[AT] Pasture drag, rake, ???

Tue May 4 20:08:01 PDT 2021

Carl,

Many years ago I plowed a section where there was a small hill that created an unsafe slope so I thought I would try to knock the hill down a little.  Oh my God was that a mistake.   I picked rocks for a very long time and it was in a very small part of the pasture. This 81 year old body isn't up to that any more.

Dean VP
Snohomish, WA 98290
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
..Winston Churchill...

-----Original Message-----
From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of szabelski at wildblue.net
Sent: Tuesday, May 4, 2021 5:51 PM
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] Pasture drag, rake, ???

Trying to level by just breaking up an inch or two of the soil won’t do you any good. You would think that that would give you plenty to do the leveling, but there won’t be enough. You need to make big chucks and then turn them into little chunks. Make the big chunks by plowing, then disc, rototill, etc. after that use some sort of drag to level. You may have to go around and pick up rocks, and buried stumps will be an issue, but it’s the way to go. The grass will grow back in in about a year. 

Around here we can get the county to inject waste material into our fields. They use a large tanker that has several injectors that buries the waste about ten inches deep. When they’re done, the field’s been plowed. You may want to check to see if that’s available in your area

Carl

----- Original Message -----
From: Dean VP <deanvp at att.net>
To: AT at lists.antique-tractor.com
Sent: Tue, 04 May 2021 18:33:08 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [AT] Pasture drag, rake, ???

I have 6 acres that I mow with my Garden tractor 3 of which is a pasture on a slope which at one time had horses on it.  Now I try to keep the pasture looking nice by mowing it with my Garden Tractor albeit at a slightly higher cut than the rest of the regular lawn. The last couple of years the pasture has gotten really rough from multiple sources including our not so friendly Moles and pocket gophers. There are several old growth stumps buried in the pasture which was well done except will the dirt fill occurs it doesn't completely fill all around the stump down below. So over time and our incessant rain some settling occurs and even some small occur.  I try to fill the gaps with dirt as I find them but each year 2 or 3 more show up. So bottom line is the pasture has gotten rough and beats the crap out of me when I mow it. I would like to use a tool to try to smooth it out a bit and
thatching the grass mat in places would not be a bad thing.   But our soil
is terrible and at best could described as glacial till filled with various
sized rocks.   So I really don't want to disturb the rocks too much since I
have to mow it later.   So I want to smooth the soil out, not disturb it too
much.  Known as a quandary. 

I'm thinking about acquiring pasture rake or drag with short teeth on it to work the top couple inches or so and  try to smooth out the mole and gopher
mounds which I have manually knocked down a bit prior to mowing,   I have no
experience with a pasture type rake.  I have experience with a spiked toothed drag we used on the farm in NW Iowa.  But that was used to smooth out  loose ground in preparation for planting corn or soy beans. That isn't what I need. I think I need maybe 4 4' square flexible sections that can flex with the varying terrain and catch the low as well as high spots. I think I can pull an 8' 8' unit with my 20 to 22 HP Garden tractors. I'm more concerned about traction but I can put chains on if necessary.  I'm thinking I would want to take several passes at various different directions.  And hopefully I could use this same implement to dethatch the rest of the lawn.

Some of you surely have experience with something like what I need. What do I need? What are it's critical attributes?  Where do I buy it?  I do live in Horse country so there are a few stores that cater to horse owners and of course I have Tractor Supply, Lowes, Home Dept, Grainger, etc. and ???/

I'm looking forward to being educated.

Dean VP
Snohomish, WA 98290
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
..Winston Churchill...

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