Renovator or Chisel

[Buddy]

I am getting ready to seed some acreage with bermuda grass. It's native pasture that hasn't been worked. We had a dozer clear the brush and trees two years ago. I'm going to buy a disc harrow but I'm not sure whether to buy a pasture renovator or a chisel plow to work in combination with the disc to prepare the acreage for seeding. I would certainly appreciate suggestions and comments before I make the purchase. Thanks

 

[Chuck]

You didn't mention if you used anything to take care of the roots when you cleared the timber. If not,you may keep busy fixing shanks on your chisel. Not that anything like that has ever happened to me.

 

[ga. prime]

The chisel plow hangs up bad if there is much litter on the ground, unless it has been cut up pretty good by discing. Forget the chisel if you have stumps or roots left on the acreage. I'm not familiar with a pasture renovator, but if you have roots and stumps in the field, a heavy offset harrow would cut the ground pretty deep and leave a good seedbed and not be affected by roots or stumps. When I say pretty deep, I mean 12" or more. But it takes some serious horsepower to pull. What does a pasture renovator do, Buddy?

 

[Buddy]

Sorry about not mentioning the roots and stumps. Yes, there are some left. We don't have any rocks. The soil is mostly black clay with some sand in spots.

A renovator is somewhat like a Chisel except the shanks are smaller and it penetrates the ground about 7". It has coulter blades cutting the sod in front of each shank. The shanks and the blades are both shear bolt protected so when you hit those roots, stumps or rocks, those parts flip up.

A renovator is usually used on improved grass pastures (coastal bermuda) to cut the grass mat and open the soil for fertilizer and moisture in the spring. It's not near as aggressive as a chisel plow.

One dealer suggested the renovator over the chisel because he said that the ground only needs to be turned to a depth of 6" to seed bermuda grass.
He said the disc could probably do the job by itself.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

FWIW -- You may want to consider seeing if any big acreage farmers in your area (if there are any) can do the chisel plow work for you. Quite a few years ago the farmer on one of my places used a chisel plow to break up some pretty deep hard pan. That plow was a BIG piece of equipment and he needed a major league tractor to pull it, but it really went deep, way deeper than any big offset disc. You would need something like that so infrequently that maybe hiring it done would be the best thing to do, and then buy a pasture aerator for the more rountine work.

 

[Ferdinand D Bull]

Agree with the root plow idea. Try finding someone in your area who clears brush & hire them to root plow.

After that, a disk is mroe than enough. Disk it several times in different directions each time. Might try pulling a harrow behind the disk to break up clods.

 

[ga. prime]

The pasture renovator sounds like it would do the job. It has been my observation, from digging countless postholes, that bermuda roots only go 6-8" deep. This is on sandy, well drained land.