I had another post I was working on for today and then I got called into work right in the middle of it, along with right in the middle of my simmering a nice pot of Ham and Beans too. I had to throw the beans into a crockpot and lost my train of thought on the post.
I have been bouncing back and forth the last month or so on what my next big target purchase is going to be in the tractor implement department. I either need a hay rake or a tiller in my opinion and I have been weighing the options back and forth.
The truth is the hay field is still not entirely my domain as yet. I promised my Mother she could continue to have the proceeds off of the hay fields for her horses until such time that one or the other of them was unable to up hold their end of the bargain. In my opinion that means if she wants the hay off it then it is her responsibility to either pay for the cutting or buy the implements for me to do it myself. I made an exception on the bar mower since I found one at such a good price but she is going to have to make a commitment on the rake and baler or hire out the job. Eventually I fully intend to do it all myself but not until the proceeds are all mine at which point I will only have the sheep to feed with plenty of excess left over for a bit of extra cash flow.
I also thought about going the full plow and disc rout but when looking over the size of the fields I have to work with, the fact that my walk behind tiller was on it's last legs two years ago anyway and the garden still needs tilling I have decided to make my next acquisition a three point tiller. This way I can use it for all the things I need and not have to replace the walk behind tiller either. The fields are small enough I can plow and then till rather than disc/harrow. If said fields were large that wouldn't be an option.
The real problem is finding one. They run at a minimum about $1500.00 new and I have seen maybe two used ones come up for sale in the last year or so.
Whatever I am going to do I need to do it by the middle or end of April though so I won't leave ya hanging too long.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!
I always wanted a 3pt tiller but the tractor is broken so often that I never could justify the price. So I use hand tillers and plow if the tractor is running. It would be a dream to have one and you could make some money back tilling gardens for people, well I could here as there are lots of people who want gardens but don't have any equipment.
ReplyDeleteSf - Well I had access to one with the step person until he started acting squirrely same thing with the hay rake. My big rear tine walk behind is pretty much shot and the money to fix it is almost going to cost as much as a new one and well a new walk behind of that size isn't that much cheaper than a 3 point one. So might as well go with that I guess. If I had any patches to till that were larger than a couple acres I would prolly try the old plow, disc, harrow thing but I figure why not just try tilling only. Might be making a big mistake though.
DeleteI have a neighbor that will let me use his. I gave him an old manure spreader in return.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a good trade.
MV - Manure spreaders,even old ones seem to go for a pretty penny. I see a number of them out in people's yards as decoration too. I asked one guy what he paid for his yard ornament and he told me 1200 bucks.... Can you imagine?
DeleteSounds like the right choice Preppy. I would think a three point tiller would save you time and energy right now.
ReplyDeleteTB - It should save me a lot of time over using the walk behind. My bet is it will come out about even to buying a disc and harrow though price wise. Those tillers are expensive. I still have a front tine tiller for weeding and small spots so a three point should take care of the rest.
DeleteI have one. Watch out, it is easy to over till the soil and easy to end up with 5 different garden spots. I'll plant it, you weed it and we will split the produce.
ReplyDeleteStay warm,
Dennis in Iowa
Dennis - LOL I can imagine having to resist the urge to till up everything :)
DeleteSo you think it would work well for using on small pasture plots of say 2 acres or less? I want to be able to plow then till small sections of my pasture before sowing with pasture grasses for sheep grazing.
I have the King Kutter brand 6'. You can round-up if you like or mow short and just use the tiller with no plowing, will keep things more even. I have a David Brown 1210 56 horse and it works fine. 8" to 10" deep.
Delete