So, rotavators are too slow, require too much hp,

I've been told right here on YT that rotavators are "too slow", require "too much hp", and "waste fuel"!!!

Here's a picture i took today in a rye stubble field. I was rotavateing with a Howard HR30 at 6 mph, 80" wide, 8" deep with a 55 hp tractor useing LESS than 2 gallons of fuel per hr!! You are looking at "a single pass" and tomorrow i will plant this field.

How many trips over the field would i have needed if i had plowed, disced and ?? this field??? How many hp does it take to pull a 5-16's (80") ?? How much compaction would all the extra trips over the field make after plowing, to get the field disced and leveled like in the picture??? (notice there's NO ridges!!)

Remember, you don't need "any" balast with a rotavator either, unlike pulling 5-16's, and a disc!! Also while rotavateing you will power right through any wet spots with "zero" slipage!!! And how gallons per hour of fuel will it take to pull 5-16's with a heavily ballasted tractor???

"Ok", all you guys that advised me rotavators were slow fuel hungary POS, give me some answers here showing me what i'm missing????

Robert

Thurlow, I'm trying to figure out what full time farming has to do with whether a rotavator works or not???? I guess i fail your test, because i do make quite a bit of $$$ off farm, rotavateing for others. I guess that could be considered "off farm income".

Tom, You need to look again!! The stubble is there, but i did cut it short after combineing. I had a chance to sale all the straw, so i cut it as short as possible. Short stubble = more $$$$ for me!!

Roy in UK, The only problem with plowing and dragging a gate is, i farm all organic. I normally spread turkey manure on my ground, and i like it tilled in a bit to not loose the "N". I've never been to the UK, so rotavators may not work well over there?? BUT, I do have pictures of a guy there rotavateing his ground, so i guess like here, some do use them.

tim(in) Howard offers two styles of blades. One is "L" shaped, the other is "C" shape. I've tried many of each, and i honestly can't see any difference in how they work. There are two guys not far from here that bought two new 120" Howards. They rotavate all there corn ground with them. I'm told they have been useing Howard rotavators for many years now.

Paul, I too have some heavy ground. I really like the way a rotavator gets me started planting eariler in the spring!! As for rocks, yes the field in the pict has had the rocks picked now for many, many years, so it looks "rock free", BUT IT ISN'T!!! What brand does you brother have???? Are you sure it's a "rotavator" OR a garden tiller????? ????? ? There's a HUGE difference there!!!! You said "shear pins" so that leads me to believe he has a cheap garden tiller!!!! Paul, where in my post did i say that i new everything, about "all locataions"??? OR, that a rotavator was for everyone??? I've posted many times here that they ARE NOT for every one!!

Indydirtfarmer, again, are you talking about a tiller or a rotavator????? A rotavator will do anything a tiller will do, and MUCH MORE!! BUT, you are right, there's a right way and a wrong way to use every tool!!

pudding, I assume your first comment was answering someone else and not me??? :>) There are times when a "crumbler roller" would be nice, and Howard does offer one."IF" i was doing a lot of corn ground, i'd get one!!

Cliff, I think a rear "tiller" or a rotavator, either one would level your ground quite well. Just be willing to spend the $$ for a good one or you will be buying a lot of parts!! A "used" Howard HR30 80" can be bought in excelent condition for about $3,000.00. You can check them out at the addy: >Link

>Link Tim (nj), Your right, i'm not in NJ, so i can't comment on how one would work there. BUT, rocks WILL NOT kill a rotavator!! (assumeing you have it sized right for your tractor hp, and the slip clutch is ajusted right) If you can plow it, it can be rotavated!! I rotavate heavy clay and very rocky fields quite often for others!! In fact, i'll be 50 miles north of here friday doing some very heavy clay ground. The guy has me at his farm several times a year to do his tillage. Man, and he has rocks!!! Tim, the amount of time your actually spend on a rock is so small, that it doesn't have time to do a lot of damage. Sure, if the rotor blade is already wore out, it sometimes WILL break it off!! BUT I've NEVER broken a blade that was in good condition to begin with. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen, but in over 15 years of custom work, and useing a rotavator on my farm, it hasn't happen to me!

Dale, Read the above, rocks will NOT "smash" a Rotavator!!! I've hit probably hundreds of thousands of rocks over the years!!!! I incorporate a lot of turkey manure into my ground. I don't use any chem fert, or spray of any kind on my ground for weed control ect... By doing a little extra tillage, i can control the weeds, and how else would you apply turkey poop that's in dry sawdust???? Spread it on top, and loose all the "N"?

Hugh MacKay, Millions of farmers???? Are there that many left???? :>) Is this like the bumper sticker i use to have on my truck?? It read, "Eat moose, 10,000 wolves can't be wrong!!" :>) My feelings are, lots of farmers still use plows, but not all. Lots of farmers are no till, but not all!!! Just because some do and some don't, doesn't mean anything to all the rest of us!!! How does Howard and Kuhn stay in business if they don't make a tool that works???

John, I'm not too sure what to say to a guy that has owned a rotavator for 25 years, and STILL doesn't know how to use it!!!! Does it have a multi speed gear box???? OR, is it a Howard garden tiller??? (I have one of those too) If it does have the multi speed gear box, have you ever considered what would happen if you increased your ground speed, opened the back door, and put the gear box in it's "slowest" speed???? Wouldn't that stop the "grinding it to powder" problem your haveing???? Come on John, learn how to use the tool!!

