# Options for leveling strip farmed fields



## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

The ground I'm working on has been strip farmed for years and always worked in the same direction. This has created fields that are relatively smooth if you follow the strip. If you are turning around or crossing the strip, ya better hold on. Old dead furrows or other tillage ridges and valleys cause gaps and skips for toothed tools like the tedder or a rotary rake, or it can present situations where the teeth on one side are digging dirt, but 4 inches in the air on the other side.

I'd like to level these fields when I rotate crops or replant stands. I have the use of a chisel plow, John Deere 210 disk, and a Perfecta II harrow. How would you approach getting these fields smoother/level?


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

You need a drag of some type. Does your perfecta harrow have levelling boards?


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

The Perfect has a diagonal tooth leveling bar followed by rolling baskets.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Maybe add a field cultivator to your lineup.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

We rented a 100 acre farm like that and everytime I go across those fields it makes me wonder how someone could screw omething up like that , It is solid dead furrows and disc ridges . owner put it in the lease 10 yearsc ago nothing but notill . When I was a kid and we farmed covenantal tillage we plowe so carefully to furrow on and to finish each land that you ploed away from last years ridge . And never throw a big disc ridge


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

We took over some ground like that one time . We used a drag harrow across the corner at a 45 degree angle. It takes time but that way you don't bounce your guts out. A heavy railroad rail behind drag harrow really helps.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

farmerbrown said:


> We took over some ground like that one time . We used a drag harrow across the corner at a 45 degree angle. It takes time but that way you don't bounce your guts out. A heavy railroad rail behind drag harrow really helps.


I use a 14" diameter utility pole behind a harrow that I cut 10' long. It is the bottom section of the pole that is full of creosote so it has substantial weight to it.

I would work the transitions well with your chisel plow before harrowing and dragging.

Regards, Mike


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

Like Mike I drag a large pole behind my small disc, it's good at busting clods also. then if needed I have a 3pt tooth drag and it does a fine job of leveling & it leaves small rows for the seed to lay, then cultipack it...


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## Wethay (Jul 17, 2015)

Dad welded a couple chunks of steel with a big hole through them to for an eye to hook a chain on to the side of a lenght of railroad iron. Basically just had it set up to pull it behind a harrow. We have a heavy rigid harrow to break down plowing with that helps level things out. We took on a field that had been plowed round and round from the out side in for years. We started plowing in the middle and worked out, broke it down a bit and then plowed it from the inside again just to get started.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

You are just chiseling and not plowing it? This year I removed fence lines cleaned up the field edges and turned old pasture into field blending them into existing fields turning 2 - 3 acre fields into 1 - 8 acre field and a 10 acre field into a 12 acre field. Lots of one way plowing and narrow 20 ft. strips on the edges. I got compliments from my mowing guy told me can't tell where I blended the fields. All was done with plow, disc, and drags.

Spend lots of time with the disc and harrow working the field in several directions and it will come out better than it is.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I picked up some ground once that the previous guy always used a offset disc, the wrong way of course as well. Dug our old three point field cultivator out and tightened the springs up a bunch on the feathering boards so they'd drag more dirt. Never did get it perfect but it was a WHOLE lot better than it started.


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

IH 1586 said:


> You are just chiseling and not plowing it?
> 
> Spend lots of time with the disc and harrow working the field in several directions and it will come out better than it is.


I could plow it if that would help the situation. Are you thinking to throw back in to the old furrows?


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Vol said:


> I use a 14" diameter utility pole behind a harrow that I cut 10' long. It is the bottom section of the pole that is full of creosote so it has substantial weight to it.
> 
> I would work the transitions well with your chisel plow before harrowing and dragging.
> 
> Regards, Mike


I could probably get my hands on an old utility pole. Chisel to loosen the ground? How deep?


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

paoutdoorsman said:


> I could probably get my hands on an old utility pole. Chisel to loosen the ground? How deep?


We always ran an I-beam behind ours. Come get it if you want.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

paoutdoorsman said:


> I could plow it if that would help the situation. Are you thinking to throw back in to the old furrows?


Without seeing the field I would say yes. Plowing will move a lot more ground and make it easier to work. I have taken a diversion ditch that ran across the grain of the field and and plowed it out then plowed it again with the rest of the field. A lot of people when the plow just drop the plow and go leaving dead furrows everywhere, whereas I don't leave any when I finish due to my technique with the plows.


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

8350HiTech said:


> We always ran an I-beam behind ours. Come get it if you want.


Nice, thanks! How long is it?


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

An I beam should work really well as a drag.....I borrowed a disc with an railroad rail as a drag this past spring and it worked much better at leveling than my phone pole drag. I'm no longer a fan of using a disc as a leveling/finishing tool. One pass is okay but after that it just seems to want to ridge and furrow too much and after multiple passes required to try and level the field ends up with a compaction layer. In a thread I posted back in the spring the general consensus was that a field cultivator was better at leveling and finishing the seedbed than a disc. I would think your perfecta would be considered a field cultivator? Maybe try multiple passes going crossways across the field with it after the initial plowing? Just guessing here as I struggle to get the ground nice and level as well. I'm wanting to go full no till but want the ground nice and smooth first. I may just have to buy a field cultivator.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

I tried for years to have level ground for row crops and was told get a field cultivator. I then went to disk once, maybe twice and then field cultivator period after that. If I were to use chisel plow did that before disking and then the field cultivators. No comparison for me between disk and field cultivator. To me the biggest advantage of disk over field cultivator is if you need to cut up trash or bury it. At least for me the load to pull the field cultivator is about same as disk, i use the same width of both and they both seem to use about same hp. Now the person who farmed our place this year not sprigged for hay has a field from disking that is level as can be, but he is pulling maybe a 30 foot wide Case I think disk with a plus 200 hp tractor.


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