Rehabilitating a hayfield--Gary Hubbell details ripping & disking worn-out field for new hay crop

When a hayfield becomes root-bound after many years of production and the soil becomes compacted after many years of grazing cattle and horses, production decreases greatly and it must be renovated in order to produce well again. This 35-acre field produced only 55 800-pound 3x3x8 square bales of hay during first cutting 2023, while an adjacent field that had been recently plowed and renovated produced 410 3x3x8 square bales on 55 acres--or roughly seven times as much hay. It badly needed renovation. That process involves "ripping" the land with a shanked ripper and then disking the ground to chop up the chunks of sod and help level the land for new planting. This hayfield is in Crawford, Colorado, and quite possibly had never been plowed in some places, because large rocks were turned up with the ripping process. In any event, it had been at least 80 years since the property had been re-worked. One benefit of ripping instead of plowing is that plowing turns the soil over top to bottom, which buries microbes and kills them. Ripping keeps the microbes in the soil and the topsoil on top. The disk breaks up the big chunks and dirt clods to get the soil ready for leveling and then planting. This field will be planted in a grass-alfalfa mix, which is prized by horse owners and owners of registered cattle.

Gary Hubbell, ALC, is an Accredited Land Consultant and Colorado ranch and farm broker. Gary has sold ranches, farms, hunting land, luxury estates, country homes, vineyards and wineries, commercial properties, and vacant land across Colorado and Utah. Gary is an experienced auctioneer, having sold close to 200 properties at auction, along with personal property, farm equipment, horses and cattle, heavy equipment, and even the World Record Elk antlers at auction.

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