Dragging behind a Disk Harrow

[BIGHOSS]

Just about each year at this time, I renovate either a pasture or hay field. If I am lucky, I try to start disking just after a rain. The fairly hard turf land seems to work better with a lot of moisture. After disking it two or three times without a drag (or until I get tired of disking), I then disk and drag it to smooth out the soil. By the way this year my neighbor let me borrow his 383 Massey and an 8 foot Tuffline wheel disk. Nice setup!

I have used mostly for a drag a medium size utility pole. This year the neighbor's came with a 10 foot heavy duty angle iron as a drag. I have never been satified with either method as a drag. I can never get it as smooth as I would like. The grass clumps that are turned up never seem to go back down in the ground.

What are some of the drags that you use to smooth behind a disk harrow? I know that soil condition and type surely make a difference. When I was growing up, my dad and g'father made a flat bottom drag from sawmill oak. It was as wide as it needed to be and 3-4' deep with the front board turned up at a 45 deg. angle. As I recall, it did a great job.

[jwl]

A piece of good chain link fence, not that junk they sell at Menard's, with a plank on top at the front and back works pretty nice.

[Tezell]

I have a piece of 4" steel pipe with a 5 foot section of railroad iron bolted to it for wieght. It does an excellent job.

[v w]

We used to use just a regular spring tooth drag but it had been plowed before disk and drag so clumps would not be as big a problem This was done generaly when turning under an old hay sod. The spring tooth was set shallow. It's intent was to smooth the soil not bury weeds. Vern