# question about a pasture renovator



## jamesntexas

I am looking at a pasture renovator that does not have the coulters on it.....it came that way from the factory. My question is this...How much of a differerence will it make having coulters or not having them? Without the coulters will it be more like running a chisel plow over it? --thanks in advance.


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## hay wilson in TX

Had one 35 years ago. Sold it for scrap


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## Mike120

As I understand the theory of the pasture renavator, the coulters cut the grass runners so the shanks don't tear them out. Also, in theory, the shanks break up shallow compaction and help aerate soil I just did three of my fields a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure it will do anything, but it made me feel better and I'm certain the little microbes are thankful for the air. I'm not sure I'd be interested in one without the coulters. With them, they don't make much of a mess, without them I'm afraid you'd have clods all over the place.


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## HWooldridge

I built one with coulters after the Hay King type and it does a good job. The coulters help cut the runners but you still get "grass balls" occasionally bunched up on the chisels. Mine cuts a narrow groove about 5-1/2 to 6" deep and the grass always sprouts faster afterwards. I cross-hatch so the ground is cut in two directions. It does pull up rocks but pretty much anything that digs and lifts will do that.


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## Texasmark

I run the Hay King also. I live on the side of a hill and wanted to capture all the water I could. Also, I wanted to improve my bermuda so I wanted to cut the stems so that it would re root and grow better. The Hay King is an extremely well built unit. I bought the 4 shank model to pull behind my 65 engine hp tractor. I am in heavy clay, but the implement did a suberb job and was not that hard on the tractor...pulled it in mid gears. The rippers dug just as deep as my 3 pt would allow and there was minimal surface disruption.

I did it last year and this spring, you can see new grass shoots coming up from the slices. Oh, last summer during the drought, the clay shrank and cracked open right along the lines the renovator made. So I had these gaping holes that filled with all the great rain we had the last 6 months.

I bought mine from my local JD dealer new for $1500.

HTH,

Mark


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## prairie

If you are looking at it for aeration purposes, don't bother wasting your time or money. A few years ago I researched pasture aeration pretty deeply.  Visible results were almost always easily seen in increased growth, but In almost all cases, the results did not offset the expense. Most university and private tests came to the same general conclusion, despite the claims of some equipment manufacturers. I have known several grazers who have experimented with pasture aeration , and none that I know of are still doing it today.
If you are using the pasture aeration tool to incorporate seed for pasture improvement, it may pay.


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## Texasmark

prairie said:


> If you are looking at it for aeration purposes, don't bother wasting your time or money. A few years ago I researched pasture aeration pretty deeply. Visible results were almost always easily seen in increased growth, but In almost all cases, the results did not offset the expense. Most university and private tests came to the same general conclusion, despite the claims of some equipment manufacturers. I have known several grazers who have experimented with pasture aeration , and none that I know of are still doing it today.
> If you are using the pasture aeration tool to incorporate seed for pasture improvement, it may pay.


For me, it depends upon what you are after as to the "net worth". The heavy Houston black clay on my farm packs readily so I agree that if you aerate one year, you will have to do it again the following year because the soil will pack back down on it's own. However, this same black clay splits open right along the coulter lines during dry weather and using contour tillage, you have just split open the ground whereupon any moisture you receive runs into the cracks and is not wasted running off down hill. Some of these cracks I have attempted to find the bottom and couldn't using an 8' piece of PVC pipe.

Anyhew, as the rain falls into the cracks, the moisture causes the clay to swell back up thus closing off the crack and sealing the precious moisture inside where the pasture grasses can get to it. Then with the cutting of the Bermuda runners and proper fertilization, the pasture comes alive.

I really don't think I would waste my time with it in a sandy or sandy-loam soil. I would think the soil perculates enough on it's own.

That's how it looks from here.

Mark


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## charlesmontgomery

without coulters, your shanks will dig out large hunks of dirt that will take inches of rain to melt. and as was said above the Noble Foundations and most land grant universities say that aeration is a waste of money


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## hay wilson in TX

hay wilson in TX said:


> Had one 35 years ago. Sold it for scrap


What I did not mention is I also have a fertilizer rig for anhydrous injection into bermudagrass hay meadow.

A tool bar with a few Yetter drops for fertilizer get two or more birds at one clip. 
If I were going to use liquid fertilizer I would use the drops with just the coultes and a spray pipe to shoot the fertilizer down the fresh crack. 
HERE for anhydrous a 60" spacing works just fine. For using only opening coulters for liquid 42" or 48" spacing works. 
Here is in Houston Clay that cracks big time. Tractors with little skinny front tires can drop a tire in to a crack and with out a differential lock you will need a pull.


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## somedevildawg

I like mine, hay king, I think it works great, use it every year sometimes twice.


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## Guest

Aerating is beneficial to your pastures, but it sometimes takes multiple years to see the effects. There is no such thing as a quick fix to compacted soils .
I use an Aerway . What I had was 30 years of improved pastures that had been walked down by cows and equipment. y soil tests showed plenty of nutrient in the soil but it was "locked" due to compaction. Grasses need a combination or air/water/ and nutrients to thrive and you cannot remove any one of those features and have high expectations. After my 2nd year of Aeration (3 times per growing season) I would have to say that I had a 40% increase in available forages and a 60% decrease in the amount of fertilizer applied per acre. So the benefits were and are realized in time.

The Aerway unit was a bit pricey, but as I found out --was worth the gamble and I paid for that piece of equipment in my 2nd year of using it just on savings on fertilizer.


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