buying wide discs, 3 or four bottom plows, chisel plows, drags...etc, etc, etc... used to seed large acreage.

If I was doing 40 acres a year... I would go the more conventional route... actually, on this clay, I would probably not till at all, if the ground didn't need roots chopped up or levelling... and just have somebody come in with a good no-till covercrop/grass seeder when the ground is just moist enough to close back up and firm over the seed. Or feed the cows hay with old clover in it on that ground... and be done with it.

I just really don't have a problem in my particular situation with ground holding water. Quite the opposite.

 

[moparguy55]

Weight and size specs below.

JD makes good tractors. I'm just saying that, the last time I pulled a set of 12' discs with an 856... if you had the discs set to really cut, it made the 856 grunt, and they pulled hard...

For a 100HP, 10,000 lb tractor.

I think that 5510 will be overmatched at 12', unless the discs are just scratching the surface.

This 5510 is a cabbed 4x4 with a loader. I assume the loader would bring it up to 8000lbs or close. If rear tires are filled 9000lbs maybe ?

If i was too do it all with a tiller do you need a chain harrow or something behind the tiller? I assume after a tiller pass its not really packed ?

I understand now why farmers always say you need more than 1 tractor. I looked at a newholland 6640 with a loader and it was i think 8500lbs before adding the loader.

I feel something the size of a newholland 6640 or 6110 deere will be overkill for what i need. Would serve the purpose for pulling a big disc but only needed one time.

 

[will-max dairy]

This 5510 is a cabbed 4x4 with a loader. I assume the loader would bring it up to 8000lbs or close. If rear tires are filled 9000lbs maybe ?

If i was too do it all with a tiller do you need a chain harrow or something behind the tiller? I assume after a tiller pass its not really packed ?

I understand now why farmers always say you need more than 1 tractor. I looked at a newholland 6640 with a loader and it was i think 8500lbs before adding the loader.

I feel something the size of a newholland 6640 or 6110 deere will be overkill for what i need. Would serve the purpose for pulling a big disc but only needed one time.

There HAVE been times that I wished I had some kind of roller to go behind my tiller. The rear apron is very heavy and adjustable. On the last pass, if I do a shallow till and set the apron to essentially sweep about 1" of soil, it will do a minimal packing and levelling.

The other thing about the tiller, for me, is... look at the manual for the 5510... or check the specs... I would wager that it needs about 1500lb of counterweight on the back to use the loader at full capacity. Our Mahindra 6075 is a tractor of similar weight to a 5510; and that's what our manual recommends. Our tiller is about 800lbs, so I use it as a counterweight all winter long, for plowing snow and moving manure piles. If I could figure out how to put 700lbs of roller on the tiller frame... that would solve the roller issue and get us up to the ideal winter counterweight.

But now, I'm getting into cowboy Engineering...

I have seen some tillers with a kind of rolling bar setup on the back. I imagine that would give a better pack than the apron on mine.

 

[moparguy55]

There HAVE been times that I wished I had some kind of roller to go behind my tiller. The rear apron is very heavy and adjustable. On the last pass, if I do a shallow till and set the apron to essentially sweep about 1" of soil, it will do a minimal packing and levelling.

The other thing about the tiller, for me, is... look at the manual for the 5510... or check the specs... I would wager that it needs about 1500lb of counterweight on the back to use the loader at full capacity. Our Mahindra 6075 is a tractor of similar weight to a 5510; and that's what our manual recommends. Our tiller is about 800lbs, so I use it as a counterweight all winter long, for plowing snow and moving manure piles. If I could figure out how to put 700lbs of roller on the tiller frame... that would solve the roller issue and get us up to the ideal winter counterweight.

But now, I'm getting into cowboy Engineering...

I have seen some tillers with a kind of rolling bar setup on the back. I imagine that would give a better pack than the apron on mine.

What brand is your 7 ft tiller?

 

[will-max dairy]

What brand is your 7 ft tiller?

We have a Kuhn EL 62-180, the specs are below. Note that EL 62 is a series designation. -180 is the width, as in 180cm, or about 7'

https://www.farmersequip.com/ag-showroom/kuhn/tillage-tools/secondary-tillage/Power-Tillers/EL 62-180

The specs actually list a maximum "authorized" horsepower of 65; which is just above the 61 PTO HP of our Mahindra.

For a JD 5510, at 82 PTO HP, the Kuhn specs would recommend the EL 82 series.


You'll also see a paragraph in there that recommends... see quote below...

Depth Control​

On all models, working depth is controlled by using skids or wheels. On the EL 82 and EL 92, rollers are available as an option. Crumbler rollers with a large diameter of 15” with removable bars or Packer rollers with a diameter of 19” are recommended for very wet conditions or clayey soils.

​

 

[will-max dairy]

What brand is your 7 ft tiller?

Also...

Tillers aint cheap; so, depending on what's around and your cash on hand, maybe you can get discs, plows, etc, etc, for less than a tiller.

I bought ours a few years old, used, for 4500 dollars. Other than the tractors, it is the most expensive single implement on our farm. We do hay; and it cost us more than any of our haying implements... although... if you want to consider parts and maintenance, we spend a couple thousand on our haying equipment every year. All we've paid for the tiller is new blades. A complete set of blades (there are 54) costs about 500 dollars.