Good plot implements

My wife and I are looking at purchasing about 15 acres of land that is surrounded by a river bottom and wooded land. On this 15 acres is about 8 acres of till able land, that has grown over with hip high grass. I have an atv and a D17 allis that puts out about 70 horse roughly. I want something that will till up the over grown land and possible plant at the same time. But also won’t break the bank. I have done some research and the going rate for such implements is around 3 to 5 thousand dollars and that’s just to much. If you have used something that has worked for you I would love to hear it.

First thing you’re going to want to invest in is a spray rig. You’re going to need multiple passes of gly to kill off all the grass. I have an 20 gallon ATV sprayer and I made a 4 foot boom with multiple nozzles, you can buy similar boom rigs at Northern Tool.

You need a 100% duty cycle pump for acreage. “Lawn and garden” rigs will burn out, they cannot withstand being run for long periods of time and they will burn out in 3-4 uses when doning more than 1 acre at a time.

You’ll need a way to haul water if you don’t have a well on site. My solution is 5 gallon laundry detergent drums, I have 10 of them.

Does the Allis have a 3 point with PTO? If yes, I’d be looking at a disc harrow for the 3 point. This is a very versatile implement, I have an ATV disc harrow that a weight rack has been added to and it digs to 3-4 inches which is plenty for deer crops. You need to do multiple passes of course, but to move up to something faster is $$$. You’re only doing 8 acres and you will probably lay down a perennial like clover as part of the plan so you won’t need to do 8 acres every year.

If the land is rock free, you could rent a tiller for your tillage, but you have to have a super-slow crawling gear on the tractor and very little rock.

You’ll need some way to mow down the tall grass the first time, even if it’s dead grass from the pervious year. You will also probably want a mower to mow the clover, so some kind of 3 point mower would be desireable.

A cultipacker or roller would be desireable as well. Not a necessity, but very nice to have. You’ll need a broadcaster, but I just use my 80 pound tow-behind broadcaster.

All of those impliments together won’t cost as much as some of those all-singing-all-dancing one pass machines, and you’ll have way more versatility. The sparyer will get used more than any of them.

You have to put together a game plan with what you want to plant before moving forward. You don’t need, for example, to spend a lot of money on a big tow-behind broadcaster if you’re growing a lot of clover, because that only gets seeded once every 3-4 years. So some things it’s better to save money and just do it by hand.

Grouse

How about the possibility of doing a burn?

Burning isn’t for everyone, but it does take care of a lot of weed seeds. Most sprays won’t do anything for seeds and that is the issue in the second/third year of a plot.

Yes, burning is fine if you can get it done legally and safely. But it may or may not be easy, there are a lot of factors involved.

A lot of people see a brush mower as a practical necessity for property maintenance anyway, so mowing down tall weeds isn’t much of a challenge.

I’ve got the other problem. I now have 8+ acres of bare dirt that was solid trees a month ago. Good news is it’s open ground, bad news is holy Hannah are the weeds going to emerge in the spring from the generations of buried seeds that are now exposed and can germinate.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Yes,

I’ve got the other problem. I now have 8+ acres of bare dirt that was solid trees a month ago. Good news is it’s open ground, bad news is holy Hannah are the weeds going to emerge in the spring from the generations of buried seeds that are now exposed and can germinate.

Grouse

This is why when I start a new plot I try to plant a round up ready crop for the first year or two. It’s a fairly easy way to get weeds under control.

An interesting idea, Sticker. I’m sure the deer would go WILD for beans, I hadn’t thought of this direction.

I’m going to start another thread and get some comments on my game plan so I don’t hijack this thread.

Grouse

Are you in or near enough to an agricultural area (and have the time) to scout out some farm auctions? Around here there are usually a couple larger consignment auctions also that a lot of equipment is brought to. Trick is finding the ones that are not filled up with people like yourself as those auctions get inflated prices especially on the smaller equipment that makes ideal plotting equipment. you won’t be getting an all in one machine and they are going to look like farm equipment and not nice showroom looking pieces but good chance of saving a lot of cash over the equipment made and marketed as plotting equipment.
What kind of soil your dealing with and what you want to do with it (and put in it) will be a factor in what you need, if you know a farmer buy him lunch and ask him to come along, you’ll get advice e and someone to tell you when your getting too high on an item.