Ok Lets Talk Farm Machinery

[Keelenorth]

Ok I grew up on a 100 acre family farm in White Lake Ont Canada ,We had neighbors with mowers and rakes and balers and lots of kids to help us with hay and we in turn helped them out with labor, However I was thinking a while ago that I do not know exactly what the difference is between different types of farm machinery in particular ,What is the difference between a plow, a tiller and a cultivator ? Do you use all of them On the same field for different purposes etc ? I am sure I will have more questions in the future By the way I forgot Disc,Harrow and that chain thing people drag behind tractors


Cindy

[idigbeets]

Wikipedia is highly useful for this.....

Plow - used to invert/turn over soil, burying green matter. Can go quite deep, as much as 18 inches. Leaves large furrows of soil that require a disc harrow to smooth out.

Tiller - turns the soil, chopping things as it goes, leaves a very fine seed bed, easy to over do and misuse

Cultivator, there are many types of cultivators but their job is to weed in/around row crops.

[davel745]

I copied these from Wikipedia I think it is ok.
A disc plough is a farm implement that is used to cultivate the soil where crops are to be planted. It is also used to chop up unwanted weeds or crop remainders. It consists of many iron or steel discs which have slight concavity and are arranged into two or four sections. When viewed from above, the four sections would appear to form an "X" which has been flattened to be wider than it is tall. The discs are also offset so that they are not parallel with the overall direction of the implement. This is so they slice the ground they cut over a little bit to optimize the result. The concavity of the discs as well as their being offset causes them to loosen and pick up the soil they cut.

In agriculture, a harrow (often called a set of harrows in a plurale tantum sense) is an implement for breaking up and smoothing out the surface of the soil. In this way it is distinct in its effect from the plough, which is used for deeper tillage. Harrowing is often carried out on fields to follow the rough finish left by ploughing operations. The purpose of this harrowing is generally to break up clods (lumps of soil) and to provide a finer finish, a good tilth or soil structure that is suitable for seedbed use. Such coarser harrowing may also be used to remove weeds and to cover seed after sowing. Harrows differ from cultivators in that they disturb the whole surface of the soil, such as to prepare a seedbed, instead of disturbing only narrow trails that skirt crop rows (to kill weeds).
There are four general types of harrows: disc harrow, tine harrow, chain harrow and chain disk harrows. Harrows were originally drawn by draft animals, such as horses, mules, or oxen, or in some times and places by manual labourers. In modern practice they are almost always tractor-mounted implements, either trailed after the tractor by a drawbar or mounted on the three-point hitch.

[davel745]

the plow usually requires the most horsepower I have a 75 hp tractor and I plow with a 16 inch two bottom plow. while the tractor pulls it ok it tends to turn the tractor a little. the landsides could be a bit longer.

the disks use quite a bit of horsepower too

a tiller doesn't use as much hp as a plow but almost and it depends on the condition of the soil. a tiller replaces a plow a disk harrow and a chain harrow. but busting sod Is a hard job for a tiller. tillers are sold by width and duty a mid duty tiller is ok to use for your self. Get one that is slightly wider than your wheels.

a brush hog is invaluable again get one that will cut 2 or three inch thick brush and again as wide as the tractor. I mow the garden before the winter and plow it and leave it set all winter sort of poor mans fertilizer.

a fertilizer spreader is very handy to spread lime and fertilizer and ashes on the driveway in the winter.

now a tractor is a necessity. it depends on dealer location a dealer is very important because of service and parts. I suggest a 4wd with a loader. any were from 30 to 100 hp depends on how big of an operation you are going to do.

hope this helps and gives you a starting place

[davel745]

if you are going to do hay then you will need a 50 to 75 hp tractor

[rambler]

Plow is for primary tillage, ripping up sod, last years corn stalks, etc. leaves the ground rough. In the north we do this in fall, in the south often done in spring. They go 7-10 inches deep.

Field cultivator, disk are used as secondary tillage, they work up a mostly black field and smooth out the lumps, knock down weeds, level ridges, prepare the ground for planting in spring. They go 4 inches deep. A disk is a terrible implement in clay soils like I have, we rarely use them any more but to cut up cornstalks, or to bust up bad lumpy soil. In our type of clay a field cultivator is a much, much better impliment that does the same job as a disk. In the south a disk is often called a disk-harrow for some reason.

A harrow or drag might be the chain thing you mention? They do the final smoothing of the ground, bust up small clods, kill tiny weed sprouts. Makes fields very smooth, right before planting. They go an inch or so deep.

Newer farm equipment has the harrow built onto the back of the field cultivator or disk, or a hitch to pull one right away. More organic operations probably let weeds sprout after disking/ field cultivating, and then harrow seperatly.

A tiller sort of combines all of the operations into one, as it chews up the ground and sod or stalks and creates fine smooth soil behind it. While that sounds good and easy, they are rarely used on a farm. They are good for garden size plots. As with most compromises, they don't work well in a farm setting, where you have rocks, different soils, heavy cornstalks or sod, and so forth. They don't go real deep, they take a lot of hp and travel very slow, they often beat up the ground too fine so it washes away, and other issues that make them not very useful on a bigger farm. They do work well for a garden type setting where you don't have so much trash, or rocks, and want to do one pass and plant tiny seeds into very fine ground.

Different ideas and tools used in different parts of the country depending on soil type, climate, crops grown. This is how it is in my neighborhood.

Paul

Ps: there are actually 2 types of 'cultivator', a field cultivator as I mentioned works up clay ground better than a disk does.

A row crop cultivator has gaps in it do you can go through your crops and use it to kill weeds between the rows, often need to do the 3 times as the crop grows. These are seperate implements. Some small ones you can take out shanks and set up either way I guess. So, depends if you are talking field cultivator or row crop cultivator.

[DaleK]

Which White Lake, Ontario? I know of at least three, one is about 8 miles

[Keelenorth]

White Lake Near Arnprior

[DaleK]

Ahhh ok that's one of the other 2

[FarmboyBill]

Dave, IF he does ROUND bales he will need a that big a tractor. IF he does SMALL squares, he can get buy with a 20hp tractor easy.
I had an F-30, which has around 37hp thereabouts. I could pull 3 14s EASY in NE Kans. Ive got my grandpas 34 Case CC, and he had bought a 3 14 for it, and they used it up there, and that ground was HILLY. I tried to use it here in my flat bottem ground in NE Okla, which is sandy soil, and it would drop like a rock. AND, with one of them, which sets low to the ground, you got around 10 secs to try it or do something else, or you drop like a rock into that sandy soil.

[davel745]

Originally Posted by FarmboyBill

Dave, IF he does ROUND bales he will need a that big a tractor. IF he does SMALL squares, he can get buy with a 20hp tractor easy.
I had an F-30, which has around 37hp thereabouts. I could pull 3 14s EASY in NE Kans. Ive got my grandpas 34 Case CC, and he had bought a 3 14 for it, and they used it up there, and that ground was HILLY. I tried to use it here in my flat bottem ground in NE Okla, which is sandy soil, and it would drop like a rock. AND, with one of them, which sets low to the ground, you got around 10 secs to try it or do something else, or you drop like a rock into that sandy soil.

your are absolutely right I grew up with square bales, I forgot about them what with all the new fangled stuff.