Among the things that seem stupidly easy is using a tractor to prepare soil and seed a big game food plot. Farmers prep and plant huge fields. How hard can it be?
Answer: way harder than you think!
A tractor barely gets your foot in the door. You need implements. Without implements, a tractor is just an impressive, heavy, slow, uncomfortable transport for one person.
Unfortunately, implements are very expensive. It took me years to level up to a functional tractor (now paid off!). I have the horsepower, but I only have a few implements.
So, that very simple idea “I’ll till some soil and put in a big game food plot” can turn into a huge investment. Even if you were made of money, it takes a bit to get the hang of the skills involved.
That’s what I mean about things being harder in reality than in imagination.
Long ago, I messed around a few seasons with an antique 2 bottom plot and my antique 1944 tractor. The plow wasn’t the right tool for the job and the tractor died… it’s still dead (the tractor, not me). Fixing it for the umpteenth time (the tractor, not me) is on my “to do” list.
My “real” (modern) tractor runs well. I almost had a stroke taking out the loan to buy it, but now I’ve got it. Its true purpose is to plow snow. Everything else is gravy!
Several years ago I bought a Brush Hog brand disk. A disk is an array of big steel plates that spin across the ground. You can adjust them to be out of alignment with direction of travel or straight. This creates a more or less aggressive cut. Though this isn’t the same efficiency or precise calibration of a real farmer’s tractor in a real cultivated field.
It’s best to get the right size to go with your tractor. My disk implement is about 5′ wide. I lust for the 30′ behemoths real farmers own; but it would just bog my tractor down. A 30′ disk is also more expensive than I can afford. (Possibly costing more than the tractor I own!)
My tractor is a good machine but it sucks with downforce. Some implements use friction with the earth to pull themselves into the soil (like plows and cultivators). A disk doesn’t pull itself down, it tends to roll up and onto the soil’s surface. Some tractors shove crap down against the ground. My tractor doesn’t. It’s just how the machine was built.
Solution? Many passes.
I go back and forth like it’s Zen meditation. Another thing, my plots are small-ish and you can’t turn while pulling a static load. I broke a few (thankfully cheap) 3 point hitch components learning that lesson! It happened a few years ago. Luckily 3 point hitches have lots of parts that are replaceable and most are reasonably cheap. They take a lot of abuse in general so I’m not the first guy to break a few bits.
I just try to be relaxed and go with it; plowing small areas, pulling the disk up to turn, setting it back down, taking shallow cuts, moving slow; easy on the equipment and mellow for the driver. Progress is glacially slow. It is what it is.
I installed a radio a few years ago. That was a good move. I listen to tunes and forget I’m in a modern hurried world. (BTW: Tractors in my size class of mine are pretty good with fuel consumption. Fuel expense isn’t half bad. Time is the true cost.)
The first few years I “cultivate” an area, the sod (which has had like 30-50 years to put down roots) is a bitch. After a few years of my half assed “cultivation”, the disk works OK with the repeatedly loosened soil. I get some semblance of a seedbed.
Of course it’s all rutted, as if some chimp ran a disk through it and didn’t smooth it flat. Plus gophers fuck everything up. And lets face it, the soil is a dynamic system. If you’re imagining a flat plane it’s because you’ve never walked a freshly plowed field.
I need to smooth it out. There are implements for that. I don’t have them. I’ve experimented dragging heavy logs with a chain (shines up your chain!), or just dragging random shit across the dirt. It does work… sorta’.
Here’s a picture of what I was using. It’s sub-optimal but the steel square is junk (free!) and I already have the chain.
By the way, I’m not the first half assed, sub-farmer, homesteading chump to drag “garbage” through a field. I constantly unearth metal bits from whatever some dude in the past was using. I presume the metal bits were deposited there maybe decades after they were identifiable, high quality, new, farm implements. The stuff I kick up isn’t cool antiques; it’s just trash.
Here’s an example.
Dragging a steel square with minimal downforce is pretty close to the least effective approach. I decided to make a new(!) chain drag from my very own modern-ish trash! It wouldn’t be worse than the bullshit I was doing.
