# Rocks and Disc Mowers



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

This is how much I had collected by the end of the second pass around a new to me 5 acres field, I only picked up the loose ones the cutter bar fired or rolled out of the ground, I left anything the bar jumped. Believe it or not it was in beans for 3 years then it has been rotary mowed for 5 years. I think I know why the guy stopped renting it for beans.

It didn't get a lot better, I had nearly a full bucket and lost two knifes in the 5 acres. They were all an old beat up set I put on. Ran at about 350 rpm on the pto to reduce the damage. After baling we will go back and clean it up so we don't hit any next year.


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## mike10 (May 29, 2011)

That looks like dollar bills ready to leave your pocket. Make sure your floatation system is working properly.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I'm pretty used to it now. The fields here are so rocky people with sickle bar machines get lazy and leave them since they are mowing slow anyways. I don't have a haybine anymore so I just go slow when I get on new ground. If at all possible I walk or ride it in the spring before grass grows and note the worst spots and dig some out early. I always scout while tedding and raking, and baling. The tedder is good as it touches every square inch and the sound is quite clear when you hit one. Raking just cleans up a bit but can hide big ones in the windrow. When baling one of the tractors always has forks on to pry out rocks. My home fields are pretty clean after 5 years of this.

I'm only working, well I was gonna say 80 acres of hay but this new property is about another 40 acres, its too much to just remember where the rocks are now.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I had a similar situation.235 acres of established alfalfa.Rocks as big as footballs on top of the ground.I asked previous renter if he ever picked any?We picked many wagon loads of softball sized rock.

Had a brand new Vermeer 1030 disc pro and nothin broke besides blades,I was impressed with how it held up in those conditions and have stuck with the 1030,I'm on my 6th one since then!


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Don't fret. You can pick up all the rocks this year and next year, more will appear.

I never mow an unfamiliar field the first time with a disc machine, always the Moco. Might be a bit slower but it's so much cheaper....... besides, I'm in no hurry anyway.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

The easiest way to take care of your rocks is to roll them with a big roller in the spring. I have had a lot of sucess doing this and it does not seem to hurt the alfalfa or other grasses. This is after wearing out my back and moving many, many truck loads of rocks. With typical freezing and thawing each winter, you will have a new crop each spring. Just put em back where they are in MHO. Mike


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I've always been leary of rolling just because we have a lot of large rocks too, and you never know until you try to pick it up. I'm considering rolling anyways just because the ground it so rough from the last renter. About 20 acres of it has to be plowed anyways.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

LAst new field of alfalfa I planted we took three truck loads of rock off. Used a 16' truck with eighteen inch sides and it was full all three times.. Most were baseball and softball size rocks, took me, 4 kids and the wife driving the skid steer two days to clean that 18 acre field. The worst spots we couldn't even get across the field and it's not that long before getting a bucket full.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

mlappin I know that feeling. We plowed the field in front of my sisters house this spring, its maybe 1/2 acre, and has been plowed and rock picked since 1784 or so since the area was cleared. We still took a few yards of rock off it, and we don't bother with smaller than a baseball. I ran the spring tooth over it the other day to knock the weeds back and pulled up another bucket load.


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## Iowa hay guy (Jul 29, 2010)

i guess ive been lucky so far because all the rocks that i have hit with my macdon it has rolled over and maybe bent a blade
i picked up a chunk of concrete once and it got on top of the rotors bounced once dented the hood a bit and flew out the front and it was the size of a basketball


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I've been using one of the large rollers after seeding for the last 8 yrs.It sure makes a nicer field and pushes down the small stones that may of got missed when picking.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

swmnhay said:


> I've been using one of the large rollers after seeding for the last 8 yrs.It sure makes a nicer field and pushes down the small stones that may of got missed when picking.


Do they stay down though? I pull a cultimulcher, then the drill and a packer behind the drill when planting and still find a stray rock after first cutting, I wonder if the freezing and thawing shoves em up.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

Freezing and thawing will bring them up every year. That's why I just roll them back in.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

The rocks reminded me of my partner pulling a Loftness stubble beater and hooking into a bedspring from a bed in the field.... (must have been too many beverages that day). I had to do some serious machining on the driveline parts after he got done 'lofting' the Loftness into the air about 5 feet. He got straight real fast btw......

The skirts on a disc mower (or the shrouds on a Loftness are there for a good reason.....


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

mlappin said:


> Do they stay down though? I pull a cultimulcher, then the drill and a packer behind the drill when planting and still find a stray rock after first cutting, I wonder if the freezing and thawing shoves em up.


No they don't stay down.Frost brings them up.If they nick cutter bar they can roll out or wheel rake can kick out the small ones.If i see a rock get kicked up I stop and pick it up.Some of the help doesn't feel the need to get out of the tractor and pick them up tho,
















It's a constant battle with rocks so we just deal with it as they come up.The roller sure makes it a lot nicer the first yr tho.


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## Fossil02818 (May 31, 2010)

Rocks are the only crop I can be sure of producing every single year without exception. I don't have to plant them, water them or fertilize them. They just keep coming up year after year. New Hampshire is called the Granite State and as far as I'm concerned its for a very good reason.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

And I live on the edge of the Flint Hills... Something about a steel blade going at a high rate of speed hitting flint makes for pretty sparks which makes for dry-matter ignition ... The green ones this year have been creating a few fires out here. Not sure why the JD's are so prone. perhaps its the operators? nah Martin


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## urednecku (Oct 18, 2010)

Nitram said:


> And I live on the edge of the Flint Hills... Something about a steel blade going at a high rate of speed hitting flint makes for pretty sparks which makes for dry-matter ignition ... The green ones this year have been creating a few fires out here. Not sure why the JD's are so prone. perhaps its the operators? nah Martin


I bet @ night, when ya can see, it's a lot prettier show.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Picked another bucket last night after baling 3 acres of it. Need to go back and get the ones I couldn't lift.


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

No such things as rocks here!


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Fossil02818 said:


> Rocks are the only crop I can be sure of producing every single year without exception. I don't have to plant them, water them or fertilize them. They just keep coming up year after year. New Hampshire is called the Granite State and as far as I'm concerned its for a very good reason.


You have to pick enough so they don't touch, when two rocks touch they make baby rocks which quickly grow into equipment busting size rocks.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Thats funny. I've been digging potatoes all week from the garden. Remind me of rocks, but taste better.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

If rocks were edible, we would have no problem feeding the world. Just from ND alone!


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

_A guy here had his grandson helping him and he dug a hole and stuck a stone in it and told the kid he was planting them to grow rocks.







_


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