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Implement Alley Discussion Forum

disc plow rocky land

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FarmerBlair

01-24-2008 05:29:39




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I have 20 acres of rocky soil that hasn"t been worked for probably 10 years, other than occassional mowing. It hasn"t been mowed in the last few years. I have a Dearborn 10-80 disc plow and thinking of using that to open the field after discing to cut up the weeds/brush. Is a disc plow good for rocky land? I"m not talking small stones...some rocks are a good 6-8 inches long and a few pounds.
Thank you.

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dk

01-24-2008 19:26:36




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to FarmerBlair, 01-24-2008 05:29:39  
I just want to live somewhere that 6-8" stones aren't considered small. We don't even bother picking them that small, just drive over them to send them home for another season. Some of the ones I picked last year lifted the back tires on the 6400 off the ground.



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DiyDave

01-24-2008 15:55:07




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to FarmerBlair, 01-24-2008 05:29:39  
Are you sure what you have is a disc-plow, not a disc-tiller? A disc plow is set up kinda like a regular plow, with one disc, one standard, and one bearing per bottom. A disc tiller uses a common shaft for all the discs, just like a regular disc. I use a disc plow on some ground that we call Fredrick concrete. It is a brown soil, with patches of green sand, and randomly strewn with sandstone and fossil rock, plus some bonus river rock from glacial scour, to keep mower blades sharp! The disc plow does a better job than a moldboard, but I still pick up 3- 6 bushels of rock from about 3-1/2 acres every time I plow it!

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FarmerBlair

01-24-2008 22:01:24




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to DiyDave, 01-24-2008 15:55:07  
DiyDave,
It"s a disc plow. I found a picture of one like it (but much prettier) in the implement photo section under dearborn disc plow. The discs are on separate shafts. That Fredrick concrete sounds like fun too. Find any good fossils? A geologist (i.e. the guy who ran my septic test) told me my land used to be the bottom of a huge prehistoric lake many thousands of years ago. It"s even almost dried out in places. I often find impressions of shelled-animals in rocks. Now if only I can hit oil..

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johns48jdb

01-24-2008 14:06:49




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to FarmerBlair, 01-24-2008 05:29:39  
i would bush hog it first too, but cut it about 6 to 8 inches high. when you go back over it with a dish or turning plow you want puncture any tires with it that way. it would be best if you cut it real, real short but i wouldn't recommend that with that many rocks in the field. i would recommend a steel plate up behind the drivers seat to catch any rocks you hit and send your way. don't let anybody be around close while your bush hogging it. i chisel plow would work better than a turning plow for you first then a turning plow a couple weeks later. your going to have a lot of junk on top to deal with. any chance you could get it burned off first. some times the local fire department guys will come out and sit with you to see it does get out of control. breaking a fire break around the outside will help alot.

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FarmerBlair

01-24-2008 20:53:56




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to johns48jdb, 01-24-2008 14:06:49  
Johns48jdb,
Thanks for the suggestions. I would like to chisel plow it, but the closest thing I have to that is a spring-tooth field cultivator. I"d have to find a chisel to rent or hire someone to do it. I had a soil test done and the field is pretty low in phosphate. Thought I"d add rock phosphate just before the final disc smoothing.
I hadn"t thought about burning, except when I walk into those darn rosa multiflora that have popped up. I have to yank out some of those nasty bushes out before I do anything.

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Billy NY

01-24-2008 09:59:10




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to FarmerBlair, 01-24-2008 05:29:39  
Is it heavy soil, clay, loam etc. ? It's good to clean off the surface like mentioned by mowing, the disc you have may help there, but being a dearborn I assume it to be sized for a utility sized tractor, and may not be heavy enough. I've reclaimed some overgrown areas, and my small disc won't do much, reclaiming is a real hard task for light equipment until it's been turned with moldboard around here, especially if sod or root bound. If it's been left for brush and trees to take over, it needs to be ripped with a crawler or some other means to destroy the network of roots. The rocks you describe are like what we have here and my opinion is that 20 acres, is best handled with heavy tillage equipment, might be wrong with my limited knowledge, just know what works here. I use a small disc on my 850 ford, fairly heavy, but it does not cut in on firmed, or root bound soils that have not been worked, and the rocks can be real rough if you don't go slow. Once it's been turned, couple of passes, it does a nice job.

