Pick one Implement for Food Plots

Devron30

Member
I have around 3-5 acres of fields that was used for cows, so wanting to convert to food plot. I am not an experienced farmer so looking for an easy to use implement for my ford 8n to work the soil in order to plant. Not looking to spend a fortune on fancy equipment. Thanks In advance.
 
A plow or heavy chisel plow is a primary implement, and works the ground deep and rough.

A harrow works the ground shallow and smooth, but not very aggressive. It?s a finishing tool.

Neither extreme will do it all.

A disk or a field cultivator is secondary implement, works down lumps and leaved the ground moderately smooth, is somewhat aggressive. A disk is somewhat better working up tough ground, a field cultivator does better in clay and wet ground.

So.... a disk is probably your best bet.

If you have wet clay ground a heavier field cultivator like a Fred Cain style might work well, follow with sone chain link fence for a drag/harrow......

A tiller is an all in one tool, but they are very slow, costly, and don?t work well at all with a tractor like an N so don?t even think about it. But can be an option in some cases.


Paul
 
If I could have only one 3 point implement for my Ford - only One - it would be a two row cultivator.
It will till your garden, scratch up a deer plot, pull limbs and branches into a pile for burning and even crust bust a driveway to get rid of potholes and ruts. Drag a log, heavy beam or chunk of heavy channel iron behind it to do the smoothing.
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I've put in deer plots a few times with just a drag type John Deere disk.Run over it a few times with the disk in full cut,broadcast the seed and then just have the disk barely cutting to work the seed in.A cheap cultipacker would be a big advantage to you too to run over the plot once its been seeded.
 

I agree that the disc that you already have would be tough to beat for what you are looking to do. Start with it at a around 25-30 degrees between gangs to break it up some, then after maybe two passes close it to around 15 degrees. I think that if I were you I would set the front gang permanently at around 10 degrees from straight across and do my adjusting only with the rear gang.
 
What you have there will NOT work in sod and if ground is hard you will just drag over the top or if you get it in the ground you will be breaking teeth that are made of unobtainum. I have the cultivater and have it set as a field cultivator. In fall plowed ground with weeds starting to come it works very well.
 
(quoted from post at 07:23:13 02/27/19) What you have there will NOT work in sod and if ground is hard you will just drag over the top or if you get it in the ground you will be breaking teeth that are made of unobtainum. I have the cultivater and have it set as a field cultivator. In fall plowed ground with weeds starting to come it works very well.

Leroy, I believe that you are posting about the generic picture that UD posted, it is NOT what Devron has. Go back to the disc that Devron posted about last week.
 
TF,
A cheap cultipacker?
Around here that's kind of an oxymoron.
A $100/foot is about the going rate.
I looked for 6 years for one I could afford ($400) and had to make repairs on it
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I prefer this style for heavy work, the springs give a little more without breaking and you can find parts yet. I think it is germerally a Fred Cain model, might go under other names too? They come, or can come, with more shanks, and you can set up the spacing for what you need, probably less shanks to start breaking sod, fill them all in for finishing.

It is a similar thing, but has the coil springs instead of the flexy shanks. The coil springs are more forgiving on rocks or going real deep to break up hard soils.

I think yours is based on the old Dearborn brand, and while there are a million out there I?m not sure parts are available?

Breaking sod is still difficult, but if you have real clay based dirt a disc becomes a packer more than a cutter and you just don?t get good results with a single implement at all...

Paul
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It all depends on your soil. If you are in WNY with clay, hardpan and stones, you will need to bottom plow. A disk will just run over it. If you are in sand, just a disk will work fine.

When I saw your post I thought tiller, but not with a little N Ford. With the tiller you have to keep the ground speed very low and really need live power.

Bill
 
Well , you said ONE piece of equipment to do all. That means the final seedbed prep also. So it has to cut,dig,slice and in the end leave a nice level finely tilled soil. A disc is the only one that will do all this. You don't need an expensive cultipacker either as a good heavy log chain dragging behind will cover any seed. I don't know what ya have now but you can get one of these in good shape for $ 300-$ 450 (JD)
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Put 75# bag of sand on ea gang and they will do a real nice job.
 
Thank you for all the reply?s. I forgot to mention I am in Missouri as far as soil type.
I actually had a friend that needed my disc for his farm so he bought it from me, so I am back to square 1. So with that I am looking for an implement to work the old cattle field and for now be the main implement until I can upgrade etc.
 