Thanks again to all of you, for posting, but i'm still waiting for all those guys that keep recomending "plowing" "discing" and "disking" some more and "draging a piece of metal or chain" to those that have some tough ground to work up!!! Every time i answer, "get it rotavated" there's always some one telling me rotavators are "too slow", "use too much fuel", "too fragile" and "grind the ground to powder"!!!

LEARN to use the tool, and you "won't" have those problems!!!

Robert

So, what are you labeling me, a yuppie or a hobby farmer???? OR, both??? How do you know "if" i'm a full time farmer or not??? I never said either way. If you think a person has to be a land barron to be a full time farmer, then your full of it!!

We've been on this farm for 50 years, and have over a dozen tractors at the moment. NO, we aren't land barrons, but i do make money with my equipment and farming.

My dad farmed most all his life, and then sold me the farm. He still lives here with me at the age of 90, and still helps out a little when he can. Technically he doesn't own any of the land or equipment, but i bet if you told him he wasn't a farmer he'd set you straight in short order!!

I guess my definition of a farmer is different from yours!! Thank you for NOT being my neighbor!!

Robert

Well, notill does not work in certain climate & soil conditions - for example my Minnesota cold, wet, clay soils. I'd have to wait until June for the soils to warm up & dry enough to plant with notill. In fact some springs I still wait until June to get it all planted! But, these folks just haven't gotten out in the world, they are narrow minded & think what works for them should work for everyone.

Likewise, your rotovator is a wonderful tool in your particular soils & climate. Looks like it does a great job for you. I actually enjoy your pictures & experiences with it, thanks for posting about it.

The problem is, it is a specialized tool. It does _not_ work well in rocks (I got 'em) in silty hard clay (I got it) and other soil & climate conditions. It can pulverize some soils, making either concrete or a powder that washes or blows away. It can dry out the soil way too much. It can create a silty film on the soil surface that does not allow rain to enter the soil. And so on and on. It _all_ depends upon your soil types, hills, and rainfall patterns.

My brother in law has one - not a good brand like yours, but a rotovator. Works fine for his garden (he's 85 miles away in sandy soils), but he wanted to pracice in my fields because he had his tractor & 'vator here at the farm. A half hour later he was a lot less enthusiastic about the whole idea. About dislocated his tractor rear end on rocks, couple of shear pins, and had to make 3 passes to get 5 inches deep in my clay. The machine would not bite into the hard soil. This was in low gear, far far away from 6 mph. His tractor was about overheating. He got a 500' by 10' patch 'vated. It was still lumpy.

In short, a rotovator is a wonderful machine for some purposes and some locations. But it is _not_ a miracle tool for _everyone_ and you should not represent it as such.

If you lived where I do, you would cuss & swear at the blasted thing, and be telling everyone _not_ to waste your money on such a thing! They just do not work well in my type of soils. I think you need to be more responsible, and realize there are different requirements for different locations.

I can't use a cotton stripper to harvest my soybeans. Does not matter HOW good of a cotton stripper it is - it just is not the right tool for the conditions! Likewise, a rotovator is not the right tool for my soils, terrain, & climate. It would look a little silly for someone from the south to constantly tell me to use a cotton stripper to do my corn & soybean harvest, wouldn't it? Likewise, a rotovator doesn't work well 'here' for main tillage. Not because I'm pig-headed, or rude, or stubborn. It doesn't work for me - because we've tried it! Rotovator sales are about nill here for a very good reason - they don't work well. Here.

Many people have pointed out the deficiencies & problems with rotovators in some locations. No one has said it's an aweful machine. It is like any other tool. It has it's use, and it's place. Obviously, it works well in your location. Please don't presume that you know everything about all locations all over the USA.

--->Paul

i dunno where to start on this topic

you say this machine is hard on soil structure, what ya smoking man?..... hit the field more than one time is hard on soil structure too

lol 'brick hard', come on, you can make ground in the same conditions with other machines, i have seen discs do this, depends on what your primary goal was in a seed bed, and what the soil type was like

ya pic rock every year, it drops the rock % in ya topsoil, narrows ya A horizon, means, you get further down, closer to the rock, or incorperate more of the B horizon, some believe in picking rock, some believe in pushing them in, some believe in frost heave etc..who knows!

some say this machine can cause a pan, this is true, but like rob said, and what i have seen, so does a disc and plough

some may argue about rocks, ya true ok, but rocks are everywhere, i know some places where a rotary hoe will not like, but i can assure you, you can eat some serious stuff wih a hoe

people say rotary hoes like this can be hard on the soil, but what i have seen is these comments come from guys who have not learned to used them right, you can over cultivate with a rotary hoe, you make the topsoil to fine, grinding up the particles, increasing the soil surface area and water holding capacity, decreasing the air pockets in the soil, and increasing the chance of wind erosion

rob has a fine seed bed, but running 6mph, and by the looks of it he is not grinding too bad, i would like to see him use a packer roller mounted instead of the guage wheels

rotavators were not that popular with the evolution of the large drawbar machines, but proved very popular in more intensive cropping systems, i know many farmers with then, my father had two, we used to cut small tree stumps with ours,

a rotovator is like any machine you can get, you can use i right and u can use it wrong, depends on ya application

everyone needs to try one in there production system, and make there judgement, i would rather pass over the field once, slower, rather then many times

better still, i am a no till candidate, and no-till where i can..... .so....

i am tired..... ..will continue tommorrow?

pudding

How much does a used 80 inch tiller cost?

Thanks
Cliff

Having said this, rotovators have been around for well over a half century, and the Howard being one of thr first. My opinion, the millions of farmers that don't use them can't all be wrong.