Disking in corn stalks
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Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=112576
Printed Date: 25 Apr 2025 at 1:12am
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Topic: Disking in corn stalks
Posted By: BrianC
Subject: Disking in corn stalks
Date Posted: 27 Sep 2015 at 11:48pm
Is there a general rule with discs harrows for weight per blade to effectively
cut up and bury standing sweet corn stalks? I have an old, lightweight , rusty, brand unknown 3pt disc. It is a joke, more of a corn crimper. I think it is 37 pounds per disc.
looking at some specs on modern heavy duty discs (draw bar pull), they are 220
to 400 pounds per disc. So 6x to 10x more than what I have.
However, there are a lot of lightweight 3pt discs on the market with weights about near what I have. I assume these lightweight discs wouldn't work all that much different from mine? Any comments appreciated.
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Replies:
Posted By: SHAMELESS
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 3:16am
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the moisture in the stalks will have a lot to do with it too! are the blades sharp? dad had a new jd disk that all it did was roll over the top of them knocking them over. that's where a shredder came in! maybe shred them, then plow them under, this fall, then use your disk to level out the plowing in the spring! how many HP are you running?
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Posted By: Allis dave
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 7:19am
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Guys use discs differently now then years ago. 60 years ago discs were light and used to level already plowed ground. They plowed the stalks under, then disced. These discs won't do much running over corn stalks. If you really want to disc stalks under you have a get a newer/much heavier disc with wider spacing and 20"+ blades.
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Posted By: KenBWisc
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 8:36am
Much of disk effectiveness has to do with the angle of the gangs in relation to direction of travel. For maximum cut set the gangs at a the maximum angle cross ways to direction of travel. If that doesn't do it add weight to the disk. Because this angle also maximizes drag you will likely have to decrease it when disking down plowed ground.
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'34 WC #629, '49 G, '49 B, '49 WD, '62 D-19, '38 All Crop 60 and still hunting!
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Posted By: Dmpaul89
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 9:06am
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Hate disking stalks. Relly depends on wieght. If all you have is a small tractor youll never be happy. Need to be able to pull a heavy disc. I pulled a 14ft kewanee with my 7000 this year and had to make 3 passes. Its just not a heavy disk. I dont see any 3pt being able to do much. You really need to plow it under any disc leaves a lot of trash on the surface and a regular old planter wont work well
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Posted By: BrianC
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 2:24pm
Thank guys. This is pretty much what I figured. You need a really heavy disk
if you desire to put them stalks under. So as much as I like buying new tools,
I can't justify that class of disk. So back to doing a crap disk job, planting cover crop like rye, then plowing under and re-disc in the spring. No need to look like a perfect seed bed all the time.
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Posted By: dkattau
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 3:56pm
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Can you shred down the corn stalks and sow the rye into the residue? Work everything under in the spring and save yourself a trip across the field?
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Posted By: Brian Jasper co. Ia
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 4:23pm
I've been told that today's hybrid corn stalks are quite a bit tougher than in the past. I have 12 acres that I do a 50/50 with. My renter does all the work, provides the machinery and fuel, I pay half the seed and fertilizer. I mow the stalks before he discs in the fall. It makes a pretty good difference in getting the residue broken down, and I get some seat time on the D17D too.
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"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian." Henry Ford
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Posted By: Dmpaul89
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 4:26pm
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Why not just plow the stalks? then disc
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Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2015 at 7:22am
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Plowing them is possible IF your plow is set up well, good, large coulters, and you're going just right for depth and flow. The BT corn stalks are really tough, and take a long time to break down. If you've got 8' tall corn planted at 34,000 pop, that's a lot of large trash to flow through a plow. It can be done, but it can be miserable too. And besides, "plow" is a 4-letter word to many people these days!
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Posted By: Lonn
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2015 at 7:50am
2500 disk does a fine job for me. Don't know the blade pressure.
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Wink
I am a Russian Bot
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Posted By: Dmpaul89
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2015 at 8:58am
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If you disc first you cant use the plow cultures you need unworked ground for them ti cut like they are meant to
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Posted By: KenBWisc
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2015 at 5:29pm
If you're not getting the disking job you prefer and, the disk is set up correctly and, the disk blades are in decent shape you may need to chop the stalks first. When you disk, run with the rows first and then a second time at an angle. You should then
be able to plow them under. Plowing whole stalks, even if you can get coverage, will not result in a good seed bed.
