Rippers

Have 2 newly aquired farms that, after excavating plots, have discovered they have serious hard pan issues, which explains alot of the variance from soil potential to actual yeilds and crop stress issues. Some as shallow as 4" down and 2-13" thick, other areas 8" down and up to a foot or more thick. Super, super hard. After coring we actually found moisture and loose subsoil. NRCS and agronimist say tillage radishes nor alot of slow rains will even be able to get through it. Soils spring mold board plowed for decades, and then last couple years previos renter hit with Wishek disk, in very wet springs. SI I am gonna buy a decent but economical ripper Looking at a 5 shank Tebbon DT5-30 and a Kewanee 2500 5 shank 30". Is there a better of the two? Will a 180-200hp 4WD be ok with it, as in places have to go deep. Plan is to rip, spread manure, disk or chisle in about 4-6" and plant Trytical all within the same week. Any opinions or advice. Is lighter soils, no issues of yellow clay found dwn there yet.

Was always curious how that hardpan forms, what kinds of soils its prevalent in, etc. Moldboard plowing is still popular around here, but it does seem most ground that is in use, is mostly tilled with a disc harrow, the farmer I've known for years would still use the plow often, seemingly rotating from year to year at times.

It sounds like a crawler with a multishank ripper when the ground is real dry to shatter and fracture would be effective, that sure is a tough layer to reckon with and break up !

I ripped all mine last fall, pretty good crop for as dry as it has been.

Hardpan forms from the downward force of the underside of any tillage tool. Most prevalent with the moldboard plow cuz it undercuts the entire width of the path. Rippers reach underneath that layer to shatter and lift.

Its almost like troweling, or screeding as that share passes over the top of the subsoil and I would assume if the soils are more in the clay category, when it drys the worse it gets. I assume the compaction is from the tractor wheels over time, all works together to bind it up but good. This is why I've heard the practice of varying plow depths maybe ?

I've wondered if the one field, last that was in use on this old farm land here has any hardpan, its a bit of clay, loam and or gravel, + broken down shale in places, seems well drained.

A farmer around here farms 3000+/- acres and moldboards it all every year. Has some of the best looking crops around. I asked him about hard pan issues and he said if a field gets a problem, he plants alfalfa. Said the long roots break it up. From what I can see it works.

I suggest you do your manure spreading now, forget the tillage, forget the crop seeding, then rip it just before freeze up. You'll conserve the moisture you do have, the freeze/thaw cycles will break up alot of the chunky stuff, any snow or rain will soak in, and early light tillage next spring will be possible while the soil is mellow, sealing in the moisture and creating a nice seedbed.

In other words, spread now while the ground is hard.
Rip the ____ out of it, but not to early
STAY OFF OF IT

You said you have compaction and the soil is dry, yet you want to do exactly the same thing that caused it by working it deep, then compacting it with manure spreaders, multiple tillage and seeding passes, then to top it off, plant a crop to take out any moisture you can possibly have left.

Before I sold the NE farm I had a Kewanee 5 shank. It was a big load for my CaseIH 7110. 135hp. Go half mile and you could not touch the points for the heat. Wore them off fast.

Horsepower wise, I had a field I thought needed to be ripped fairly deep so I put my 5 shank Deere Ripper behind the neighbor's 220 HP CIH 4WD and sank it down 17". In the really tough spots I was down to 3 mph and struggling with power hop. Otherwise it pulled it at 6 MPH in ordinary ground with practically no hardpan. I'll never go that deep again because I knocked the top off of some drain tile. It was rented land so I had to pay to re-tile. OUCH! Jim

I would go with the Kewanee 2500 because it is a V ripper. The type of compaction you are talking about is going to be a HARD pull. That takes a V riper to do.

The inline rippers like the Tebbon DT5-30 take speed to create a wave front that spreads the hard pan shatter. In the hard compaction you are talking about you will not get a very good shatter with this type of tool.

Rip the ground when it is as dry as possible. It will shatter better. It will also pull harder but you will get more of the compaction out. If the ground is wet a V ripper will pull easier because it is just cutting slots not shattering the hard pan.

Be ready to pull the guts out of the tractor even with just a five shank on a 180-200 HP tractor. I have a JD 4960 MFWD with 20.8 x 42 radial tires. I use a JD 913 5 shank ripper behind it. In regular ground I can run at 6-7 MPH pulling fairly easy. In ground with a tough hard pan like you are talking about I have brought the tractor to a dead STOP. Just flat ran out of power. The JD 4960 is rated right at 200 PTO HP.

In some real hard ground I have had to rip it once at about 12 inches deep. Then come right back at an angle running 18-20 inches deep to get under the hard pan. I have had chunks as big as a 55 gallon barrel pop up.

I would work the ground just like you have out lines. RIP, manure , then disk, and then plant.

If you spread the manure first you will spin out in some places. You are going to need the best tractor you can get if it is as hard as you say.