Field cultivator

I have plowed and disked for as long as I have been farming (30 yrs) but have never used a field cultivator. I have the opportunity to buy a 12' fast hitch cultivator with sod busters? But have no idea what it is used for. An explanation would be appreciated greatly! Is it better than what I currently do? As always thank you all!

Matt

I said something about one of these a couple months ago and got shot down, but...never one to be afraid of criticism, I'll try again. Around here the bigger guys all seem to chisel in the fall and then come out with a field cultivator in the Spring. Folding wings and many rows of spring loaded shovels with some type of harrow in the back. Older ones all seem to have spike harrows, the new and flashy models have rolling baskets. They use it as a finishing tool. I currently just chisel, spread my inputs, disk it in and plant. If I found a good field cultivator I would probably pick it up. They do seem to make a better seedbed.

We do exactly as Dave says. Try to chisel all or as much as we can in the fall. Our Glencoe soil saver has a short spike leveler on the back of it. Fall chiseling helps our fields dry out much faster in the spring and keeps the weeds from coming in as fast. Then, spring time rolls around, we run the Sunflower field cultivator over it, it has a 5 bar spike leveler, and plant it. Now in fields that got a bit grassy, or our stony fields, we use our smaller Wil-Rich field cultivator with no leveler, with a cultipacker behind it to flatten any clumps and push down any rocks. And when I say rocks, I mean ROCKS! We run a rock picker over the fields, but if we took all the rocks out, we'd have a low spot lol. We rarely use our disc anymore, once the stalks go through the soil saver, they are pretty much done. We have now started chopping our stalks with a flail, which can eliminate the need to chisel, but we still like to anyway just to help with spring drying. We could just run the field cultivator over it after chopping, but it doesn't dig as deep as the soil saver will. The rocks are pretty hard on the disc blades, so we just use the field cultivator to pull up the big ones, which we remove, then push the small ones back down.

Ross

I have two field cultivators like you mentioned - shovels with a three row tine harrow behind. I use a 40 foot behind the 8430 and got a 24 footer cheap at auction this last fall. I know the 8430 won't last forever.

A cultivator does a great job if weeds haven't gotten too thick or there isn't too much trash (milo or corn trash not broken down yet). If you try to use one with lots of trash you can make some huge meatballs.

I don't plow or chisel anything - just disk and cultivate.

I"ve never understood the fixation on these boards to disk, rather than field cultivate. Disks pack the ground, do not get along with rocks, and breakdowns take much longer to fix. FC will pull humongous rocks out, while a disk breaks! Only time I use a disk is to work plowed sod, but 2 trips with a FC does just as well at reducing clumps of sod.

From what I've observed the implements that are used all depend on where you're at. In areas where surface irrigation is used moldboard plowing and disking is still very common and in some areas, such as SE Colorado, field cultivators would be relatively uncommon. There they plow, disk a few times, then go over the ground with a leveler, often called a "float", to ensure that the water flows properly. I'm currently on a business trip in the Imperial Valley of California and haven't seen a field cultivator around yet but there are lots of disks, mostly heavy offset models. On the other hand, in Kansas wheat country a field cultivator is about the most-used implement that "tillage" farmers have. However, as was said by notjustair, field cultivators can become rakes when long, unbroken stalks like corn or milo residue is present. My father-in-law here in Kansas typically runs over stubble with a heavy disk then everything after that is with the field cultivator with 5-bar harrow attachment - it is the best implement around for killing weeds and smoothing the soil. When equipped with overlapping sweeps and run an inch or two deep there are virtually no weeds that can escape even a single pass.

Note that modern field cultivators have much more residue-handling abilities (noting the above limitations) than those made decades ago. Old-fashioned field cultivators with closely-spaced shanks were designed more for plowed ground where there was little residue on the surface. Newer ones are taller and have more rows of shanks to allow a wider spacing between adjacent sweeps while still maintaining complete, overlapping coverage.

This is the45 foot one that I drive .

If the field is moldboard plowed a field cultivator levels the rough plowing better unless the it's cloddy clumpy spring plowing. A field cultivator lifts the soil a disk packs the soil. A disk leaves streaks of weeds a field cultivator with the proper sweeps digs the weeds up and kills them. A disk incorporates fertilizers and herbicides better than a field cultivator. And yes a disk is more trouble and maintenance.

Here it's 50-50. Some use them and some don't. Never bothered to ask the how's and why's.

Rick

Around here a disc in the spring makes concrete. Chisel or rip in the fall, one pass of field cultivator in spring and good to go. Lifts and loosens instead of packing. My 2 cents.