Harrowing pastures

[1982vett]

In that case, here is another idea I was toying with. Use a heavy piece of angle iron for the leading edge of a section. Something like this.



Adding teeth is an interesting idea too.

 

[jcummins]

Do you or anyone else know what I called 'metal teeth' is actually for? What I think is the front edge has a chiseled edge to it.

For certain portions of the pasture, I'd like to have the teeth, but for most of it, that might get to aggressive....and I bet a lot of pasture weeds/grass/etc would get caught under the drag with the teeth. Now if I'd make a 3pt hitch to attach to the frame....??

 

[hayrack]

Do you or anyone else know what I called 'metal teeth' is actually for? What I think is the front edge has a chiseled edge to it.

For certain portions of the pasture, I'd like to have the teeth, but for most of it, that might get to aggressive....and I bet a lot of pasture weeds/grass/etc would get caught under the drag with the teeth. Now if I'd make a 3pt hitch to attach to the frame....??

Looks like old teeth off of an aerway aerator.

 

[Brute 23]

Making the sections smaller will be a little more labor but with the smaller the sections you will have less skipping over of the low spots.

I have better luck like this also. We have a chain that you bridal to the end of some double extra heavy wall 2 7/8s pipe. THen there is a foot and a half of chain and another d.e.h.w. 2 7/8s, then like two foot of chain with three 5' wide drags. They are offset, two at the front, one in the back... in the middle. It works really well and you can adjust if you want the pegs on the harrow more up right for like dragging patties or more flat for smoothing dirt.

I use cattle pannels here and there for deer plots or stuff but the get tore up in the regular pasture.

 

[chh]

I like to harrow my pastures about this time of year in Oklahoma, especially around feed grounds if I don't manage to get it all done. I use a chain style drag harrow currently. My neighbor really prefers a piece of railroad iron about 15' long. Studies have show dragging the piles out to aid fly and parasite control as well as the fertilzer value.

We all joke about the dung beetles, but they really are beneficial. I figuire though that by the time they get out and working the cows will have plenty more out there for them to work with.

 

[1982vett]

I use cattle panels here and there for deer plots or stuff but the get tore up in the regular pasture.

Giving this some thought as to why the cattle panel tends to come apart. My first use of one, I wired it to an old gate. It did tend to come apart. The next one I welded to the gate and so far it has held up better. So I suspect the panel that is just wired to a frame tends to flex and get racked more weakening the panels' welds. When welded to the gate (or a rigid frame) the panels' don't flex as much and the panel welds last longer. Just a thought.

 

[jcummins]

I sized up what I had at hand, and have come up with some other ideas. . From a 24ft metal truss, 14 ft heavy metal gate, that is about 1 ½ ft wide, to two rolls of chain link 6ft by 6ft, and some 11ft heavy post. I can't move the trusses, without the fel. It for sure would do something, maybe what I don't want to the pasture. The 14ft gate is under a lot of other things. The chain link is on top of everything else. So, decided I'll put two metal 11ft post at each end of two 6ft sections, and give it a try. I can also easily tie some tires on top of this. If it doesn't work, I will proceed to the heavier items. The 14ft gate…could be a candidate for a 3pt attachment if I go that far.

 

[jka300]

I always harrow our pastures. I use 50 feet of diamond harrows which tear up the cow pies really good and they also ruff up the sod. We used to use chain harrows until they broke about 3 years ago. All we had left to use were the diamond. I notice the pastures seem to green up faster than the ones that were done with the chains.

 

[novatech]

Is there a right or wrong time to drag the pasture? If you drag in spring damp weather the worm eggs will stay alive and cattle will pick them up. You should drag in hot dry weather to kill off the eggs.
Do you leave the cattle on a freshly dragged pasture? Keep cattle off until the manure has completely dried.
You are better off not dragging until the conditions are right as cattle do not graze around droppings and pick up more parasites.
Just my openion.

 

[dun]

Is there a right or wrong time to drag the pasture? If you drag in spring damp weather the worm eggs will stay alive and cattle will pick them up. You should drag in hot dry weather to kill off the eggs.
Do you leave the cattle on a freshly dragged pasture? Keep cattle off until the manure has completely dried.
You are better off not dragging until the conditions are right as cattle do not graze around droppings and pick up more parasites.
Just my openion.

I do it even simpler. I let the turkeys/coons/etc. scatter the piles.

 

[novatech]

Is there a right or wrong time to drag the pasture? If you drag in spring damp weather the worm eggs will stay alive and cattle will pick them up. You should drag in hot dry weather to kill off the eggs.
Do you leave the cattle on a freshly dragged pasture? Keep cattle off until the manure has completely dried.
You are better off not dragging until the conditions are right as cattle do not graze around droppings and pick up more parasites.
Just my openion.

I do it even simpler. I let the turkeys/coons/etc. scatter the piles.

I,m with you on that. The only place I drag is where I feed hay.

 

[jnm303]

I don't have a harrow and am reading various options here. Do I understand correctly that I can take an old heavy gate,drag behind the tractor and this will work ok to spread the manure piles. It sound simple enough that I think I must be missing something

 

[chh]

JNM303 an old gate, wire panel, tires will all work to some degree or another. Before I had a harrow I even dragged around a pretty good sized cedar tree smoothing up dirt. I didn't do quite as pretty a job as a harrow, but the price was right.

 

[S.Barker]

I use a couple of old throat chains out of a combine. You can chain 3 to a 15 ft pipe and pull with tractor or truck.

 

[edrsimms]

I'am new to this board compared to some people, but this weekend I harrowed all of my cow turds in my pastures. Does this pay,or is it something for someone like me to do on my days off? Fuel is still expensive. I know all about busting up the patties cuz' of worms and such, but does it pay? I rent the harrow from my NRCS office for $100 a day, a new one is $4300, so that's a no brainer. Is it worth my time, or should I just go to work. Thanks for everyone's thoughts, gs

Greg, I religiously drag pastures as we a re a 100% forage operation and we dont worm cows. The most costly internal parasite in cattle in our area is the brown stomach worm (nematode) and after shed in feces this parasite is in its' infectious stage by day 7. So, what we do is maintain grazing paddocks for 6 days then move cows. That means we drag pasture to bust up those pies all the time. I have only had a flex harrow for a few years and for 20 years I used basically a gate frame with a 20 ft section of cow panel welded to it-- did just as good for breaking pies. We have even gone farther into the realms of pasture management to include an Aerway aerator, which at the time seemed like an awful expense to me, but since using it we have had an increase of forage availability in the 40% range with a decrease in fertilizer usage and outstanding water retention and holding capacity. We also pull our drag behind it. What is awesome about the Aerway aerator is that in one pass we broadcast clover/aerate/and drag. I will take some pictures and post them if you wanna see the difference. That aerator paid for itself in 2 years. Check out Aerway.com

 

[Lucky_P]

The biggest plus in dragging to break up cow pies is mainly that it's a approved method transferring funds to your kids for doing the job, and you can write it off on your tax return. Otherwise, the benefits gained are far less than the fuel and wear/tear on the tractor.