Spring-tooth harrow to break up clods?

db4570

Member
I am enjoying my new Ferguson FO20, and running it through its paces trying different stuff on our few acres.

I picked up a nice Ferguson single bottom plow for it, and it plows great. Maybe a little too good. I want to plow this old field which is overgrown with goldenrod and various bushes. I brush-hogged part of it, and ran the plow over it. After tweaking the adjustments I got the plow to dig in and really turn dirt. But it is in huge clods that are actually difficult to drive the tractor over without bouncing around like crazy.

So I figure I need another implement to smooth it out. I was looking for a disc, but couldn't find one cheap. But I did find a cheap ($150) spring harrow in good shape. Would that do the job for me? I realized I'll have to take it slow and maybe make a couple passes.

Will my plan work? Will the spring tooth harrow handle big clods like this? I realize I should probably have a disc, too, but I can't justify additional implements right now.

Thanks for any advice!

David
 
Not in my clayish soils.

A plow or chisel plow is a primary tillage tool, goes 7-12 inches deep, leaves the ground rough.

Letting the ground overwinter is common up here in the north, and mellows out the clods.

A disk or a field cultivator is a mid level tillage tool.thry go 4-6 inches deep, and work down the soil. Disks don't work so well in clay soils, so we use field cultivators. Either will work up thee typical weed seed zone and kill weeds.

A drag, harrow, etc is typically a light tillage tool. They go 1-2 inches deep. They level and finish the ground nice and smooth. They also kill off fine weed sprouts, before it's a real weed, and don't go so deep as to pull up and activate more weed seeds.

So, you are trying to skip a level in the process. That can work in the right conditions, but on average you will have tough going.

The harrow will level some in spring after the ground mellows over winter. It will also bust up some clods if you use it within 2-3 hours of plowing, and the ground is still damp, but you won't get fine soil from this, just smaller clods.

If you plowed last week, and everything dried up, and you take a spring harrow on it you won't get much results on those hard dry clods most of the time.

Paul
 
db,

did you say what your end results would be, do you want to level the field and reseed the field or plant corn, crops???/ this is important as to what your end result will be.

look on youtube for spring tooth harrow, there are a number of short clips of people using spring tooth harrows.
however, most of the films show the spring tooth harrow being used to level their gardens,

if you watch the films and still think the spring tooth harrow will work, then go for it.

if you want to go cheap and apparently we are much alike, then I would try this:

cut a log about 10ft long, 12" dia tie a chain to each end of the log and drag it over the rough ground, this tool will cost you almost nothing and will level the ground, if you pull it both ways.

then you might be able to use your spring tooth harrow and level out the field to meet your requirements.
note: one cheap tool you could buy is a two row cultivator, few are used anymore and at one time every farm had one, so you might get one for cheap, take a few shovels off of it and you have a cheap chisel plow,
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We would fall plow, then in the spring hit it with the cultivator and a drag behind that. Made a nice seed bed, and the winter freeze thaw cycles really help mellow out the soil. If there are lots of comps of grass they can still be difficult because the roots really good things together, bit a year or 2 in corn then back to a hay field would really help out.

Sometimes a disc is nice. Different soils work up differently, so your mileage may vary. Some guys can get away with just one pass with a disc. Others couldn't dream of it.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
as other have said, fall plow, then let it set over winter, freeze/thaw really mellows most dirt.

but, if you are still on the cheap, equipment wise, another thing to consider is a drag disk, many thousands of acres were tilled with drag type disk over the years.

if you luck up on one in your community, most are no longer used and setting behind the barn or in a fence row somewhere.

the pictures are of a couple listed on craigslist: one was $200, no price on the other one,

worth a shot, look for a drag type disk to break up your soil,
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only if you let it mellow over winter first. Do it now and you will just tip the furrows back over and uncover what you worked so hard to cover up. Disc is best for what you want to do and drag discs are just as cheap as field cultivators.
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All of my life, we have used a Soil Surgeon to go over new plowed ground to level and knock down the worst of it ..

Our AC plows really turned the soil well and it never was all that bad, but it did improve traction for the next..Disc and Harrow..

Basically a Soil Surgeon is a fancy name for a Drag..with knives under it..and you can put soil and/or rocks on it to make it as heavy as ya want..

One can be made from about anything from old tires bolted together and dragged with a chain or lengths of poles the width you want, chained together and dragged.

This would be one of those jobs that a spring toothed Harrow is not much good for..and a Cultipacker would just too light to do much good..

Most never knew what a Sub-Soiler was, but most know how to make and use a "Drag"..

I have heard that a piece of chain-link fence fastened to a cross-Pipe and pulled from a chain works ok also..
 

saw the photos of the old drag disks on this post. I've got an old JD KB or KA 5' pull type disk with some broken blades and needs a lot of tlc, but it still works. i use this disk with a 6' section hear behind it makes a great seed bed. real old school, but still does a good job.

bass
53superC
 
Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

The first thing I want to do is plow under the sticks and stalks and roots of the shrubs and goldenrod after brush hogging to make it easier to walk and drive around on the land. I also want to bust up the hard soil that hasn't been tilled in 20 years or more, to loosen it up and maybe improve drainage. Then I'm thinking about eventually planting with hay, or maybe Christmas trees, or something. Or maybe just let wild grass grow on it.

It seems the ideal method is plow, disc, spring harrow. But if I can skip a step and drag a big log or something over it to bust up the clods, and then use something like a spring harrow to do final smoothing, I wouldn't mind trying it. I don't want to go overboard with implements if I can help it. I already have a brush hog, scoop, back blade, and plow.

Am I correct in assuming that I won't get a smooth finish with a disc? Which is why I figure I'll need a spring harrow anyway. But maybe I don't need it super smooth. I'm not in a particular hurry to get the land in production or anything. So I can be patient.

David
 

Generally a Disc (1st time over the ground will help and..IF you don't have too many Roots and such, a second pass with a Harrow will leav the field nice and even..

Maybe that piece of Chain-link Fence would help pull out the worst of the root-balls and the ones it doesn't, you can toss onto it, then take it to the Fence-Row and turn it over to dump and dislodge what gets caught in it..

A single "log" is not sufficient..you need some "Length" (several) to make it not bounce around..

Maybe fasten some posts across the Chain Linf and drag it ( best, in the Spring)..

Concentrate on getting it Plowed Before the weather turn wet and COLD ( like SOON )...!
 
Best clod buster I know is the weather, especially freezing weather and rain/sleet/snow........ After that pass over with a spike toothed harrow. About as simple as you can get.
 

We used a "cultipacker" with pretty good success it is a type of field roller but has teeth or knobs on the rollers.

Ours had cast iron rollers and I made the mistake of taking it on a hard packed dirt road and broke some of the rollers.
 
Not all of the cultipacker had wheels like that, some were smooth, The later the model the more likely they were made like you had ans samw thing with cultimulchers that had the 2 rows of teeth that a cultipacker did not have.
 

You are correct (of course) so I learned something yet again. We had a smooth roller and one with knobs on it, both from the 1940's.
 

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