I have a 7 acre field that has been in corn for years, and it has those kind of rocks, rounded mostly, were not that far from nice gravel veins, similar soils but a fair amount of clay. He uses a 6 bottom some years, if he does it 2 years straight, not sure why he bothers to disc, it looks like you could skip using a disc, last year, he just disc'd and planted, and I can see wanting to eliminate a step due to the costs of fuel, not sure if the yields were affected when it's not turned over and disc'd.

third party image


For what you describe, you may consider hiring it done with a disc like this, it would probably be effective to chopping and breaking up the surface, maybe more depending on the soil, it was new when photographed spring '07, looks like extreme service, very heavy discs, never got any close ups of it, but around here with the rocks, I've often wondered what these guys have to repair after doing 1000 acres.

You can hear this thing clanking along in the fields for a long ways, all the rocks have rust scars on them from tillage equipment. View is from a hunting stand over looking a foodplot, then the field:

third party image

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FarmerBlair

01-24-2008 21:35:57




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to Billy NY, 01-24-2008 09:59:10  
Billy,
Nice pictures! Good looking fields. My soil is pretty heavy, but not clayey. I might hire out as you mentioned, but I"ll give it shot with the discing and the disk plow. I"d hate to deprive the neighbors of entertainment.



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Billy NY

01-25-2008 04:07:50




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to FarmerBlair, 01-24-2008 21:35:57  
Must not have registered yesterday, I know what you are contemplating using, well you'll find out what it will do, reason I mentioned looking hiring it done, size and the larger equipment won't take long, saving the abuse of what you own. I would imagine that this kind of implement would roll over the rocks, ours of similar and larger size are from glacial till, the rounded type, some of the local gravel banks are loaded with them, hence the term "boney gravel" , others are clean deposits of coarse dark sand, and much cleaner gravel, soil here has clay in it, but it percolates nicely. Must from this being a river valley. The soil in the photos looks much cleaner, the first one was what it looks like if he turns it 2 years in a row, I thinnk his son ran the disc once to chop up the corn trash, and followed him out, last year, he just ran that new heavy set of discs and planted.

I've found shellfish imprints in crushed rock from the quarry around here, was in 6"-8" rubble we used for culvert pipe aprons, kind of wish I saved one of the rocks, it was loaded with them. hard to figure how they go there, the rock comes from a mountain they've been quarrying from since the 50's or earlier, the mountain is almost gone now.

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Bendee

01-25-2008 04:59:34




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to Billy NY, 01-25-2008 04:07:50  
The Palaeontologists would have loved those fossils.



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Billy NY

01-25-2008 05:07:08




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to Bendee, 01-25-2008 04:59:34  
Funny you mention that, now I remember where the job we installed this big culvert pipe and rubble apron is, someday they'll see this fool turning over rocks there, it's in front of a commercial building, we did the site work, drainage, parking lot etc., about 1990, imprints looked like the shell oil symbol, forget what you call them, reminds one of corrugated metal roofing, scalloped, maybe scallops ? Small imprints, I'll bet those rocks are still there.

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Allan In NE

01-24-2008 09:46:24




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to FarmerBlair, 01-24-2008 05:29:39  
I would run a fence around it and pasture it off.

Some ground just isn't suited for tillage. I know, I have 180 acres of the crap myself.

Allan



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jCarroll

01-24-2008 08:00:11




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to FarmerBlair, 01-24-2008 05:29:39  
I don"t know what your disc plow looks like, but if it"s an implement with 30"or so dia discs, it would be better than a moldboard plow.

Have you thought about using a rock picker after you stir up the surface?



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FarmerBlair

01-24-2008 21:41:56




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to jCarroll, 01-24-2008 08:00:11  
Actually I was indeed planning on using a rock picker upper. It"s called my wife.

Just for the big ones. :)



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Leroy

01-24-2008 06:31:56




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 Re: disc plow rocky land in reply to FarmerBlair, 01-24-2008 05:29:39  
You might try bush hogging it a couple of weeks before trying to do any tillage to get rid of the weeds-grass that would want to carry any disc blade over the top.



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