What UD posted the picture of that he has is a Dearborn cultivatot made for row crop cultivating but can also be se as a lield cultivator but you dont want to try to do harder work with it than what you would do cultivating that corn crop in highly cristed soil. I have that exact same item and used it both was as a row crop cultivator or a field cultivator changing the shanks around as per directions in the owners manual. I have never seen even a picture of a Fred cain unit.
 
They com up at auctions all the time in my area,I usually don't go over $150 for a good one and if they need work down to about $25.Think I have 6 here now 4 usable and 2 that need repairs.
Knock them down to about 6ft and they will sell for more than the wide ones.
 
For just putting in a food plot go with a disc. Add a little weight if you like. Most food plot mixes only call for about 1/4 inch planting depth so you dont need to plow up china.
 
The idea of putting in a food plot for wild animals is foren to us crop farmers that we loose way to buch of what we need to live off of to the animals. I just cannot see why anybody wants to do that as we need less of thos deere rather than more.
 
where at in Mo? I am down in the southeast part(Cape Girardeau County). I use a drag type disc, can set it to really cut good and then set angle for finish discing, then set at slight angle for covering seed.
 
When I grew up in central MN there were a lot of small dairy farms around us.
There was lots of tilled acres and even more land that was pastured.
The farms are all gone now and most of that land is going back to forest.
Back then it was rare to see a deer around.
Now they are pretty common.
But we still have pretty severe winters here so there is a lot of die off. And the wolves have moved back in so they take a lot of deer. Coyotes too.
This year was brutal for the deer herd. Very cold and really deep snow so I suspect the numbers will be down significantly.
I do the deer plot thing. Keep a couple of acres planted. It does help to keep a few deer around and it is a couple of acres that won't go back to forest as long as I keep them tilled.
In MN only about 37% of deer tags are filled each year. We just don't have the numbers like some of you guys do. Since I've been plotting we are batting about double the state average so it is effective.
I'm sure if I was farming I would resent the loss from the deer.
 
Actually crop farmers are the ones increasing the number of deer and feeding them as they provide food for the deer in the Spring and Summer when the deer have their young and need the extra food.Common sense would also tell you that 1,000 acres of grain on a farm will feed and support way more deer than a couple of 2 or 3 acre food plots.Plus food plots are planted
so the deer can be drawn in and KILLED so figure that is reducing the number of deer.
 
Why try to have more deer to get hit by more cars. And here in Ohio deer harvest is limited to half the new deer born each year to get more deer to have more car wrecks. We have enough of them.
 
Deer populations vary quite a bit, and although they are a nuisance in some aspects, we are fortunate that we have a good balance around here.

They don't do much damage to field corn around here, soybeans however are a different story. They will tear up a garden if you don't spray the repellant, which is non-chemical based.

Nurseries for trees and Christmas tree farms etc. seem to have trouble with them, and any of the large vegetable kinds of farms may fence them out as well.

Benefit for me is that they provide some healthy red meat, and are often around the house which means there likely are no prowlers or anyone around.

They browse all kinds of forage and feed on so many different things it's incredible. I had a fawn and he'd chow the leaves off this crazy invasive vine that's been at the corner of my house for years, same with the leaves off this one 20 some odd year old tree, woodchucks like the same leaves off that tree.

Food plots in places like we have here are an enjoyable hobby and I often planted one next to a farmers field corn crop in one of my fields. The squirrels and birds did more damage to the yields off that field than anything else. The deer benefit, ones you harvest will have finished on good green forage as they will graze it more than browse, depending on what it is, weather/season etc. Take a section of backstrap, season and then cook on the grill, add a side of potatoes, vegetable, there is no substitute, my freezer is well stocked, takes 3 hours to debone and clean a decent size deer, longer if you clean all the harder muscle groups for the grinder.

Canadian geese will totally decimate a corn crop sometimes. There is a great 20 some odd acre field next to me here, local and large grain crop farmer will not plant it anymore, losses were too great, but he also did nothing with the DEC depredation permit. Had he, it would work. Last year they did not have any young and nothing seemed to have been done unless someone oiled the eggs unbeknownst to me. It's my pond actually. They have young and it's a forage fest the whole summer, the crop may not get off the ground, all depends on the conditions, sometimes it overcomes the geese, other times not.
 
Like I said Deer plots are for killing deer not raising more as most are planted late August/Sept.Raising more is the result of those huge grain fields that feed the does and young fawns
late Spring and Summer,then late planted soybeans into the Fall along with corn.
 

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