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Thread: Implement Suggestions

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    Default Implement Suggestions

    We're trying to covert some old pasture land on a farm to dove fields and deer food plots. Things were going relatively smooth back in April when we actually had rain. We were able to get several acres planted in sunflowers. We did some with disc harrows and some with a tiller. Now that we're trying to get brown top in the ground, we're stalled by how hard the ground is both because of how it's never been worked and because of the lack of rain. We've tried bush hogging and discing with 3 point hitch harrows and it just rolls on top barely cutting. The guy with the tiller we used earlier doesn't want to use it now that the ground is so hard. The land owner just bought a 68 hp tractor and is looking for some implements so we can go ahead and start breaking up the ground in preparation for the fall food plots. He wants to get a two bottom plow but I am not sure that it will do anything in this hard upstate clay. What do y'all recommend? I had originally suggested an 84 inch tiller but now I am thinking a pull-behind set of harrows if we can find some and find a way to have them delivered to the farm and then we're going to need something to do the initial breaking.



    Also, we've noticed we've had different results with sunflowers based on how we plowed the ground.* Everywhere that we used harrows the sunflowers came up great. Everywhere that we used the tiller, they are not doing so great. We planted using a grain drill. All of this was done in one giant section of an old pasture, and the soil samples all read the same and we treated it the same as far as fertilizer and lime. Do sunflower seeds not do well in rototilled ground or was it a result of the combination of a seed drill and the rototiller? We'll have a 2 row planter for next year just wondering if we don't need a tiller as much as I originally thought.



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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
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    Wateree, South Carolina
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    Default

    Heavy old set of offset disk harrows.

  3. #3
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    Mar 2009
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    Marlboro
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    Probably buried the seeds too deep in the ground that you used the tiller.

  4. #4
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    Aug 2008
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    Spring tooth

  5. #5
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    Nov 2001
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    Columbia, SC
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    aka jigger
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  6. #6
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    Nov 2001
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    or chisel plow

    you're making too much of the "its an old pasture" talk. its dry. you cant plow well without hydraulics and lots of HP. get some rain and you could plow that pasture with anything listed above.
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    Greenville, SC
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    I agree with tooth.
    Ground is harder than a Chinese spelling bee right now.

  8. #8
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    Nov 2001
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    Columbia, SC
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    feels good, dont it?
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
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    Sullivan\'s Island
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    I have converted some pastures to dove fields. I started by discing and then trying to smooth it out with a spiked tooth drag harrow then planting with a planter. It worked OK but I was frustrated that I couldn't get the ground very smooth which causes the planter to skip spots. I bought a Perfecta field cultivator and it solved my problem. Now I disc once and run over it with the cultivator a time or two before planting or drilling. The cultivator leaves it pretty and smooth. It's 10' wide likes to be pulled fast (7-8 mph) so it doesn't take a lot of time. If you have a 3 pt tiller, a field cultivator might not be much use but you may still think about a cultipacker to take some of the fluff out of it.

    I agree with the previous poster, planting depth may have been the difference with your sunflower success.

  10. #10
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    Jan 2003
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    SC
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    Bottom plow wouldn't be a bad idea. Might need some rain.

    Also you've got plenty of time for brown top.

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  11. #11
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    Nov 2015
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    Quote Originally Posted by Catdaddy View Post
    Bottom plow wouldn't be a bad idea. Might need some rain.

    Also you've got plenty of time for brown top.

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    I'm in a similar boat with a coastal Bermuda field. Planni g on bushhogging, round up, chisel plow then disk.

    When should one get millet in the ground?

  12. #12
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    Jan 2003
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    SC
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    Quote Originally Posted by CurLee View Post
    I'm in a similar boat with a coastal Bermuda field. Planni g on bushhogging, round up, chisel plow then disk.

    When should one get millet in the ground?
    June 15-25th

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  13. #13
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    jap is 45 days
    proso is 75
    dont care what browntop is but its probably 60+ days
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  14. #14
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    Hush it, Curlee is around here now, I think. I can help him with dove field things..

  15. #15
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    Nov 2015
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    Ha. Starting small. Still putting up livestock fence and haven't even moved in yet.

  16. #16
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    There's plenty of time.. ain't no rain anyways. 21 days today since our flowers have seen rain, corn is all burnt the heck up. Trying to get ready to plant again.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by 2thDoc View Post
    jap is 45 days
    proso is 75
    dont care what browntop is but its probably 60+ days
    Browntop is 60 days normally.

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  18. #18
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    Dec 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by Catdaddy View Post
    June 15-25th

    Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
    If I want it (Brown Top) for the last part of the season (Dec. to Jan.), when is the best time to plant it? Or will it be okay standing until then when I bush hog it?

  19. #19
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    same time frame. you have to make it grow, right?
    Its not going to help you much in late season as birds will eat it by then....or wind, etc. you will lose your seed, regardless.

    I still think brown top is pretty worthless.
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

  20. #20
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    Dec 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by 2thDoc View Post
    same time frame. you have to make it grow, right?
    Its not going to help you much in late season as birds will eat it by then....or wind, etc. you will lose your seed, regardless.

    I still think brown top is pretty worthless.
    What do you recommend? We had a field a couple if years ago that the farmer planted sorghum in, but couldn't get to it because the field was too wet (for months) and they were all over it. We had several barn burner shoots in Dec. and Jan., it was awesome.

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