Horsepower to pull 13ft field cultivator?

I am planning to disk it once and field cultivate once-or twice if necessary. I have a 20ft disk and a 13ft IH Vibra Shank field cultivator. I only have 2 tractors, a John Deere 4630 and a Massey 255. No more equipment is in the budget this year-and since I am going no-till I haven't put a great emphasis on implements. That 4630 is way too big and I hate to put that much compaction on the field-but will if I have to.

My question is do you fellas think that 255 will pull the 13ft field cultivator? It has a good running engine and seems to pull strong while running the mower last year.

For reference follow the link at the bottom for the items in question. (Scroll about 1/2 way down to see the massey and the field cultivator)

Any input would be much appreciated.

Paul Butler

• Implements and Tractors

I would of course have chosen to not have ruts but we had a VERY wet fall in central, IL. My beans were full season and were some of the last harvested-and if we didn't get them when we did it would have been wait until Dec when it froze. Almost no fall tillage done by anyone in our area.

Thanks

Was looking at a splitter to do 15" row beans but with soybean rust issues may just reconsider and go ahead and get a 12-row 30". Will see what happens this year.

The guy who does my planting ran a 16-row planter this year and a 12-row corn head-said it worked out ok.

Vibra shanks can be a mean pull. We used them a lot in my area getting ready for mechanical rock picking, thus you wanted as many rocks as possible loose and on surface. At 6 to 9 inches a 13 foot model does have the ability to stop a 70 hp tractor. We only traveled about 3.5 mph loosening rocks, much faster at that depth and you started breaking shanks.

Thanks!

You are a little light in hp for regular use, but might be able to accomplish what you want with 13" & 55 hp. Worth trying anyhow.

My sis bought some land that had an auction in spring, and the bean stubble was used for the parking lot. Very hard soil. I took the 13" behind my 135 hp tractor, and that really worked up the ground nice - used all the power & duals as well! If you are working up tough ground, you might find yourself happy with the big tractor.

Also, I graze cornstalks all fall, and disk & field cultivate in spring. If you mean your land is unworked, be prepared to disk several times befroe getting near it with the field cultivator. It plugs up easily in cornstalks. I usually need to disk 2 times, and this is cornstalks that are heavily grazed out. Even then, the fc likes to plug.

--->Paul

Ground was in beans-and had anhydrous injected last fall so I think it should work pretty easily-stalk clogging shouldn't be a problem.

The off corn rows aren't too big a deal if the planter driver is steady & keeps the rows straight. I would be worried if you do contuor planting or fields with curves, but otherwise it is pretty common to have different planter & combine rows, mostly works great. In a perfect world, we'd do it perfect, but..... :)

--->Paul