Smoothing a hay field

Help Support CattleToday:

east_tex

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 3, 2011
Messages
50
Reaction score
0
I am working on smoothing out a Coastal and Bahia hay field which is so rough the custom baler doesn't want the work. I think I can lightly disk and drag to smooth the field. How deep should I lightly disk? How deep can I go and have the Coastal and Bahia return in the spring? Can I go down at least two inches so that I can drill Oats with a conventional drill to a depth of 1 to 1-1/2 inches? The soil is mostly sandy loam. Any comments appreciated. I am in the Huntsville, Texas area. My equipment will be a John Deere 4020 pulling an Athens tandem disk which is 10 feet 9 inches wide. Thanks again in advance for any comments, y'all are the best.
 
You have your work cut out for you. The good thing is you can't kill the bahia or bermuda out of the field by discing or plowing. This is getting a little late for working hayfields so your going to see damage this spring and summer. I'd just disc the field 2 or 3 times and plant your oats. Then in the spring chisel plow it and disc it again a time or two and drag it smooth. The roots are so thick you can't hardly get a field smooth till they rot. Rule number one, you can't smooth grass, it has to be dirt.
 
I've never had any luck trying to smooth out sod. Only made it worse. Best solution in my experience is a moldboard plow, but others may have had luck doing something quicker / cheaper.
 
Smooth is relative. Sounds like yours is really rough. I have seen folks try making many (five or more) passes with a tandem disk. Looked OK from the road. Need a heavy disk but then you may be creating a compressed "hardpan" layer. Can you custom hire moldboard plowing? Could be better and cheaper than many many disk passes.

Conventional double disk drill down pressure is very low. So if you are doing shallow tillage before drilling grain - - the soil moisture is key. You may need to drill the same day you till (before the soil dries out), go slow (to minimize bouncing), and still leave an open seed trench in places. Your conventional drilling window will be small and your seed depth will be variable. Can you rent a no till drill?
 
discing won't get deep enough to smooth it. it'll jus tgo back to how it was
 
Reply to stocker

I do have a roll over four bottom moldboard available to me. The plow has a gauge wheel. If I plow the existing coastal and Bahia sod how deep should I plow and how long will it take for the coastal and Bahia to return in the spring.

The nearest no till is nearly 80 miles away So I would rather make do with the older John Deere Van Brunt that I have on the place.
 
I would wait until mid winter when all the grass is dormant. Use the equipment you have but work it as deep as you can both directions. Drag it with a heavy bar drag of some sort. It won't be perfect but it will help. You won't go to deep and you wont hurt the grass. This won't allow you to plant oats fight now but you can plant in early February or probably even January in your area.
Make sure to graze off the oats or bale them to get the grass going in April.
 
I have Houston Black Clay and clump grasses like Fescue and Dallis grass. In the late summer the cracks and clumps make it one rough ride. I have a disc harrow that is heavily weighted so that it will cut into the hard clay. In late August I went over the place with the disc a couple of times digging up some loose material. Came back with a chain/spiked harrow and smoothed it out. After the Sept. rains came I had pretty smooth grounds; fields and surrounding areas.

On Bahia and Bermuda, toss in some Johnsongrass too for grins.......just try to kill it. They will love you for trying.

On sandy loam, I don't know why what I do won't smooth things out for you.

My harrow came from Small Farm Innovations in Caldwell, Tx. It has pipes at both ends which can be removed if desired. If I want to move soil around, I leave the rear pipe attached. The spikes loosen and smooth making a crest/pile of matter riding up in front of the rear pipe which disperses as low spots are traversed.

Years ago I had a JD batwing, fixed tooth, rigid frame, spike harrow that definitely would really move dirt around and fill in the low spots. I didn't like to use it on cultivated land as it would make big piles of matter riding up against the frame...preferred the chain type without the rear pipe that floated across the ground for the best smoothing.
 
15 acres here, ants and crawdads were left to go wild for 7+ years.We bought it 2 years ago. Its crazy rough. I was thinking since I don't have a disc, but I do have 5' tiller, when I get home from my day job, grabs a cold beverage and work a section at a time. Use my tiller and then drag it. I wonder how bad the tiller will destroy what grass is there? Maybe do a section each year, so maybe in 3 years all would be leveled? Would like to do it in two seasons, just worried on how much it will kill off grazing.
 
your tiller won't get deep enough.. will destroy the soil structure, set back growth, cost you money, time and fuel.. to achieve the same result you started with.



enjoy.
 

Latest posts

Top