Seldom are planting conditions ever "perfect", and even if they seem perfect the day you plant, the unforeseen weather can contradict what you thought was a great seedbed.

We v-ripped in the fall and have done anhydrous and field cultivated a few days later. With all the rain we had a month or two ago, and now dry conditions, there is a substantial amount of dirt clods. These clods aren't extremely hard, but they are getting that way. We all know not many tillage tools reduce or eliminate clods, but instead, the tractor tires end up doing more than what is being pulled behind.

Most dirt clods seem to come from the topsoil. In other words, part of the clod was the top of the soil profile before it got tilled up. This got me thinking about a tool with many coulters, like a salford rts. Coulters don't produce, or bring clods up if I had to guess. On the other hand, they don't level very well either.

What tools do you use to make your "ideal" seedbed under less than ideal conditions? For some I know it will simply be no-till, others a one-pass tool.

I would like to see what a propane tank on its side would do for breaking up clods behind a cultivator. Maybe weld some very heavy expanded metal around it to give it texture to help crumble the clods and fill it half full of water.

I should add that we use the Phillips rotary harrow with the harrows reversed it it breaks the clods up pretty good. Often, we don't have enough drivers to run this in front of the planter. The 980 f.c. we use now with 7" JD shovels (poor quality) has the factory three bar coil tine that does nothing for breaking clods, just puts them in nice tight rows. A double row mounted basket would be nice on this cultivator, like the one pictured this morning made by unverferth.

For us a 16 bar Mcfarlane harrow works wonders.

 http://www.flexharrow.com/flexible-sections.htm

Guess I should say we use this after a JD 2210 S-tine field cuiltvator.

So if your tractor tires are doing most of the clod busting the question comes to mind what is behind your cultivator?

If you would attach a double rolling basket to your cultivator you now have the clod buster you desire. As far as the RTS not leveling there are adjustments that can be made to the coil tine harrows so that it is a leveling tool. The cultivator will level better but there is no leveling capabilities in the RTS.

I found no tool perfect.  In the 1950's, a tool called a Soil Surgeon was used by my Dad to break up clods during that dry year.  It was basically a metal pan, with long thin blades bolted to it.  We filled the pan with dirt for weight, and it did help break up clods--not perfect--but enough to make a seedbed.

In the 1970's, a crowsfoot front and a regular back roller on a Cutlimulcher was used.  It had field cultivator teeth in the middle that not only worked the soil, but helped give downpressure to make the packer break up clods.  Don't ever get next to moist soil, took a day to dig out the crowsfoot with packed mud, and you know how I remember that!

Then I got a Landoll Till-all, with three bar harrow that worked about the best in my experience.  Again, it wouldn't always bust up all clods, but was about as close to perfect as I have found.  The tool worked almost too good in regular soil, it made seedbeds so fine that they were almost too perfect.  Thing I liked best about that tool was incorporating herbicide, back in the "old days" of Treflan and the like.

We had 7 acres of heavy black soil that only worked well one hour out of one day in the year.  When you caught it right, it mellowed into a fine seedbed.  All the rest of the time, there were always clods.  FIL liked to say that one hour of one day a year usually occurred when he was eating lunch.

 Negatives (around here): you go broke.