Here’s some old junk chain link fence. Why I’ve been keeping it I have no idea. Why not use it for this?
Careful dissection followed. (Note the awesome sawhorses!)
I needed more, so I scrounged an old steel bed frame.
I spent forever breaking it into components and grinding the thick paint off places I wanted to weld. But there was metal under there somewhere.
I was “winging it”. I wanted a drag not an integrated circuit board. Best to not overthink it.
I got out my small welding kit. (All I know is “stick welding”. It’s a long story but that’s a college class I took years after “college age”. It’s the only class I’ve ever dropped. Somewhere there’s an “Incomplete, this dude’s a loser” paired with a shitty GPA on a transcript at a community college that doesn’t matter. I smile at the thought.)
Back to the task at hand, I know a little but only a little and I’ve a smattering of gear but only some… plus I’ve got some junk metal. I struggled and made something lame. We all gotta’ start somewhere.
My welds were an abomination before God and the universe. They’re the best I could do, but I refuse to post such ugliness. Again, it’s a drag… so long as it doesn’t implode it’s doing what needs done.
I created a crude frame out of a chain link pipe and the bed frame. I scrounged some chain link “weave” and stretched it tight. My local hardware store didn’t have the fittings that you use to hold chain link to a pipe. I salvaged what I could and used plumbers tape on the rest. If nothing else, it’s tight enough that it doesn’t flop all over.
I had a few small clevis-es… um, what’s the plural to clevis? I pinned those to a couple holes in scrap steel I’d salvaged and welded to the corners. All I needed was some chain.
The chain I have is too large for the clevis… clevii? I could buy more chain at the hardware store but I used four strands of p-cord that was hanging around. It’s good enough for now.
I think, if I added a bunch of weight, the drag would be pretty functional. Maybe next spring I’ll bolt or weld something heavy to it. One step at a time.
I “dragged” the disked area a couple times (not too many, I was running out of time). Then I shut down the tractor and seeded by hand.
I used leftover seed from last year. I can’t remember what it was called; probably something like “Massive Rack Awesome Super Hunting Power Success”. They’re all named something like that. I use a blend of brassica, clover, and rye (I think). I mostly enthuse over the brassica. Who doesn’t like beets? The rest is boring.
Seeding by hand is (like everything else) a skill that one must develop. Last year I seeded too much. It seemed like the seeds were competing with each other. This time I seeded a whole lot less, hoping to reduce within species competition. How much less? I dunno’. It’s a hand crank thing and all I can say is I cranked slower. I hope I didn’t “under seed”. We’ll see.
The appropriate implement for this is called a “seed drill”. Seed drills are far more efficient and reduce your seed expense. They, deposit seeds at the depth and spacing you specify. I sure wish I owned one.
After that, I gingerly ran the drag over the seeded soil. The goal here is to embed the seeds precisely 1/8″ into the soil. Ideally you won’t pull all the seed you just spread into a pile at the end of the field. You never know how it’ll work out.
“Precision calibration” in not what you get with a hunk of chainlink. Did I get the seed covered 1/8″ deep? Maybe. Possibly. Some of it I suppose? Some was probably too deep. A portion was probably left on the surface. I assume the birds will appreciate my gift to them? In a few places the tractor tire itself probably did better packing than the drag.
One appropriate implement for this is called a “cultipacker”. Though if I had a seed drill I might not need a cultipacker at all? I’m not sure about that. I can’t afford either.
Anyway my DIY drag is better than the junk frame I’d been using. I claim a definite improvement! It’s only partial success and I could have done better. I give it a C-; which isn’t great given the labor I’d invested. Then again my budget was well under $20 so that’s good.
I had more area to cultivate. I was going to put down some clover seed. I ran out of time and had to go out of town. You do what you can in the time you’ve got.
A.C.
UPDATE: I did all that about a week ago. I checked today. Looks like the seeds germinated!
P.S. I’m a meat hunter. I define success as filling the freezer. Food plots make life easier. I’m not looking for a trophy.
