Have you tried adjusting ground speed and/or making a finish pass with the disc less deep? Otherwise, the best way to make a disc finish nicely is to pull another implement behind it.

 

I don't know about making it smoother with the disc. I follow by dragging a piece of 2 x 12inch channel iron about 20 feet long behind the tractor after I'm finished discing to smooth everything out. That will do a lot of smoothing, and a little bit of packing.

 

Have you tried adjusting ground speed and/or making a finish pass with the disc less deep? Otherwise, the best way to make a disc finish nicely is to pull another implement behind it.

What I can't figure out is how at the same depth and ground speed without making any adjustments did it go from ridging last fall the leaving a furrow this spring? I have tried different ground speeds and it didn't help the problem much......seemed the faster I went the worse it got. Last fall in an attempt to get the ground smooth I made three passes over the field each in a different direction. I'm also pulling a railroad iron as a drag behind the disc to help level things up but it was still leaving me with a furrow in the middle today.

 

Have you tried adjusting ground speed and/or making a finish pass with the disc less deep? Otherwise, the best way to make a disc finish nicely is to pull another implement behind it.

Called a field cultivator with feathering boards.

 

Soil type, moisture, sod, speed, most everything will an effect on how a disc cuts. For me a cover crop disc is used for cutting up sod, a "finishing" disc is used after a moldboard plow and before a heavy harrow, sprocket roller and light harrow. I've never had good luck using a disc without another implement, or more, after it.

 

Called a field cultivator with feathering boards.

Not familiar with that implement. Can it be used in place of a disc harrow?

 

Make and model of disc? Biggest adjustments would be fore-aft pitch and your ground speed. Up to a point faster is better. A good drag harrow behind the disc helps a lot also.

 

Make and model of disc? Biggest adjustments would be fore-aft pitch and your ground speed. Up to a point faster is better. A good drag harrow behind the disc helps a lot also.

Its a Taylor Way 12 foot disc harrow. I think the model number is a 351.

 

Not familiar with that implement. Can it be used in place of a disc harrow?

Depends how hard the ground is, I've seen many used in the spring on fall chiseled ground before soil finishers became the norm.

http://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/farm-equipment/for-sale/9148489/white-220

 

Starting discing up the ground I had previously chisel plowed getting it ready to plant alfalfa. I'm having a real problem getting this disc to level. I have had this disc a few years and have yet to get it to do a level job of discing. I have adjusted the threaded rod on the disc that is supposed to control the pitch of the disc forward to back so both the front and rear gangs are cutting at the same depth which according to the book will eliminate ridge/furrow in the middle of the disc but it just doesn't seem to be making much difference when I adjust it. Last fall I had trouble with it wanting to leave a ridge in the middle of the disc and now today without changing how it was still adjusted from last fall it was leaving a furrow in the middle. Im starting to think that this disc is just a pos. This particular field I'm trying to get worked down will be no till from here on out so I really need to get it smooth before I plant.

Hayden

What make and model??

Getting the disk to level out is a yearly affair... a lot depends on the moisture and texture of the soil, how deep the disk is cutting, ground speed, etc. If you're leaving a furrow in the center, crank the rear down (raise the front). If you're leaving a berm in the center, crank the rear up (lower the front).

Some disks are just kinda balky in some conditions...

Later! OL J R

 

Its a Taylor Way 12 foot disc harrow. I think the model number is a 351.

Blade diameter and spacing??

Got pics??

OL J R

PS. I pull an old pair of JD spike tooth harrows behind my disk on chains-- does a BEAUTIFUL job... (IH 470 disk 13.5 footer).

 

Its a Taylor Way 12 foot disc harrow. I think the model number is a 351.

Some disks also have adjustments for the gang angles-- flatter angles mean less "throw" of the soil sideways, thus less furrowing and ridging...

Later! OL J R

 

Any access to a culti-mulcher? Just the nature of the machine. That's the same reason we don't really like to use them on my Dad's cropland. It works better going around in circles but you might have to find a "euro" type high-speed disk. I've got a 16ft offset and can never get rid of the ridge from the rear gangs.

