Field Cultivator in Corn

Anonymous-0 · Jun 28, 2008

I've been working building my row crop (corn & beans) equipment line and have been getting by with a combine and a White 6100 planter set up for no-till. I would like to start doing minimum till and want to keep my capital equipment costs to a minimum.

My question is if I can just use an old field cultivator without discs on the front, or will the corn stalks wrap around the shanks? I'd like to not have to chop stalks. What about just using a big heavy disc with a leveler on the back?

Leland · Jun 28, 2008

That rig will be plugged up every 200' in heavy stalks ,you will have to bush hog them or why not just look for a diskavator . it's just a field cultivator with a gang of disks in front of the shanks and will do a good job in 1 pass

RickL · Jun 29, 2008

the unit in picture is nothing but a dump rake in trash. You won't even get the 200ft as already mention. Get yourself a good tandem disc and be done with it. Even the disc finishers with blades in front unless they are real recent version have alot of trouble going thru stalks. Have 30ft unit available right now in shop thats being assembled. $42000.00 cash price if interested. Any 200 series or later in Jd disc would make you a good tool to use. have fun

Iowa Jim · Jun 29, 2008

If you have been having success with No-Till then why do you want to destroy the improvements you have made with your soil structure, water infiltration, and erosion control on your farm?

Jim

teddy52food · Jun 29, 2008

If you rotate corn and beans, both crops will be better.

JoshuaGA · Jun 29, 2008

Disk would be better than that field cultivator, but what might be better is to buy a strip till rig. Warm up the soil in the row and leave the rest of the residue on top. If you go to the AgTalk board, ask for Jim or joeatdawn, they can describe what strip till could do for you, they are salesmen for Dawn.

JoshuaGA

Anonymous-0 · Jun 29, 2008

A field cultivator is a secondary tillage tool, not primary- although some use newer ones with greater distance between ranks, in soybean stubble rather than plowing. It would be a dump rake in cornstalks, even if they are chopped. Chopping stalks is important, even in no-till. Residue breaks down sooner, not tying up nitrogen.

caterpillar guy · Jun 29, 2008

We use a chisel plow with no discs and then just use the field cultivator like shown in the picture and have no trouble we spring work so can deteriorate through the winter. We even just use it right after the combine on bean stubble for wheat planting.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 29, 2008

As other have already stated, without some prior tillage that field cultivator would be nothing but a big dump rake. For several thousands of $'s you could buy a much newer field cultivator which can get thru without any previous tillage. Chopping stalks with a rotary mower or flail stalk chopper is not going to save the day. A rolling stalk chopper which isn't cheap either might work. I suggest a single or if necessary, a double pass with a disk in the fall (not in the spring) which should allow you to successfully use that cultivator. However be aware that 3pt cultivators are only considered scrap metal by serious farmers in this area. Depth control is a concern with a 3pt implement. A soil finisher which is basically a field cultivator with a set of front disks, will work good, but also probably a little pricy. Strip till is fine, but plan on spending a lot of $'s to buy or build a machine. Probably a better plan would be to hire someone to make the strips.

Field Cultivator in Corn

Anonymous-0

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Leland

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RickL

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Iowa Jim

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teddy52food

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JoshuaGA

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Anonymous-0

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caterpillar guy

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Anonymous-0

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