tiller vs. disks

[fishman]

I recently retired and bought a 30 hp kubota and am looking to expand my deer food plots beyond what my atv will do. What are the pro's/cons of tiller vs disks?

[n8hutch]

By discs, I assume you mean Disc harrows, You can use Disc harrows on somewhat gravely soil, unpicked ground, A tiller is not going to like rocky ground at all, they do make "power rakes" that mount 3pt hitch behind a tractor . a local guy I know has one on a 40 hp John Deere, not sure if they make them for a smaller Hp tractor.

I don't know if you have ever seen what a power rake can do but they are amazing .

[BreezyHill]

tiller will bounce on rocks disks will tend to roll over them and cut in again. Depends on how heavy the disks are. Our big set are 14' min tillage and cut in 8+" two passes and you can plant into corn stubble or roundup sod. Light set and you need to plow first. For a food plot tiller will likely be quicker to get sod to plantable seed bed. Deer love our trefoil and orchard grass hay ground. But the neighbor will pull in and grow some great bucks on soybeans.

For beans you could spray and disk and use a grain drill. Neighbor only got $50 for his old Deering drill that was 6' wide. Went to a food plot guy looking to plant beans. You can also plant beans with a 2 Row corn planter with plates and do multiply paces to get rows to 8" centers.

We have a 50" tiller for the vegetables and it does a good job. But sod ground we plow disk and then till for a fine seed bed. We plant corn on doulble 8 on 30" centers drip line between and fertigate weekly for good ears. The same planter will do beans and down to carrots. Precision planters...get off ebay or C list for $50 or less.

[maple flats]

I only use a tiller now behind my 36 HP Mahindra, but the ground you have makes a huge difference. I have 2 old Howard 3 pt tillers. In easy ground I use a 5' tiller, in rocky or hard clay ground I need to use a 42" one. If you are tilling new ground you could do 1 pass, but will get much better results at 2 passes. My old Howard Rotovaters are much heavier than the new tillers out there and do a good job. My first one I bought at auction in 1983. In the equipment row, the shaft would not turn, even with a 3' long lever. I bought it for $225. Took it home, laid it back enough to get plenty of penetrating oil on the input bearing and let it set for several days. At the time, I only had a Ford 1500 compact diesel tractor, but I mounted the tiller, took the engine to about 2000 RPM and popped the clutch, it turned and I have used it ever since. I changed the gear box and chain drive oils and that was it. The only other thing I have ever had to do is to put on new tiller teeth about every 5-7 years. For about 15 years I used it to till gardens for hire, often doing between 25-40 home gardens in a spring, in addition to tilling my own for home garden and u-pick strawberries of up to 5 acres.
My second one, a 5' Howard was even better, I bought it for scrap price for $50 in 2012. I have only had to add new tines to that and it works very well, but it does not handle real hard ground as well as the 42" one in 1 pass. It will do well, if you set the depth to till about 3" first pass, then go over it again, with no change, but this time you will gain an inch or 2. I then go 1 more pass and get about 6" which is what I like to go for a garden, most food plots will do fine with 3" on small seeds and 4-5" on big seeds like beans and corn. I suggest you look for an older Howard Rotavator for the weight rather than the new ones places like TSC and such sell. If you need new tines, contact JS Woodhouse. They no longer carry the Howard line, but they can match the tine. They will need one of the old tines to match the bolt pattern and hole sizes. They are wholesale only, but I used to be one of their dealers and I can still get the dealer price. If you get one, take off one tine and have Cody bring it to Trap if in the next before 11/15/15, or have him get it to Brian Klish (my son) who works for MAC, at Morrisville, or Fred Bach could get it to me. I still get a 20% discount (or at least I did 2 yrs ago) They shoot trap thru mid Dec. but I start hunting when crossbow season starts. If I can get enough improvement from fibromyalgia in my right shoulder before then, I'll also be hunting using my bow again before that, trying to radically reduce the deer herd in my u-pick blueberries.

[PACMAN]

I have a 32 horse Kabota and a 5 foot tiller. Ive had it for 2 years and I love it. I have a lot of stones that are big and I know where they are so I raise the tiller and then drop it on the other side of the rock. I make one pass one way then make a pass crossways like a checker board. Ive tried disk harrows but,it takes too much time and it was hard on the disks. it broke a few. I wouldnt trade my tiller for nothing.

[fishman]

I have pretty sandy soils and most of it was once a potato field so a lot of the rocks have been picked. I'll probably do 3-4 acres total of food plots.