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'34 WC #629, '49 G, '49 B, '49 WD, '62 D-19, '38 All Crop 60 and still hunting!
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Posted By: Ryan Renko
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2015 at 8:58pm
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I know different areas of the country have to do different things because of soil but here in southern Illinois we did no fall tillage at all after a 200+ bushel corn crop. It benefited the wildlife and protected against soil erosion. After disking twice due to rain in the spring and a pass with the field finisher we have a outstanding soybean crop just waiting to harvest. Ryan
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Posted By: Dmpaul89
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2015 at 10:33pm
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Soil needs to be dry while disking stalks too. Otherwise it wont cut them just mashes them into the mud
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Posted By: SteveM C/IL
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2015 at 11:15pm
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Make it easy.Rent a no-till drill and sow your rye in standing stalks.The drill will knock a lot of em down and next spring you can just plow it all under.Disc or not ahead of plow.I'd try no disc first.
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Posted By: SC Dan K.
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2015 at 6:21pm
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The heavy three point disk harrows are hard to find but they are out there. Look for 9 inch spacings and 24 inch disk. You still may need to add weight. The best one I've ever seen was a 16 Disk Taylor Way we got a package trade. You could fold the black gang up on top of the front and run it as a bush and bog Harrow. Sometimes I wish we had kept it. The 160 AC that came with it had a full set of front weights to keep the wheels on the ground.
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Posted By: SHAMELESS
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2015 at 7:28pm
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have disked in the fall with a wing disk, always had them folded up for down pressure weight, and in the spring folded them out for finish disking and faster ground coverage! and on our ground, if we decided to plow, we always disked the same way we would be plowing then the plow wouldn't plug up! of course the only plow we had was a jd 3-16! that was one miserable plow to pull! it would plow 10 ft tall weeds down under, only if it was pulled by an "M" Farmall, but wouldn't plow under corn stalks that were 1 ft tall!
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Posted By: Dan73
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2015 at 7:52pm
Wow this is a very interesting read. When we had cow corn I don't know the type as I was a kid we always did an airplane based seeding of winter rye in the fall after we harvested the corn and we would disk it twice in the spring with an old Allis chalmers snap coupler 12 foot wide disk that was converted to be pulled on a clevis by our 100hp IH 986 I think was the model. That IH would bury the disk in the ground if you where not careful setting the depth but it did a great job in the spring two passes and the ground look great. When we wanted to clear hay fields we would spray them with round up and wait till the grass all died and turned brown the the disk would cut right through it like nothing and in three passes you had nice level ground you could reseed. The round up trick the break up sod blew my mind but it did work.
Of course we would also blow out about 3 sealed bearing in the old AC disk a year disking 150 acers two passes. I do wish that disk was still here but it got sold when the dairy cows left in the 90s.
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Posted By: Lonn
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2015 at 9:29pm
Dad had, and still does have, an Allis Snap Coupler 12-1/2 foot with 18" blades and a pull type Allis 13-1/2 foot with 16" blades that we used on about 220 acres throughout the 70's and even slightly more ground in the 80's and never had a bearing go out. Broke a couple bearing hangers but never a bearing. BTW he converted the Snap Coupler disk to be pulled with a clevis too and used a couple angle irons so that the hitch didn't swivel when in transport. was very nice to use in the field with the long hitch.
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Wink
I am a Russian Bot
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Posted By: Dan73
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2015 at 9:33pm
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I think the bearings went when someone dropped the disk too deep. I just remember changing them was no fun. I always thought a stop should have been added but the way ours was setup you could drop the disk below their center point if you didn't pay attention. I only used it a few times in the early 90s.
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Posted By: Scott(SC)
Date Posted: 03 Oct 2015 at 5:41pm
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I bushhogged mine as soon as we picked it. We had a hot, dry spell and it was a couple weeks before I used a disc on it. I got an old 19B 20 disc I pull with a D17. Had a couple cement blocks over each gang. It took 2 passes to get it all covered. I hit it again a couple weeks after that with the D14 and a 16 disc 19B set shallow to smooth it. We sewed some rye and left it. Seemed to work alright. Of course I'm talking about a third of an acre and I'm a plumber, not a farmer.
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