 

Blade diameter and spacing??

Got pics??

OL J R

PS. I pull an old pair of JD spike tooth harrows behind my disk on chains-- does a BEAUTIFUL job... (IH 470 disk 13.5 footer).

20" discs at 9" spacing on the front gangs and 7 1/2" spacing on the rear gangs.

 

Any access to a culti-mulcher? Just the nature of the machine. That's the same reason we don't really like to use them on my Dad's cropland. It works better going around in circles but you might have to find a "euro" type high-speed disk. I've got a 16ft offset and can never get rid of the ridge from the rear gangs.

I have a cultimulcher which I plan on using to give the finishing touch before planting. It can only level out so much tough and that's why I wish I could get the disc to do a better job.

 

With our Sunflower disc it's all about speed. If I go over 6 mph it will leave the middle ridge under 6 even at say 5.7 mph it's fine for the most part. But if the soil gets fine and sandy I might have to knock it down to 5.3 or something. Then I always follow with a cultimultcher. I need to rig something up so I can just pull the cultimultcher behind the disc. The manual for the disc even says under no circumstances should you go over 6 mph. Sometime I need to look into one of those high speed discs.

 

Discs are considered primary tillage and would not plan on just the discs to get the ground level and ready to plant. You would want to run mulch finishers, drags, and or cultimulchers after you disc. Do your cultimulchers have teeth? You could finish with them if you don't have access to the other pieces. I personally don't like to finish a hay field with the teeth on a cultimulcher. They don't do as good of a job as the drags.

 

My disc is near the same as you have, I worked a lot with the same trouble..

I adjusted the disc from side to side making the rack of disc on each side closer or further away, never could get it smooth, just spent time with the spike drag thing and got things smooth that way....

 

We have a King 3 pt disc and have always fought the same issues. It is sitting in the woods and has not been used in years. Our soil is a sandy loam and it seems to be prone to these issues. I think that is because it tills so easy. It moves a lot if you know what I mean.

 

Some makes & models of disc harrows just won't leave soil level. JD model RW & RWA are 2 models that come to mind. As mentioned ground speed especially faster affects levelness of soil. Are frt & rear gangs adjustable for different angles? Field. cultivator with spring evener will get soil level.

 

We have a JD 215 great disc when we got it ,once the blades get worn it's performance goes down hill . Even with good blades on now the linkedge is getting worn so it doesn't do the best job .

 

For years we used a set of drags ALWAYS after disking for hay fields. That was before I got the field cultivator with leveling fingers on the back end. Now I am 100% no-till.

I remember a neighbor who dragged a piece of telephone pole with old bed springs attached behind his disk to level his hay fields.

Larry

 

Without a levelling attachment they don't level very well. We pull a spring tooth drag harrow that is 2 ft wider than the disc to do the levelling.

In days of yore here they didn't use discs, only the spring tooth harrows.

 

Discs are considered primary tillage and would not plan on just the discs to get the ground level and ready to plant. You would want to run mulch finishers, drags, and or cultimulchers after you disc. Do your cultimulchers have teeth? You could finish with them if you don't have access to the other pieces. I personally don't like to finish a hay field with the teeth on a cultimulcher. They don't do as good of a job as the drags.

My cultimulcher has c tines. I'm not trying to finish the ground with the disc.....just using it to work down the chisel plowed ground before running the cultimulcher. It just seems like I'm going backwards though in getting the ground smooth since the disc is leaving the ground so unlevel. It sounds like I have tried to make the proper adjustments on the disc without much luck so as I suspected it sounds like my disc is just a pos.

With only having this disc and a cultimulcher to work with at this point what would be your method of trying to get the ground as smooth and level as possible for planting?

 

Rent, borrow (do not steal) a piece of equipment to get the job done right first (level field). If you don't get the field nice and level, I think you will be possibly 'kicking' your self somewhere for years to come with that hay field.

Larry

I should have added, "don't ask me how I know", regarding the kicking part.