Power harrow

warksfarmer · Sep 3, 2017

Been using a power harrow to level some rutted tramlines up so at the same time tried it direct into some stubble at 1inch deep to see what it did as a weed hitting tool and it's done a fantastic job. Ran it at 10km/hr which was using 8.5l/ha fuel so around £2.70/ha. The power harrow itself is 20 years old so other than blades has negligible running costs. With the tractor and man all in it's about £11/ha and only lacking proper consolidation which could easily be remedied by towing an old Cambridge rolls from the nettles. It wasn't smashing the soil to pieces due to the forward speed so what's not to like?

Any disc/press machines are silly money unless you import direct but your still looking at about £10k for 6m and they are only doing a similar job to the power harrow if run like we've tried.

Any opinions?

Steevo · Sep 3, 2017

Is it April 1st?!

mo! · Sep 3, 2017

I've been doing the same. Not very fashionable though.

juke · Sep 3, 2017

defeats the object I would of thought.

warksfarmer · Sep 3, 2017

juke said:
defeats the object I would of thought.

Defeats the object of what?

yellowfrog · Sep 3, 2017

weve been drilling like that for yearson some of the farms I drill at. so whats the problem?

juke · Sep 3, 2017

Just don't see what good a power harrow ever does , apart from beat things into a pulp, would also the very nature of a power harrow not help increase the weed burden in the soil profile , opposed to dealing with weeds on the top as seems to be the current method of thinking ?

warksfarmer · Sep 4, 2017

juke said:
Just don't see what good a power harrow ever does , apart from beat things into a pulp, would also the very nature of a power harrow not help increase the weed burden in the soil profile , opposed to dealing with weeds on the top as seems to be the current method of thinking ?

At 10km/hr there's no beating soil to a pulp. It's loosening at a very precise shallow depth so it's keeping the weeds in the top inch of soil which is what we want.

mo! · Sep 4, 2017

Do you find it rows up the straw?

Feldspar · Sep 4, 2017

We do this a lot behind the drill and have been doing it for a long time. Really helps us in some situations.

warksfarmer · Sep 4, 2017

mo! said:
Do you find it rows up the straw?

If anything it'll spread a lump about.

Steevo · Sep 4, 2017

You'd need a super heavy duty power harrow I'd have thought. I doubt the old Lely 3m Roterra would have hacked it!

warksfarmer · Sep 6, 2017

Steevo said:
You'd need a super heavy duty power harrow I'd have thought. I doubt the old Lely 3m Roterra would have hacked it!

It's a Kuhn 4001 HD. It had a new gearbox about 2 years ago and hardly been used since then.

Right-arm fast · Sep 14, 2017

warksfarmer said:
Been using a power harrow to level some rutted tramlines up so at the same time tried it direct into some stubble at 1inch deep to see what it did as a weed hitting tool and it's done a fantastic job. Ran it at 10km/hr which was using 8.5l/ha fuel so around £2.70/ha. The power harrow itself is 20 years old so other than blades has negligible running costs. With the tractor and man all in it's about £11/ha and only lacking proper consolidation which could easily be remedied by towing an old Cambridge rolls from the nettles. It wasn't smashing the soil to pieces due to the forward speed so what's not to like?

Any disc/press machines are silly money unless you import direct but your still looking at about £10k for 6m and they are only doing a similar job to the power harrow if run like we've tried.

Any opinions?

Its too slow and if hard the p/h will bounce around at 10k. How about a weaving 6-8m rake, granted it doesn't move soil unless its loose but nor does a shallow p/h at 10k. The a good point of the p/h is very accurate depth setting. I mention the weaving rake as the other seem to be twice the cost of a weaving.

DrWazzock · Sep 15, 2017

A much maligned and under rated tool. It won't block and will spread lumps of trash better than any fixed tine implement. Replaces a shed full of one trick ponies.

A good idea OP. Only thing to avoid is ripping up too much stubble root which then floats around and can cause problems with my direct drill.

Some people in this area drill straight into power power harrowed stubbles. As any tool, used sensibly it's fine.

martian · Sep 16, 2017

I'm keen to try a rotovator to terminate thick cover crops. I've seen a Maschio rotovator (nb @Feldspar : turning Maschio into a verb could get confusing) doing a good job on a biodynamic farm, they ran it with depth wheels front and back to ensure that they were only working just below the surface, slicing the plants and leaving most of the roots to rot, ie not pulling them up to leave irritating tussocks on the surface.
Just in case glyphosate stops being usable.

Feldspar · Sep 16, 2017

martian said:
I'm keen to try a rotovator to terminate thick cover crops. I've seen a Maschio rotovator (nb @Feldspar : turning Maschio into a verb could get confusing) doing a good job on a biodynamic farm, they ran it with depth wheels front and back to ensure that they were only working just below the surface, slicing the plants and leaving most of the roots to rot, ie not pulling them up to leave irritating tussocks on the surface.
Just in case glyphosate stops being usable.

It already is, at least in my mind.

warksfarmer · Sep 16, 2017

I'm thinking front mounted disc thingy ala knogskilde and power harrow on the rear. Both set 1 inch deep. Then roll it or tow a roll.

mikep · Sep 16, 2017

warksfarmer said:
I'm thinking front mounted disc thingy ala knogskilde and power harrow on the rear. Both set 1 inch deep. Then roll it or tow a roll.

One inch is a worm cast. All one inch cultivations are really three and all three inch are really six.

mikep · Sep 17, 2017

martian said:
I'm keen to try a rotovator to terminate thick cover crops. I've seen a Maschio rotovator (nb @Feldspar : turning Maschio into a verb could get confusing) doing a good job on a biodynamic farm, they ran it with depth wheels front and back to ensure that they were only working just below the surface, slicing the plants and leaving most of the roots to rot, ie not pulling them up to leave irritating tussocks on the surface.
Just in case glyphosate stops being usable.

The trouble with precision like that is that you cannot go wide or fast. It would take forever to cover a twenty acre field and you would miss some anyway. If you go fractionally deeper you will just relocate small plants and fractionally shallower and to will miss. Killing pants by surface cultivation is a very poor system especially in a wet year such as this, I can remember ineffectively chasing small BG plants round and round for days when glyphosate was expensive.

Power harrow

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