Go BottomCultivating planting with 30hp
 | John Weber
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2001-03-21 25704
Does anyone know of a site that has detailed hobby farming data?I need to:1) Brush/bush hog 3 acres that is 2 yr weed grown over farmland. (this is the only part I know how to do)2) 'Work' the soil. Plough? Sub soiler? Disc? What/how/when do I use each? Where can I purchase? How big can my rig handle?3) Seed with corn/wheat/sunflower for pheasants. Implements? Just spread seed and rake in? Plant in rows?Lots of questions...any help would be great.Thanks.
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| steve arnold
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2001-03-22 25738
this chat room is as far as you need to go, me along with the other participants here can get you set up. First if your tractor is 4wd with ag tires you should be able to pull a 2-16 plow, 7' tandem offset disk, 5' rototiller, 9'
"drag" which consist of multiple staggered spring like retractable teeth, some people might call it a drag harrow. Don't worry about a sub-soiler.
If your area hasn't been worked for two years you might still be able to work it up with the disk (some weight may need to be added to the disk) If you had a 50hp with a heavy 12' disc I would say thats all you need, but....
It depends on how hard you soil is and how well the roots of your weeds have formed turf. If your weeds are tall and you can do it safely think about burning the area after mowing it, this helps get rid of long stalks that might prevent you from just disking it.
A plow will run around $250 used, you might as well get one, once you do just go out and play, you'll figure out the right way to use it after 10min. If you want a disk, they are at least $500 new, look for square "gang" axles, avoid round ones. and a drag is at least $900 new. My advice is if that 3 acres is all you will ever do, year after year, buy a 3pt 5' rototiller, they range from $1000 to $2500.
As for you seed, If you are not already getting it from Pheasants Forever find out how you can, they give away seed and fertilizer. If you dont care about feeding deer, plant forage sorghum instead of corn, I think it blows down easier after maturity and gives better coverage and accessability of seed to the birds and possibly better nesting. Also corn likes a deeper tillage about 6", sorghum, sunflower, wheat, rye, buckwheat, are happy with less and lesser seed depth- making broadcast method more viable. Keep your cover crops in at least 60' wide rows because predators like to roam the edges. I wasted a lot of time taking traditional farming steps to get smooth and pretty fields with corn in rows WHO CARES!!! the critters dont! Go by the book and get some better yields maybe, but are you going to harvest this stuff? NO! I used to do some contract planting for property owners and Wild Turkey Federation on public lands. I plant 10-15 acres on my 40 every year this is how I have come to do it: Mow old stalks down if needed, plow, let sit in sun and get rained on for 1-2 weeks, run drag around twice, fertilize, broadcast seed, drag, and run a Brillion "cultipacker or cultipactor" over ground once for seed/soil contact, all in one day. If you cant get free sunflower seed, just buy a bag of bird seed (oil type). HTH steve ....
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| J. Dubbs
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2001-03-22 25747
Steve,
It sounds like you know what you're talking about, and I also have a question about planting food plots. I drive a NH TC35 and recently purchased a Kuhn EL 32150 tiller to assist in food plot planting. My first question is will only the tiller do a sufficient job for preparing the soil, or should I plow, disc, till, etc.? The field was last planted in corn three years ago. Secondly, I want to plant primarily for deer and have researched Biologic, Whitetail Institute clover and some others. I also spoke with the Penn State University Whitetial Research Center who recommended simply purchasing clover seed from a local farm and feed store, and stated that I would be paying more than necessary buying a commercial whitetail seed. What do you think? Thanks. ....
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| steve arnold
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2001-03-23 25770
I think farmers plow active fields to mostly bury crop residues to prevent planters and seeders from clogging up. Thats a main reason they use special no- till planters for no-till farming. If you are broadcasting seed this is not an issue. But rototillers and drag harrows can clog up with long stalks, so if you can mow old corn stubble and weeds and chop them up well while doing so it sounds like two swipes with your tiller should be good for corn and soybeans one swipe for grasses. I used to plow old growth fields and hook up an old Jd 2 row corn planter behind a landpride reverse-tiller, worked well for a two pass operation but the second pass was very slow.
As soon as I read "Whitetail Institute" I thought gimmick
and was going to say just what the college boys said. Your local elevator should have a "wildlife or pasture mix" that would do fine, if not have them put together 2# ladino clover, 3# red clover, 5# alfalfa, and 4# brome or orchard grass for each acre you are planting. mow it all down when gets 12-18" tall, at first use about 100# of 12-12-12 fert. and 50# each april/may. Later ....
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| Bob Josaitis
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2001-03-23 25793
John, take the good information from Steve and add to it by going down to your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) office (there is one in about every county of the nation). They will give you all the farming and local wildlife habitat growing information you need at no cost, and can lead you to local people in your area who have done what you want to do. Local is the key. Never buy seed mixes or ask for that type of information unless you provide the necessary site information, i.e. soils, climate, water conditions, first and last freezing dates, previous weed species in your fields, fertilizer and chemical conditions, hard pans and/or plow pans, etc. Sure, maybe you're just having a little fun with your fields, but get the local experience and you'll be raising the right stuff for your place and may save some headaches along the way. ....
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| John Weber
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2001-03-24 25820
Thanks for the help.
Yeah, I should of mentioned I have a JD 790 30hp with turfs. But anyway...
I think I'm going to pay a farmer to plow the field and then purchase (and use) a tiller to clean it up. I'm also trying to get in touch with Pheasants Forever. Hopefully they can help me out.
Thanks again.
john ....
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 | Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York 
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2001-03-26 25913
John you might try getting ahold of your coopertive extension office. They are normally in every county of the country and would be a excellent source of info to get started with. From there it is up to your wallet and time frame. ....
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